Isaiah 59:2–13

²But your ^ainiquities have made a separation between you and your God,

And your sins have hidden His ¹face from you so that He does ^bnot hear.

³For your ^ahands are defiled with blood

And your fingers with iniquity;

Your lips have spoken ^bfalsehood,

Your tongue mutters wickedness.

^4aNo one sues righteously and ^bno one pleads ¹honestly.

They ^ctrust in confusion and speak lies;

They ^dconceive mischief and bring forth iniquity.

⁵They hatch adders’ eggs and ^aweave the spider’s web;

He who eats of their eggs dies,

And from that which is crushed a snake breaks forth.

⁶Their webs will not become clothing,

Nor will they ^acover themselves with their works;

Their ^bworks are works of iniquity,

And an ^cact of violence is in their ¹hands.

^7aTheir feet run to evil,

And they hasten to shed innocent blood;

^bTheir thoughts are thoughts of iniquity,

Devastation and destruction are in their highways.

⁸They do not know the ^away of peace,

And there is ^bno justice in their tracks;

They have made their paths crooked,

^cWhoever treads on ¹them does not know peace.

A Confession of Wickedness

⁹Therefore ^ajustice is far from us,

And righteousness does not overtake us;

We ^bhope for light, but behold, darkness,

For brightness, but we walk in gloom.

¹⁰We ^agrope along the wall like blind men,

We grope like those who have no eyes;

We ^bstumble at midday as in the twilight,

Among those who are vigorous we are ^clike dead men.

¹¹All of us growl like bears,

And ^amoan sadly like doves;

We hope for ^bjustice, but there is none,

For salvation, but it is far from us.

¹²For our ^atransgressions are multiplied before You,

And our ^bsins ¹testify against us;

For our transgressions are with us,

And ²we know our iniquities:

¹³Transgressing and ^adenying the Lord,

And turning away from our God,

Speaking ^boppression and revolt,

Conceiving in and ^cuttering from the heart lying words.