Isaiah 59

Rampant Transgression

59Look! The hand of Yahweh is not too short to save,^a

and his ear is not too dull to hear.^b

²Rather, your iniquities have been barriers^c between you and your God,

and your sins have hidden his face from you, from hearing.

³For your hands are defiled with blood,

and your fingers with iniquity.

Your lips have spoken lies,

your tongue speaks wickedness.

⁴There is nobody who pleads with^d justice,

and there is nobody who judges with honesty.

They rely on nothing

and speak vanity.

They conceive trouble

and beget iniquity;

⁵they hatch viper eggs,

and they weave a spider web.

One who eats their eggs dies,

and that which is pressed is hatched as a serpent.

⁶Their webs cannot become clothing,

and they cannot cover themselves with their works.

Their works are works of iniquity,

and deeds^e of violence are in their hands.

⁷Their feet run to evil,

and they hasten to shed innocent blood.

Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;

devastation and destruction are in their highways.

⁸They do not know the way of peace,

and there is no justice in their firm paths.

They have made their paths crooked for themselves;

everyone who walks^f in it knows no peace.

⁹Therefore justice is far from us,

and righteousness does not reach us.

We wait for light, but^g look! there is darkness;

for brightness, but we walk in darkness.

¹⁰We grope like the blind along a wall,

and we grope as without^h eyes.

We stumble at noon as in the twilight;

among the strong we are like the dead.

¹¹We all groan like bears,

and we coo mutteringly like doves.

We wait for justice, butⁱ there is none;

for salvation, but it is far from us.

¹²For our transgressions are numerous before you,

and our sins testify^j against us.

Indeed, our transgressions are with us,

and we know our iniquities:

¹³transgressing and denying Yahweh,

and turning away from following^k our God;

speaking oppression and falsehood,

conceiving and uttering words of deception from the heart.

¹⁴And justice is pushed back,

and righteousness stands afar;

for truth stumbles in the public square,

and straightforwardness is unable to enter,

¹⁵and truth is missing,

and he who turns aside from evil is plundered.

And Yahweh saw,

and it was displeasing in his eyes that there was no justice

¹⁶And he saw that there was no man,

and he was appalled that there was no one who intercedes,

so^l his arm came to assist him,

and his righteousness was what^m sustained him.

¹⁷And he put on righteousness like a breastplate,

and a helmet of salvation on his head,

and he put on garments of vengeance for clothing,

and he wrapped himself in zeal as in a robe.

¹⁸According to deeds, so he will repay;

wrath to his enemies, requital to those who are his enemies.ⁿ

He will repay requital to the coastlands.

¹⁹So^o they shall fear the name of Yahweh from the west,

and his glory from the sunrise,

for he will come like a narrow stream;

the wind of Yahweh drives it on.

²⁰“And a redeemer will come to Zion,

to those in Jacob who turn away from transgression,”

declares^p Yahweh.

²¹“And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says Yahweh:

my spirit that is upon you,

and my words that I have placed in your mouth

shall not depart from your mouth,

or^q from the mouths^r of your children,^s

or^t from the mouths^u of your children’s children,”^v

says Yahweh, “from now on and forever.”