Isaiah 59
59
The Lord Sets His People Free
1People of Israel, the Lord’s arm is not too weak to save you.
His ears aren’t too deaf to hear your cry for help.
2But your sins have separated you from your God.
They have caused him to turn his face away from you.
So he won’t listen to you.
3Your hands and fingers are stained with blood.
You are guilty of committing murder.
Your mouth has told lies.
Your tongue says evil things.
4People aren’t fair when they present cases in court.
They aren’t honest when they state their case.
They depend on weak arguments. They tell lies.
They plan to make trouble.
Then they carry it out.
5The plans they make are like the eggs of poisonous snakes.
Anyone who eats those eggs will die.
When one of them is broken, a snake comes out.
6Those people weave their evil plans together like a spider’s web.
But the webs they make can’t be used as clothes.
They can’t cover themselves with what they make.
Their acts are evil.
They do things to harm others.
7They are always in a hurry to sin.
They run quickly to murder those who aren’t guilty.
They love to think up evil plans.
They leave a trail of harmful actions.
8They don’t know how to live at peace with others.
What they do isn’t fair.
They lead twisted lives.
No one who lives like that will enjoy peace and rest.
9We aren’t being treated fairly.
We haven’t been set free yet.
The God who always does what is right
hasn’t come to help us.
We look for light, but we see nothing but darkness.
We look for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows.
10Like blind people we feel our way along the wall.
We are like those who can’t see.
At noon we trip and fall as if the sun had already set.
Compared to those who are healthy, we are like dead people.
11All of us growl like hungry bears.
We sound like doves as we mourn.
We want the Lord to do what is fair and save us.
But he doesn’t do it.
We long for him to set us free.
But the time for that seems far away.
12That’s because we’ve done so many things he considers wrong.
Our sins prove that we are guilty.
The wrong things we’ve done are always troubling us.
We admit that we have sinned.
13We’ve refused to obey the Lord.
We’ve made evil plans against him.
We’ve turned our backs on our God.
We’ve stirred up conflict and refused to follow him.
We’ve told lies that came from our own minds.
14So people stop others from doing what is fair.
They keep them from doing what is right.
No one tells the truth in court anymore.
No one is honest there.
15In fact, truth can’t be found anywhere.
Those who refuse to do evil are attacked.
The Lord sees that people aren’t treating others fairly.
That makes him unhappy.
16He sees that there is no one who helps his people.
He is shocked that no one stands up for them.
So he will use his own powerful arm to save them.
He has the strength to do it because he is holy.
17He will put the armor of holiness on his chest.
He’ll put the helmet of salvation on his head.
He’ll pay people back for the wrong things they do.
He’ll wrap himself in anger as if it were a coat.
18He will pay his enemies back for what they have done.
He’ll pour his anger out on them.
He’ll punish those who attack him.
He’ll give the people in the islands what they have coming to them.
19People in the west will show respect for the Lord’s name.
People in the east will worship him because of his glory.
The Lord will come like a rushing river that was held back.
His breath will drive it along.
20“I set my people free. I will come to Mount Zion.
I will come to those in Jacob’s family who turn away from their sins,”
announces the Lord.
21“Here is the covenant I will make with them,” says the Lord. “My Spirit is on you and will not leave you. I have put my words in your mouth. They will never leave your mouth. And they will never leave the mouths of your children or their children after them. That will be true for all time to come,” says the Lord.
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Isaiah 59: NIrV
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Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version®, NIrV®
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Isaiah 59
59
Sin and Redemption
1Indeed, the Lord’s arm is not too weak to save,#Nm 11:23; Is 50:2; Jr 32:17
and his ear is not too deaf to hear.
2But your iniquities#Is 13:11 are separating you
from your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you#Dt 31:17–18; 32:20; Is 50:6; Ezk 39:29; Mc 3:4
so that he does not listen.#Dt 3:26; 23:5; Jb 35:13; Is 1:15
3For your hands are defiled with blood
and your fingers, with iniquity;
your lips have spoken lies,
and your tongues mutter injustice.
4No one makes claims justly;
no one pleads honestly.
They trust in empty and worthless words;
they conceive trouble and give birth to iniquity.#Jb 15:35; Ps 7:14; Is 33:11
5They hatch viper’s eggs
and weave spider’s webs.
Whoever eats their eggs will die;
crack one open, and a viper is hatched.
6Their webs cannot become clothing,
and they cannot cover themselves with their works.
Their works are sinful works,
and violent acts are in their hands.
7Their feet run after evil,#Rm 3:15–17
and they rush to shed innocent blood.#Pr 1:16; 6:17
Their thoughts are sinful thoughts;#Mk 7:21–22
ruin and wretchedness are in their paths.
8They have not known the path of peace,#Lk 1:79
and there is no justice in their ways.
They have made their roads crooked;
no one who walks on them will know peace.#Is 57:20–21
9Therefore justice is far from us,
and righteousness does not reach us.
We hope for light, but there is darkness;
for brightness, but we live in the night.
10We grope along a wall like the blind;
we grope like those without eyes.#Dt 28:29; Jb 5:14
We stumble at noon as though it were twilight;
we are like the dead among those who are healthy.
11We all growl like bears
and moan like doves.#Is 38:14; Ezk 7:16
We hope for justice, but there is none;
for salvation, but it is far from us.
12For our transgressions have multiplied before you,#Ezr 9:6
and our sins testify against us.#Is 3:9; Jr 14:7; Hs 5:5
For our transgressions are with us,
and we know our iniquities:#Is 13:11
13transgression and deception against the Lord,
turning away from following our God,
speaking oppression and revolt,
conceiving and uttering lying words from the heart.
14Justice is turned back,
and righteousness stands far off.
For truth has stumbled in the public square,
and honesty cannot enter.
15Truth is missing,
and whoever turns from evil is plundered.
The Lord saw that there was no justice,
and he was offended.
16He saw that there was no man —
he was amazed that there was no one interceding;#Is 41:28; 63:5; Ezk 22:30
so his own arm brought salvation,
and his own righteousness supported him.
17He put on righteousness as body armor,
and a helmet of salvation on his head;#Eph 6:14,17; 1Th 5:8
he put on garments of vengeance for clothing,
and he wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.#Is 9:7; 37:32; Zch 1:14
18So he will repay according to their deeds:#Jr 25:14; Rv 22:12
fury to his enemies,
retribution to his foes,
and he will repay the coasts and islands.
19They will fear the name of the Lord in the west
and his glory in the east;#59:19 Lit sunrise#Ps 113:3
for he will come like a rushing stream#Is 30:28; 66:12
driven by the wind of the Lord.
20“The Redeemer#Is 41:14; 43:14 will come to Zion,
and to those in Jacob who turn from transgression.”#Ezk 18:30–31; Rm 11:26–27
This is the Lord’s declaration.
21“As for me, this is my covenant with them,”#Jr 31:31–34 says the Lord: “My Spirit who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth,#Is 51:16 will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of your children’s children, from now on and forever,” says the Lord.
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