Isaiah 59

Sin, Justice, and the Redeemer

1Look, the LORD’s hand is not too short to save,
nor his ear too dull to hear. 2Rather, your offenses have separated you from your God;
your sins have hidden his face from you,
so he does not hear. 3Your palms are stained with blood,
your fingers with guilt.
Your lips speak lies;
your tongue mutters injustice. 4No one brings a case justly;
no one pleads honestly.
They trust in emptiness and speak falsehood,
conceive trouble and give birth to wrongdoing.

5They hatch vipers’ eggs
and weave spiders’ webs.
Whoever eats their eggs dies;
when one is crushed, a snake hatches. 6Their webs cannot become clothing;
they cannot cover themselves with what they make.
Their works are works of wrongdoing;
acts of violence are in their hands. 7Their feet run to evil;
they hurry to shed innocent blood.
Their thoughts are thoughts of wrongdoing;
devastation and destruction mark their highways. 8They do not know the way of peace;
there is no justice in their tracks.
They have made their paths crooked;
no one walking them knows peace.

9So justice is far from us,
and righteousness does not reach us.
We wait for light, but there is darkness;
for brightness, but we walk in gloom. 10We grope along a wall like the blind,
groping like people without eyes.
We stumble at noon as at dusk;
among the vigorous we are like the dead. 11We all growl like bears
and moan and moan like doves.
We wait for justice, but there is none;
for salvation, but it is far from us. 12For our rebellions before you are many,
and our sins testify against us.
Our rebellions are with us;
we know our offenses:

13rebelling and denying the LORD,
turning back from following our God,
speaking oppression and revolt,
conceiving and uttering lying words from the heart. 14Justice is driven backward,
and righteousness stands far away.
Truth stumbles in the public square,
and honesty cannot enter. 15Truth is missing,
and whoever turns from evil becomes prey.
The LORD saw it, and it displeased him
that there was no justice. 16He saw that there was no one
and was appalled that no one intervened.
So his own arm brought him salvation,
and his righteousness sustained him.

17He put on righteousness as a breastplate
and a helmet of salvation on his head.
He dressed in garments of vengeance
and wrapped himself in zeal like a cloak. 18He will repay according to their deeds:
fury to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies;
to the coastlands he will repay what is due. 19From the west they will fear the LORD’s name,
and from the sunrise his glory.
For he will come like a rushing river
driven by the LORD’s wind. 20“A Redeemer will come to Zion,
to those in Jacob who turn from rebellion,”
declares the LORD.

21“As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, will not depart from your mouth, from your offspring’s mouths, or from the mouths of their offspring,” says the LORD, “from now and forever.”