Israel’s repentance and confession of sin will bring God’s deliverance
59
📚✭See, the LORD’s hand is notso short that it cannot save,
and his ear is not
so dull that it cannot hear,
2 📚But your iniquities have separated
you from your God,
and your sins have hidden
his face from you,
so that he will not hear.
3 📚✭For your hands are defiled
with blood,
and your fingers with wickedness.
Your lips have spoken lies,
your tongue has muttered
unjust things.
4 📚No one calls for justice,
no one pleads for truth.
They trust in emptiness,
and speak lies.
They conceive mischief,
and bring forth evil.
5 📚✭They hatch the viper’s eggs,
and spin the spider’s web.
He who eats any of their eggs dies,
and from one that is crushed
a viper breaks out.
6 📚Their 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 📚✭Their feet run✭ to evil,
and they hurry to shed innocent blood.
Their thoughts✭ are thoughts
of wickedness.
Wasting and destruction are
in their paths✭.
8 📚The way of peace✭
they do not know,
and there is no justice
in their ways.
They have made crooked paths
for themselves.
Whoever goes in them will not
know peace.
9 📚✭Therefore justice is far
from us,
and righteousness does not
overtake us.
We wait for light,
but see darkness;
for brightness,
but we walk in the dark✭.
10 📚We grope for the wall like
the blind;
yes,
we grope as if we had
no eyes.
We stumble at noonday
as in the night.
We are like dead men
in desolate places.
11 📚We all roar like bears,
and mourn bitterly like doves✭.
We look for justice,
but there is none;
for salvation,
but it is far away from us.
12 📚✭For our transgressions
are multiplied before you,
and our sins testify against us.
For our transgressions are
with us,
and as for our evil deeds,
we know them:
13 📚Transgressing✭ and lying
against the LORD,
and departing✭ from our God,
speaking oppression✭ and revolt,
conceiving and uttering
from the heart words of falsehood✭.
14 📚✭And justice is turned back,
and righteousness stands
at a distance;
for truth has fallen in the street,
and integrity cannot enter.
15 📚✭Yes, truth is missing,
and he who departs
from evil makes himself a prey.
And the LORD saw it,
and it displeased him that
there was no justice.
16 📚And he saw that
there was no just man✭,
and wondered✭ that
there was no intercessor.
Therefore his arm✭ brought victory
to him,
and his righteousness✭
sustained him.
17 📚For he put on righteousness
like a breastplate✭,
and a helmet of salvation
on his head;
and he put on the garments
of vengeance✭ as clothing,
and was clothed with zeal✭ like a cloak.
18 📚According to their deeds,
so he will repay:
fury to his adversaries,
retribution to his enemies;
to the islands he will mete
out retribution.
19 📚✭So they will fear the name
of the LORD from the west,
and his glory from the rising
of the sun.
When the enemy comes in like
a flood,
the Spirit of the LORD will lift up
a banner against him.
20 📚✭“And the Redeemer will come
to Zion,
and to those who turn from
transgression in Jacob”,
says the LORD.
21 📚“As for me, this is my covenant✭ with them”, says the LORD: “My Spirit who is on you✭, and my words which I have put in your mouth✭, will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouth of your offspring, or from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring”, says the LORD, “from now on and forever✭”.