Isaiah 59

Is the hand of the Lord not strong enough to save? Or has he made his ear heavy so as not to hear?

But your sins make a division between you and God, and because of your sins he turned his face away from you, so as not to show mercy.

For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with sins; your lips have spoken lawlessness, and your tongue meditates injustice.

No one speaks just things, nor is there any true judgment; they trust in empty things and speak vanity, for they conceive trouble and give birth to lawlessness.

They have hatched the eggs of asps and weave a spider web; and the one who is about to eat of their eggs, having crushed one, found a wind-egg, and inside it a basilisk.

Their web shall not serve as a garment, nor shall they clothe themselves with their own works; for their works are works of lawlessness.

Their feet run to wickedness, swift to shed blood; and their reasonings are the reasonings of fools; ruin and misery are in their ways.

And the way of peace they do not know, and there is no judgment in their ways; for the paths they travel are crooked, and they do not know peace.

Therefore judgment has departed from them, and righteousness shall not overtake them. While they waited for light, it became darkness for them; having waited for brightness, they walked in untimely gloom.

They shall grope the wall like blind men, and they shall grope as though they had no eyes; and they shall stumble at midday as at midnight; like dying men they shall groan.

They shall go along together like a bear and like a dove. We waited for judgment, and there is none; salvation has gone far away from us.

For our lawlessness is great before you, and our sins have risen up against us; for our lawless deeds are within us, and our wrongdoings we ourselves know.

We acted impiously and lied and turned away from following our God; we spoke unjust things and were disobedient; we conceived and pondered unjust words out of our heart.

And we turned judgment back, and righteousness has stood far off; for truth was consumed in their ways, and they could not pass through by straight paths.

And truth has been taken away, and they removed their mind from understanding. And the Lord saw, and it did not please him that there was no judgment.

And he saw, and there was no man; and he observed, and there was no one to come to the aid; and he defended them with his own arm and established himself with mercy.

And he put on righteousness like a breastplate and placed a helmet of salvation on his head; and he clothed himself with a garment of vengeance and with the cloak,

as one who will repay recompense, reproach to his adversaries.

And those from the west shall fear the name of the Lord, and those from the rising of the sun the glorious name; for the wrath from the Lord shall come like a violent river; it shall come with fury.

And the one who delivers shall come for Sion's sake, and he shall turn away impieties from Iakob.

And this is my covenant with them, said the Lord: My spirit, which is upon you, and the words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth nor from the mouth of your offspring; for the Lord has said it, from now on and forever.