Isaiah 59:1-21
59 Look! The hand of Jehovah has not become too short that it cannot save,+ nor has his ear become too heavy that it cannot hear.+
2 No, but the very errors of YOU people have become the things causing division between YOU and YOUR God,*+ and YOUR own sins have caused the concealing of [his] face from YOU to keep from hearing.+
3 For YOUR own palms have become polluted with blood,+ and YOUR fingers with error. YOUR own lips have spoken falsehood.+ YOUR own tongue kept muttering sheer unrighteousness.+
4 There is no one calling out in righteousness,+ and no one at all has gone to court in faithfulness. There has been a trusting in unreality,+ and a speaking of worthlessness.+ There has been a conceiving of trouble, and a bringing of what is hurtful to birth.+
5 The eggs of a poisonous snake are what they have hatched, and they kept weaving the mere cobweb of a spider.+ Anyone eating some of their eggs would die, and the [egg] that was smashed would be hatched into a viper.+
6 Their mere cobweb will not serve as a garment, nor will they cover themselves with their works.+ Their works are hurtful works, and the activity of violence is in their palms.+
7 Their own feet keep running to sheer badness,+ and they are in a hurry to shed innocent blood.+ Their thoughts are hurtful thoughts;+ despoiling and breakdown are in their highways.*+
8 The way of peace+ they have ignored, and there is no justice in their tracks.+ Their roadways they have made crooked for themselves.+ No one at all treading in them* will actually know peace.+
9 That is why justice has come to be far away from us, and righteousness does not catch up with us. We keep hoping for light, but, look! darkness; for brightness, [but] in continuous gloom we kept walking.+
10 We keep groping for the wall just like blind men, and like those without eyes we keep groping.+ We have stumbled at high noon just as in evening darkness; among the stout ones [we are] just like dead people.+
11 We keep groaning, all of us, just like bears; and like doves we mournfully keep cooing.+ We kept hoping for justice,+ but there was none; for salvation, [but] it has stayed far away from us.+
12 For our revolts have become many in front of you;+ and as for our sins, each one has testified against us.+ For our revolts are with us; and as for our errors, we well know them.+
13 There have been transgressing and a denying of Jehovah;+ and there was a moving back from our God,* a speaking of oppression and revolt,+ a conceiving and a muttering of words of falsehood from the very heart.+
14 And justice was forced to move back,+ and righteousness itself kept standing simply far off.+ For truth has stumbled even in the public square, and what is straightforward is unable to enter.+
15 And the truth proves to be missing,+ and anyone turning away from badness is being despoiled.+
And Jehovah got to see, and it was bad in his eyes that there was no justice.+
16 And when he saw that there was no man,* he began to show himself astonished that there was no one interposing.+ And his arm proceeded to save for him, and his own righteousness was the thing that supported him.+
17 Then he put on righteousness as a coat of mail,+ and the helmet of salvation upon his head.+ Furthermore, he put on the garments of vengeance as raiment+ and enwrapped himself with zeal as if a sleeveless coat.+
18 In accordance with the dealings he will reward correspondingly,+ rage to his adversaries, due treatment to his enemies.+ To the islands* he will recompense due treatment.+
19 And from the sunset they will begin to fear the name of Jehovah,+ and from the rising of the sun the glory of him,+ for he will come in like a distressing river,* which the very spirit* of Jehovah has driven along.+
20 “And to Zion+ the Repurchaser+ will certainly come, and to those turning from transgression* in Jacob,”+ is the utterance of Jehovah.
21 “And as for me, this is my covenant with them,”+ Jehovah has said.
“My spirit that is upon you*+ and my words that I have put in your mouth+—they will not be removed from your mouth or from the mouth of your offspring* or from the mouth of the offspring of your offspring,” Jehovah has said, “from now on even to time indefinite.”+
Footnotes
^ “Your God.” Heb., ʼElo·heh·khemʹ.
^ Lit., “wasting and ruin [are] in their tracks,” M; LXX, “ruin and misery are in their ways.” See Ro 3:16.
^ “Them,” TSyVgc and one Heb. ms; 1QIsaM, “it.”
^ “Our God.” Heb., ʼElo·hehʹnu.
^ “Man.” Heb., ʼish.
^ Or, “coastlands.”
^ Or, “distress will come in like a river.”
^ “And to those turning from transgression,” MVg; LXX, “and he shall turn away ungodly practices”; Sy, “and to those turning unrighteousness away.”
^ “You,” masc. sing.
^ Lit., “seed.”
