| 1 | Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened at all, that it cannot save, nor His ear dull with deafness, that it cannot hear. |
| 2 | But your iniquities have made a separation between you and 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 iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness. |
| 4 | None sues
or
calls in righteousness [but for the sake of doing injury to others—to take some undue advantage]; no one goes to law honestly
and
pleads [his case] in truth; they trust in emptiness, worthlessness
and
futility, and speaking lies! They conceive mischief and bring forth evil! |
| 5 | They hatch adders’ eggs and weave the spider’s web; he who eats of their eggs dies, and [from an egg] which is crushed a viper breaks out [for their nature is ruinous, deadly, evil]. |
| 6 | Their webs will not serve as clothing, nor will they cover themselves with what they make; their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. |
| 7 | Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their paths
and
highways. |
| 8 | The way of peace they know not, and there is no justice
or
right in their goings. They have made them into crooked paths; whoever goes in them does not know peace. |
| 9 | Therefore are justice
and
right far from us, and righteousness
and
salvation do not overtake us. We expectantly wait for light, but [only] see darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity
and
gloom. |
| 10 | We grope for the wall like the blind, yes, we grope like those who have no eyes. We stumble at noonday as in the twilight; in dark places
and
among those who are full of life
and
vigor, we are as dead men. |
| 11 | We all groan
and
growl like bears and moan plaintively like doves. We look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. |
| 12 | For our transgressions are multiplied before You [O Lord], and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know
and
recognize them [as]: |
| 13 | Rebelling against and denying the Lord, turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving in and muttering
and
moaning from the heart words of falsehood. |
| 14 | Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God) stands far off; for truth has fallen in the street (the city’s forum), and uprightness cannot enter [the courts of justice]. |
| 15 | Yes, truth is lacking, 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 man and wondered that there was no intercessor [no one to intervene on behalf of truth and right]; therefore His own arm brought Him victory, and His own righteousness [having the Spirit without measure] sustained Him. |
| 17 | For [the Lord] put on righteousness as a breastplate
or
coat of mail, and salvation as a helmet upon His head; He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal [and furious divine jealousy] as a cloak. |
| 18 | According as their deeds deserve, so will He repay wrath to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; on the foreign islands
and
coastlands He will make compensation. |
| 19 | So [as the result of the Messiah’s intervention] they shall [reverently] fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him
and
put him to flight [for He will come like a rushing stream which the breath of the Lord drives]. |
| 20 | He shall come as a Redeemer to Zion and to those in Jacob (Israel) who turn from transgression, says the Lord. |
| 21 | As for Me, this is My covenant
or
league with them, says the Lord: My Spirit, Who is upon you [and Who writes the law of God inwardly on the heart], and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouths of your [true, spiritual] children, or out of the mouths of your children’s children, says the Lord, from henceforth and forever. |
Cross references:
-
Isaiah 59:8 : Rom. 3:15-18.
-
Isaiah 59:16 : Isa. 53:11; Col. 2:9; I John 2:1, 2.
-
Isaiah 59:17 : Eph. 6:14, 17; I Thess. 5:8.
-
Isaiah 59:19 : Matt. 8:11; Luke 13:29.
-
Isaiah 59:21 : Jer. 31:33; Rom. 11:26, 27; Gal. 3:29; Heb. 12:22-24.
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