Isaiah 59

Lexham English Bible

59 Look! The hand of Yahweh is not too short to save,^[a]
    and his ear is not too dull to hear.^[b]
2 Rather, your iniquities have been barriers^[c] between you and your God,
    and your sins have hidden his face from you, from hearing.
³ For your hands are defiled with blood,
    and your fingers with iniquity.
Your lips have spoken lies,
    your tongue speaks wickedness.
⁴ There is nobody who pleads with^[d] justice,
    and there is nobody who judges with honesty.
They rely on nothing
    and speak vanity.
They conceive trouble
    and beget iniquity;
⁵ they hatch viper eggs,
    and they weave a spider web.
One who eats their eggs dies,
    and that which is pressed is hatched as a serpent.
⁶ Their webs cannot become clothing,
    and they cannot cover themselves with their works.
Their works are works of iniquity,
    and deeds^[e] of violence are in their hands.
⁷ Their feet run to evil,
    and they hasten to shed innocent blood.
Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
    devastation and destruction are in their highways.
⁸ They do not know the way of peace,
    and there is no justice in their firm paths.
They have made their paths crooked for themselves;
    everyone who walks^[f] in it knows no peace.
⁹ Therefore justice is far from us,
    and righteousness does not reach us.
We wait for light, but^[g] look! there is darkness;
    for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
¹⁰ We grope like the blind along a wall,
    and we grope as without^[h] eyes.
We stumble at noon as in the twilight;
    among the strong we are like the dead.
¹¹ We all groan like bears,
    and we coo mutteringly like doves.
We wait for justice, but^[i] there is none;
    for salvation, but it is far from us.
¹² For our transgressions are numerous before you,
    and our sins testify^[j] against us.
Indeed, our transgressions are with us,
    and we know our iniquities:
¹³ transgressing and denying Yahweh,
    and turning away from following^[k] our God;
speaking oppression and falsehood,
    conceiving and uttering words of deception from the heart.
¹⁴ And justice is pushed back,
    and righteousness stands afar;
for truth stumbles in the public square,
    and straightforwardness is unable to enter,
¹⁵ and truth is missing,
    and he who turns aside from evil is plundered.
And Yahweh saw,
    and it was displeasing in his eyes that there was no justice
¹⁶ And he saw that there was no man,
    and he was appalled that there was no one who intercedes,
so^[l] his arm came to assist him,
    and his righteousness was what^[m] sustained him.
¹⁷ And he put on righteousness like a breastplate,
    and a helmet of salvation on his head,
and he put on garments of vengeance for clothing,
    and he wrapped himself in zeal as in a robe.
¹⁸ According to deeds, so he will repay;
    wrath to his enemies, requital to those who are his enemies.^[n]
    He will repay requital to the coastlands.
¹⁹ So^[o] they shall fear the name of Yahweh from the west,
    and his glory from the sunrise,
for he will come like a narrow stream;
    the wind of Yahweh drives it on.
²⁰ “And a redeemer will come to Zion,
    to those in Jacob who turn away from transgression,”