Isaiah 59:2–13

²But your wrongs have separated you from your God, 

and your sins have made him hide his face 

so that he doesn’t hear you. 

³Your hands are stained with blood, 

and your fingers are stained with sin. 

You speak lies, 

and you mutter wicked things. 

⁴No one calls for justice, 

and no one pleads his case truthfully. 

People trust pointless arguments and speak lies. 

They conceive trouble and give birth to evil. 

⁵They hatch viper eggs 

and weave spiderwebs. 

Those who eat their eggs will die. 

When an egg is crushed, a poisonous snake is hatched. 

⁶Their webs can’t be used for clothes, 

nor can they cover themselves with their works. 

Their works are evil. 

Their hands have committed acts of violence. 

⁷Their feet run to do evil. 

They hurry to shed innocent blood. 

Their plans are evil. 

Ruin and destruction are on their highways. 

⁸They don’t know the way of peace. 

There’s no justice on their highways. 

They’ve made their paths crooked. 

Whoever walks on them will never know peace. 

⁹That is why justice is far from us, 

and righteousness doesn’t reach us. 

We hope for light, but we walk in darkness. 

We hope for brightness, but we walk in gloom. 

¹⁰We grope like blind men along a wall. 

We grope like people without eyes. 

We stumble at noon as if it were twilight. 

We are like dead people among healthy people. 

¹¹We all growl like bears. 

We coo like doves. 

We hope for justice, but there is none. 

We hope for salvation, but it’s far from us. 

¹²You are aware of our many rebellious acts. 

Our sins testify against us. 

Our rebellious acts are with us. 

We know our wrongdoings. 

¹³We have rebelled and denied the Lord. 

We have turned away from our God. 

We have spoken about oppression and revolt. 

We have conceived and uttered lies in our hearts.