59Behold, athe hand of Yahweh is not soshortThat it cannotsave;bNoris His earso1dullThat it cannothear.2But your ainiquities have madeaseparationbetween you and your God,And your sins have hiddenHis1face from you sothat He does bnothear.3For your ahands are defiled with bloodAnd your fingers with iniquity;Your lips have spoken a blie;Your tonguemuttersunrighteousness.4aNoonecallsinrighteousness, and bnoone seeks justice in truth.They ctrust in 1confusion and speakworthlessness;They dconceivetrouble and givebirth to wickedness.5They breakopenvipers’eggs and aweave the spider’sweb;He who eats of their eggsdies,And from that which is crushed a snakebreaksforth.6Their webs will not become a garment,Nor will they acover themselves with their works;Their bworks are works of wickedness,And a cdeed of violence is in their 1hands.7aTheir feetrun to evil,And they are quick to shedinnocentblood;bTheir thoughts are thoughts of wickedness;Devastation and destruction are in their highways.8They do not know the away of peace,And thereisbnojustice in their tracks;They have made their pathscrooked,cWhoevertreads on 1them does not knowpeace.
Transgressing and Denying Yahweh
9Therefore ajusticeisfar from us,And righteousness does not overtake us;We bhope for light, but behold, darkness,For brightness, but we walk in thickdarkness.10We agrope along the wall like blindmen;We grope like those who havenoeyes;We bstumble at midday as in the twilight,Among those whoarevigorouswe areclike dead men.11All of us growl like bears,And amoansadly like doves;We hope for bjustice, but thereisnone,For salvation, but it isfar from us.12For our atransgressions are multipliedbefore You,And our bsinsanswer against us;For our transgressions are with us,And 1we know our iniquities:13Transgressing and adenyingYahweh,And turningback from our God,Speakingboppression and revolt,Conceivingin and cuttering from the heartlyingwords.14aJustice is turnedback,And brighteousnessstandsfaraway;For truth has stumbled in the street,And rightness cannot enter.15So it is that truthismissing;And he who turnsaside from evilamakes himself plunder.Then Yahwehsaw,And it was evil in His eyesbthat therewasnojustice.16And He saw that therewasanoman,And was astonished that therewasnoone to intercede;Then His bown armbroughtsalvation to Him,And His righteousnessupheld Him.17He putonarighteousness like a breastplate,And a bhelmet of salvation on His head;And He putoncgarments of vengeance for clothingAnd wrapped Himself with dzeal as a mantle.18aAccording to 1what they deserve, 2so He will pay in full,Wrath to His adversaries, 3what is deserved to His enemies;To the coastlands He will 4pay what they deserve.19So they will fear the name of Yahweh from the awestAnd His glory from the brising of the sun,For He will ccome like a 1rushingstreamWhich the wind of Yahweh makes flee.20“A aRedeemer will come to Zion,And to those who bturn from transgression in Jacob,” declaresYahweh.
21“As for Me, this is My acovenant with them,” saysYahweh: “My bSpiritwhich is upon you, and My cwordswhich I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your seed, nor from the mouth of your seed’sseed,” saysYahweh, “from now and forever.”
