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
Social Injustice Is Condemned
1The Lord hasn't lost
his powerful strength;
he can still hear
and answer prayers.
2Your sins are the roadblock
between you and your God.
That's why he doesn't answer
your prayers
or let you see his face.
3Your talk is filled with lies
and plans for violence;
every finger on your hands
is covered with blood.
4You falsely accuse others
and tell lies in court;
sin and trouble are the names
of your children.
5You eat the deadly eggs
of poisonous snakes,
and more snakes crawl out
from the eggs left to hatch.
You weave spider webs,
6but you can't make clothes
with those webs
or hide behind them.
You're sinful and brutal.
7 #
Ro 3.15-17. You hurry off to do wrong
or murder innocent victims.
All you think about is sin;
you leave ruin and destruction
wherever you go.
8You don't know how
to live in peace
or to be fair with others.
The roads you make are crooked;
your followers cannot find peace.
The People Confess Their Sins
9No one has come to defend us
or to bring about justice.
We hoped for a day of sunshine,
but all we found
was a dark, gloomy night.
10We feel our way along,
as if we were blind;
we stumble at noon,
as if it were night.
We can see no better
than someone dead.#59.10 We can … dead: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
11We growl like bears
and mourn like doves.
We hope for justice and victory,
but they escape us.
12How often have we sinned
and turned against you,
the Lord God?
Our sins condemn us!
We have done wrong.
13We have rebelled and refused
to follow you.
Our hearts were deceitful,
and so we lied;
we planned to abuse others
and turn our backs on you.
14Injustice is everywhere;
justice seems far away.
Truth is chased out of court;
honesty is shoved aside.
15Everyone tells lies;
those who turn from crime
end up ruined.
The Lord Will Rescue His People
When the Lord noticed
that justice had disappeared,
he became very displeased.
16 #
Is 63.5. It disgusted him even more
to learn that no one
would do a thing about it.
So with his own powerful arm,
he won victories for truth.
17 #
Ws 5.17-23; Eph 6.14,17; 1 Th 5.8. Justice was the Lord's armor;
saving power was his helmet;
anger and revenge
were his clothes.
18Now the Lord will get furious
and do to his enemies,
both near and far,
what they did to his people.
19He will attack like a flood
in a mighty windstorm.
Nations in the west and the east
will then honor and praise
his wonderful name.
20 #
Ro 11.26. The Lord has promised to rescue
the city of Zion
and Jacob's descendants
who turn from sin.
21The Lord says: “My people,
I promise to give you my Spirit
and my message.
These will be my gifts to you
and your families forever.
I, the Lord, have spoken.”
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.