59:1 BEHOLD, THE Lord's hand is not shortened at all, that it cannot save, nor His ear dull with deafness, that it cannot hear. |
59:2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. |
59:3 For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness. |
59:4 None sues {or} calls in righteousness [but for the sake of doing injury to others--to take some undue advantage]; no one goes to law honestly {and} pleads [his case] in truth; they trust in emptiness, worthlessness {and} futility, and speaking lies! They conceive mischief and bring forth evil! |
59:5 They hatch adders' eggs and weave the spider's web; he who eats of their eggs dies, and [from an egg] which is crushed a viper breaks out [for their nature is ruinous, deadly, evil]. |
59:6 Their webs will not serve as clothing, nor will they cover themselves with what they make; their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. |
59:7 Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their paths {and} highways. |
59:8 The way of peace they know not, and there is no justice {or} right in their goings. They have made them into crooked paths; whoever goes in them does not know peace. |
59:9 Therefore are justice {and} right far from us, and righteousness {and} salvation do not overtake us. We expectantly wait for light, but [only] see darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity {and} gloom. |
59:10 We grope for the wall like the blind, yes, we grope like those who have no eyes. We stumble at noonday as in the twilight; in dark places {and} among those who are full of life {and} vigor, we are as dead men. |
59:11 We all groan {and} growl like bears and moan plaintively like doves. We look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. |
59:12 For our transgressions are multiplied before You [O Lord], and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know {and} recognize them [as]: |
59:13 Rebelling against and denying the Lord, turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving in and muttering {and} moaning from the heart words of falsehood. |
59:14 Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God) stands far off; for truth has fallen in the street (the city's forum), and uprightness cannot enter [the courts of justice]. |
59:15 Yes, truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. And the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice. |
59:16 And He saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor [no one to intervene on behalf of truth and right]; therefore His own arm brought Him victory, and His own righteousness [having the Spirit without measure] sustained Him. |
59:17 For [the Lord] put on righteousness as a breastplate {or} coat of mail, and salvation as a helmet upon His head; He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal [and furious divine jealousy] as a cloak. |
59:18 According as their deeds deserve, so will He repay wrath to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; on the foreign islands {and} coastlands He will make compensation. |
59:19 So [as the result of the Messiah's intervention] they shall [reverently] fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him {and} put him to flight [for He will come like a rushing stream which the breath of the Lord drives]. |
59:20 He shall come as a Redeemer to Zion and to those in Jacob (Israel) who turn from transgression, says the Lord. |
59:21 As for Me, this is My covenant {or} league with them, says the Lord: My Spirit, Who is upon you [and Who writes the law of God inwardly on the heart], and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouths of your [true, spiritual] children, or out of the mouths of your children's children, says the Lord, from henceforth and forever. |