Isaiah 59

¹ No, the arm of Yahweh is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear,

² but your guilty deeds have made a gulf between you and your God. Your sins have made him hide hisface from you so as not to hear you,

³ since your hands are stained with blood and your fingers with guilt; your lips utter lies, your tonguesmurmur wickedness.

⁴ No one makes upright accusations or pleads sincerely. Al rely on empty words, utter falsehood,conceive trouble and give birth to evil.

⁵ They are hatching adders' eggs and weaving a spider's web; eat one of their eggs and you die, crushone and a viper emerges.

⁶ Their webs are useless for clothing, their deeds are useless for wearing; their deeds are deeds of guilt,violence fil s their hands.

⁷ Their feet run to do evil; they are quick to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of guilt,wherever they go there is havoc and ruin.

⁸ They do not know the way of peace, there is no fair judgement in their course, they have made theirown crooked paths, and no one treading them knows any peace.

⁹ Thus fair judgement is remote from us nor can uprightness overtake us. We looked for light and all isdarkness, for brightness and we walk in gloom.

¹⁰ Like the blind we feel our way along walls, we grope our way like people without eyes. We stumble asthough noon were twilight, among the robust we are like the dead.

¹¹ We growl, al of us, like bears, like doves we make no sound but moaning, waiting for the fairjudgement that never comes, for salvation, but that is far away.

¹² How often we have rebel ed against you and our sins bear witness against us. Our rebellious acts areindeed with us, we are wel aware of our guilt:

¹³ rebel ion and denial of Yahweh, turning our back on our God, talking violence and revolt, murmuringlies in our heart.

¹⁴ Fair judgement is driven away and saving justice stands aloof, for good faith has stumbled in thestreet and sincerity cannot enter.

¹⁵ Good faith has vanished; anyone abstaining from evil is victimised. Yahweh saw this and wasdispleased that there was no fair judgement.

¹⁶ He saw there was no one and wondered there was no one to intervene. So he made his own arm hismainstay, his own saving justice his support.

¹⁷ He put on saving justice like a breastplate, on his head the helmet of salvation. He put on the clothesof vengeance like a tunic and wrapped himself in jealousy like a cloak.

¹⁸ To each he repays his due, retribution to his enemies, reprisals on his foes, to the coasts and islandshe wil repay their due.

¹⁹ From the west, Yahweh's name wil be feared, and from the east, his glory, for he will come like apent-up stream impel ed by the breath of Yahweh.

²⁰ Then for Zion wil come a redeemer, for those who stop rebel ing in Jacob, declares Yahweh.

²¹ 'For my part, this is my covenant with them, says Yahweh. My spirit with which I endowed you, andmy words that I have put in your mouth, wil not leave your mouth, or the mouths of your children, or the mouthsof your children's children, says Yahweh, henceforth and for ever.'