Isaiah 59
59
Separated from God
1Behold, the Lord’s hand is not #Num. 11:23; Is. 50:2; Jer. 32:17shortened,
That it cannot save;
Nor His ear heavy,
That it cannot hear.
2But your iniquities have separated you from your God;
And your sins have hidden His face from you,
So that He will #Is. 1:15not hear.
3For #Is. 1:15, 21; Jer. 2:30, 34; Ezek. 7:23; Hos. 4:2your hands are defiled with blood,
And your fingers with iniquity;
Your lips have spoken lies,
Your tongue has muttered perversity.
4No one calls for justice,
Nor does any plead for truth.
They trust in #Is. 30:12; Jer. 7:4empty words and speak lies;
#Job 15:35; Ps. 7:14; Is. 33:11They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity.
5They hatch vipers’ eggs and weave the spider’s web;
He who eats of their eggs dies,
And from that which is crushed a viper breaks out.
6#Job 8:14Their webs will not become garments,
Nor will they cover themselves with their works;
Their works are works of iniquity,
And the act of violence is in their hands.
7#Prov. 1:16; Rom. 3:15Their feet run to evil,
And they make haste to shed #Prov. 6:17innocent blood;
#Is. 55:7Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
Wasting and #Rom. 3:16, 17destruction are in their paths.
8The way of #Is. 57:20, 21peace they have not known,
And there is no justice in their ways;
#Ps. 125:5; Prov. 2:15They have made themselves crooked paths;
Whoever takes that way shall not know peace.
Sin Confessed
9Therefore justice is far from us,
Nor does righteousness overtake us;
#Jer. 8:15We look for light, but there is darkness!
For brightness, but we walk in blackness!
10#Deut. 28:29; Job 5:14; Amos 8:9We grope for the wall like the blind,
And we grope as if we had no eyes;
We stumble at noonday as at twilight;
We are as dead men in desolate places.
11We all growl like bears,
And #Is. 38:14; Ezek. 7:16moan sadly like doves;
We look for justice, but there is none;
For salvation, but it is far from us.
12For our #Is. 24:5; 58:1transgressions are multiplied before You,
And our sins testify against us;
For our transgressions are with us,
And as for our iniquities, we know them:
13In transgressing and lying against the Lord,
And departing from our God,
Speaking oppression and revolt,
Conceiving and uttering #Matt. 12:34from the heart words of falsehood.
14Justice is turned back,
And righteousness stands afar off;
For truth is fallen in the street,
And equity cannot enter.
15So truth fails,
And he who departs from evil makes himself a #Is. 5:23; 10:2; 29:21; 32:7prey.
The Redeemer of Zion
Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him
That there was no justice.
16#Is. 41:28; 63:5; 64:7; Ezek. 22:30He saw that there was no man,
And #Mark 6:6wondered that there was no intercessor;
#Ps. 98:1; Is. 63:5Therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him;
And His own righteousness, it sustained Him.
17#Eph. 6:14, 17; 1 Thess. 5:8For He put on righteousness as a breastplate,
And a helmet of salvation on His head;
He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing,
And was clad with zeal as a cloak.
18#Is. 63:6; Rom. 2:6According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay,
Fury to His adversaries,
Recompense to His enemies;
The coastlands He will fully repay.
19#Ps. 113:3; Mal. 1:11So shall they fear
The name of the Lord from the west,
And His glory from the rising of the sun;
When the enemy comes in #Rev. 12:15like a flood,
The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.
20“The#Rom. 11:26 Redeemer will come to Zion,
And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,”
Says the Lord.
21“As#(Heb. 8:10; 10:16) for Me,” says the Lord, “this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” says the Lord, “from this time and forevermore.”
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Isaiah 59: NKJV
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Isaiah 59
59
Warnings against Sin
1Listen! The Lord’s arm is not too weak to save you,
nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call.
2It’s your sins that have cut you off from God.
Because of your sins, he has turned away
and will not listen anymore.
3Your hands are the hands of murderers,
and your fingers are filthy with sin.
Your lips are full of lies,
and your mouth spews corruption.
4No one cares about being fair and honest.
The people’s lawsuits are based on lies.
They conceive evil deeds
and then give birth to sin.
5They hatch deadly snakes
and weave spiders’ webs.
Whoever eats their eggs will die;
whoever cracks them will hatch a viper.
6Their webs can’t be made into clothing,
and nothing they do is productive.
All their activity is filled with sin,
and violence is their trademark.
7Their feet run to do evil,
and they rush to commit murder.
They think only about sinning.
Misery and destruction always follow them.
8They don’t know where to find peace
or what it means to be just and good.
They have mapped out crooked roads,
and no one who follows them knows a moment’s peace.
9So there is no justice among us,
and we know nothing about right living.
We look for light but find only darkness.
We look for bright skies but walk in gloom.
10We grope like the blind along a wall,
feeling our way like people without eyes.
Even at brightest noontime,
we stumble as though it were dark.
Among the living,
we are like the dead.
11We growl like hungry bears;
we moan like mournful doves.
We look for justice, but it never comes.
We look for rescue, but it is far away from us.
12For our sins are piled up before God
and testify against us.
Yes, we know what sinners we are.
13We know we have rebelled and have denied the Lord.
We have turned our backs on our God.
We know how unfair and oppressive we have been,
carefully planning our deceitful lies.
14Our courts oppose the righteous,
and justice is nowhere to be found.
Truth stumbles in the streets,
and honesty has been outlawed.
15Yes, truth is gone,
and anyone who renounces evil is attacked.
The Lord looked and was displeased
to find there was no justice.
16He was amazed to see that no one intervened
to help the oppressed.
So he himself stepped in to save them with his strong arm,
and his justice sustained him.
17He put on righteousness as his body armor
and placed the helmet of salvation on his head.
He clothed himself with a robe of vengeance
and wrapped himself in a cloak of divine passion.
18He will repay his enemies for their evil deeds.
His fury will fall on his foes.
He will pay them back even to the ends of the earth.
19In the west, people will respect the name of the Lord;
in the east, they will glorify him.
For he will come like a raging flood tide
driven by the breath of the Lord.#59:19 Or When the enemy comes like a raging flood tide, / the Spirit of the Lord will drive him back.
20“The Redeemer will come to Jerusalem
to buy back those in Israel
who have turned from their sins,”#59:20 Hebrew The Redeemer will come to Zion / to buy back those in Jacob / who have turned from their sins. Greek version reads The one who rescues will come on behalf of Zion, / and he will turn Jacob away from ungodliness. Compare Rom 11:26.
says the Lord.
21“And this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord. “My Spirit will not leave them, and neither will these words I have given you. They will be on your lips and on the lips of your children and your children’s children forever. I, the Lord, have spoken!
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