Isaiah 59
1 Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save;
neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and
your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with
iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
4 None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust
in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
5 They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that
eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.
6 Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover
themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of
violence is in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent
blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in
their paths.
8 The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their
goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not
know peace.
9 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake
us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in
darkness.
10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had
no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as
dead men.
11 We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for
judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins
testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our
iniquities, we know them;
13 In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away
from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the
heart words of falsehood.
14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar
off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
15 Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh
himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no
judgment.
16 And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no
intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his
righteousness, it sustained him.
17 For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of
salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing,
and was clad with zeal as a cloak.
18 According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his
adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence.
19 So shall they 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 shall lift up a standard against him.
20 And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn
from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.
21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My
spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not
depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth
of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.
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