Isaiah 59
59
We Long for Light but Sink into Darkness
1-8Look! Listen!
God’s arm is not amputated—he can still save.
God’s ears are not stopped up—he can still hear.
There’s nothing wrong with God; the wrong is in you.
Your wrongheaded lives caused the split between you and God.
Your sins got between you so that he doesn’t hear.
Your hands are drenched in blood,
your fingers dripping with guilt,
Your lips smeared with lies,
your tongue swollen from muttering obscenities.
No one speaks up for the right,
no one deals fairly.
They trust in illusion, they tell lies,
they get pregnant with mischief and have sin-babies.
They hatch snake eggs and weave spider webs.
Eat an egg and die; break an egg and get a snake!
The spider webs are no good for shirts or shawls.
No one can wear these weavings!
They weave wickedness,
they hatch violence.
They compete in the race to do evil
and run to be the first to murder.
They plan and plot evil, think and breathe evil,
and leave a trail of wrecked lives behind them.
They know nothing about peace
and less than nothing about justice.
They make tortuously twisted roads.
No peace for the wretch who walks down those roads!
9-11Which means that we’re a far cry from fair dealing,
and we’re not even close to right living.
We long for light but sink into darkness,
long for brightness but stumble through the night.
Like the blind, we inch along a wall,
groping eyeless in the dark.
We shuffle our way in broad daylight,
like the dead, but somehow walking.
We’re no better off than bears, groaning,
and no worse off than doves, moaning.
We look for justice—not a sign of it;
for salvation—not so much as a hint.
12-15a Our wrongdoings pile up before you, God,
our sins stand up and accuse us.
Our wrongdoings stare us down;
we know in detail what we’ve done:
Mocking and denying God,
not following our God,
Spreading false rumors, whipping up revolt,
pregnant with lies, muttering malice.
Justice is beaten back,
Righteousness is banished to the sidelines,
Truth staggers down the street,
Honesty is nowhere to be found,
Good is missing in action.
Anyone renouncing evil is beaten and robbed.
15b-19 God looked and saw evil looming on the horizon—
so much evil and no sign of Justice.
He couldn’t believe what he saw:
not a soul around to correct this awful situation.
So he did it himself, took on the work of Salvation,
fueled by his own Righteousness.
He dressed in Righteousness, put it on like a suit of armor,
with Salvation on his head like a helmet,
Put on Judgment like an overcoat,
and threw a cloak of Passion across his shoulders.
He’ll make everyone pay for what they’ve done:
fury for his foes, just deserts for his enemies.
Even the far-off islands will get paid off in full.
In the west they’ll fear the name of God,
in the east they’ll fear the glory of God,
For he’ll arrive like a river in flood stage,
whipped to a torrent by the wind of God.
20“I’ll arrive in Zion as Redeemer,
to those in Jacob who leave their sins.”
God’s Decree.
21“As for me,” God says, “this is my covenant with them: My Spirit that I’ve placed upon you and the words that I’ve given you to speak, they’re not going to leave your mouths nor the mouths of your children nor the mouths of your grandchildren. You will keep repeating these words and won’t ever stop.” God’s orders.
Currently Selected:
Isaiah 59: MSG
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Isaiah 59
59
LIX
1Behold! the hand of Jehovah is not shortened, that it cannot save;
Neither is his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
2But it is your iniquities that have made a separation between you and your God;
And your sins have caused his face to be hidden from you, that he will not hear.
3For your hands are polluted with blood,
And your fingers with iniquity;
Your lips speak falsehood,
And your tongue muttereth wickedness.
4None pronounceth a verdict in justice,
Neither doth any one judge in truth:
Trusting in vanity, and speaking lies,
They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
5They hatch the eggs of the basilisk,
And weave the webs of the spider;
He that eateth of their eggs dieth,
And out of that which is crushed a viper breaketh forth.
6Their webs shall not become garments,
Neither shall men cover themselves with their works:
Their works are works of iniquity,
And the deed of violence is in their hands.
7Their feet run to evil,
And they hasten to shed innocent blood;
Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity,
Ruin and devastation are in their paths.
8The way of peace they know not,
And there is no judgment in their course;
Their paths they have made to themselves crooked,
Whoso walketh in them, shall not know peace.
9Therefore is judgment far distant from us,
Neither doth justice reach us;
We look for light, but behold obscurity;
For brightness, but we walk in darkness.
10We grope like the blind for the wall,
And we grope as those who have no eyes;
We stumble at mid-day as if it were dark,
We are in the midst of plenty, like unto the dead.
11We roar like bears, every one of us;
And moan continually like doves.
We look for judgment, but there is none;
For salvation, but it is far off from us.
12For our transgressions are multiplied before thee,
And our sins testify against us:
For our transgressions are with us;
And at for our iniquities, we know them.
13We have transgressed; and we have denied Jehovah;
We have also departed from our God,
Speaking oppression and revolt,
Conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
14And judgment is turned away backward,
And justice standeth aloof;
For truth is fallen in the street,
And equity cannot enter.
15Yea, truth is wanted,
And he that departed from evil maketh himself a
And Jehovah saw it,
And it displeased Him that there was no judgment.
16And He saw that there was no man,
And wondered that there was no intercessor;
Therefore his own arm wrought salvation for him;
And his righteousness, it sustained him.
17And He put on righteousness as a breastplate,
And the helmet of salvation was on his head;
And He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing;
And clad Himself with zeal as with a mantle.
18According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, prey:
Fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies;
To the islands a recompense will He repay.
19And they from the west shall fear the name of Jehovah,
And they from the rising of the sun his glory.
When the enemy shall come in like a river,
The Spirit of Jehovah shall put him to flight.
20And the Redeemer shall come to Zion,
And unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob;
Saith Jehovah.
21As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith Jehovah:
My Spirit which is upon thee,
And my words which I have put in thy mouth;
They shall not depart from thy mouth,
Nor from the mouth of thy seed,
Nor from the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith Jehovah,
From henceforth and for ever.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Translated by Rev John Jones (Ioan Tegid).Published at Oxford in 1830, second edition 1842.