Isaiah 59
59
1 Behold, the hand of the Lord has not been shortened, so that it cannot save, and his ear has not been blocked, so that it cannot hear.
2 But your iniquities have made a division between you and your God, and your sins have concealed his face from you, so that he would not hear.
3 For your hands have been polluted by blood, and your fingers by iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue utters iniquity.
4 There is no one who calls for justice, and there is no one who judges truly. For they trust in nothing, and they speak emptiness. They have conceived hardship, and they have given birth to iniquity.
5 They have ruptured the eggs of asps, and they have woven the webs of spiders. Whoever will eat of their eggs will die. For what has been incubated will hatch into a king snake.
6 Their weavings will not be for clothing, nor will they cover themselves with their handiwork. Their works are useless things, and the work of iniquity is in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil, and they rush to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are useless thoughts; devastation and destruction are in their ways.
8 They have not known the way of peace, and there is no judgment in their steps. Their paths have become crooked for them. Anyone who treads in them knows no peace.
9 Because of this, judgment is far from us, and justice will not take hold of us. We waited for light, and behold, darkness; we waited for brightness, and we walked in darkness.
10 We groped for the wall, like one who is blind, and we felt our way, like one without eyes. We stumbled at midday, as if in darkness; and in darkness, as if in death.
11 We will all roar like bears, and we will sigh like despondent doves. We hoped for judgment, and there is none; for salvation, and it is far from us.
12 For our iniquities have been multiplied in your sight, and our sins have answered us. For our wickedness is with us, and we have acknowledged our iniquities:
13 sinning and lying against the Lord. And we have turned away, not so as to go after our God, and so that we were speaking calumny and transgression. We have conceived, and spoken from the heart, words of falsehood.
14 And judgment has been turned backwards, and justice has stood far away. For truth has fallen down in the street, and fairness was not able to enter.
15 And the truth has gone into oblivion. And he who withdraws from evil endures plunder. And the Lord saw this, and it seemed evil in his eyes. For there is no judgment.
16 And he saw that there was no good man. And he was astonished that there was no one to meet him. And his own arm brought salvation to him, and his own justice strengthened him.
17 He clothed himself with justice as with a breastplate, and with a helmet of salvation upon his head. He put on the vestments of vengeance, and he was covered with zeal as with a cloak.
18 This was for vindication, as a repayment of indignation to his adversaries, and as a sudden reversal for his enemies. He will repay the islands in their turn.
19 And those from the west will fear the name of the Lord, and those from the rising of the sun will fear his glory, when he arrives like a violent river, which the Spirit of the Lord urges on.
20 And the Redeemer will arrive in Zion, and to those who return from the iniquity within Jacob, says the Lord.
21 This is my pact with them, says the Lord. My Spirit is within you, and my words, which I have put in your mouth, will not withdraw from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring's offspring, says the Lord, from this moment, and even forever.
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Isaiah 59: CPDV
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Isaiah 59
59
The Prophet Condemns the People's Sins
1Don't think that the LORD is too weak to save you or too deaf to hear your call for help! 2It is because of your sins that he doesn't hear you. It is your sins that separate you from God when you try to worship him. 3You are guilty of lying, violence, and murder.
4You go to court, but you haven't got justice on your side. You depend on lies to win your case. You carry out your plans to hurt others. 5-6The evil plots you make are as deadly as the eggs of a poisonous snake. Crush an egg, out comes a snake! But your plots will do you no good — they are as useless as clothing made of cobwebs! 7#Rom 3.15–17You are always planning something evil, and you can hardly wait to do it. You never hesitate to murder innocent people. You leave ruin and destruction wherever you go, 8and no one is safe when you are about. Everything you do is unjust. You follow a crooked path, and no one who walks that path will ever be safe.
The People Confess their Sin
9The people say, “Now we know why God does not save us from those who oppress us. We hope for light to walk by, but there is only darkness, 10and we grope about like blind people. We stumble at noon, as if it were night, as if we were in the dark world of the dead. 11We are frightened and distressed. We long for God to save us from oppression and wrong, but nothing happens.
12“LORD, our crimes against you are many. Our sins accuse us. We are well aware of them all. 13We have rebelled against you, rejected you, and refused to follow you. We have oppressed others and turned away from you. Our thoughts are false; our words are lies. 14Justice is driven away, and right cannot come near. Truth stumbles in the public square, and honesty finds no place there. 15There is so little honesty that those who stop doing evil find themselves the victims of crime.”
The LORD Prepares to Rescue his People
The LORD has seen this, and he is displeased that there is no justice. 16#Is 63.5He is astonished to see that there is no one to help the oppressed. So he will use his own power to rescue them and to win the victory. 17#Eph 6.14, 17; 1 Thes 5.8He will wear justice like a coat of armour and saving power like a helmet. He will clothe himself with the strong desire to set things right and to punish and avenge the wrongs that people suffer. 18He will punish his enemies according to what they have done, even those who live in distant lands. 19From east to west everyone will fear him and his great power. He will come like a rushing river, like a strong wind.
20 #
Rom 11.26
The LORD says to his people, “I will come to Jerusalem to defend you and to save all of you that turn from your sins. 21And I make a covenant with you: I have given you my power and my teachings to be yours for ever, and from now on you are to obey me and teach your children and your descendants to obey me for all time to come.”
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Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.