Separation from Yahweh
Behold, athe hand of Yahweh is not so short
That it cannot save;
bNor is His ear so dull
That it cannot hear.
2 But your ainiquities have made a separation between you and your God,
And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does bnot hear.
3 For your ahands are defiled with blood
And your fingers with iniquity;
Your lips have spoken a blie;
Your tongue mutters unrighteousness.
4 aNo one calls in righteousness, and bno one seeks justice in truth.
They ctrust in confusion and speak worthlessness;
They dconceive trouble and give birth to wickedness.
5 They break open vipers’ eggs and aweave the spider’s web;
He who eats of their eggs dies,
And from that which is crushed a snake breaks forth.
6 Their webs will not become a garment,
Nor will they acover themselves with their works;
Their bworks are works of wickedness,
And a cdeed of violence is in their hands.
7 aTheir feet run to evil,
And they are quick to shed innocent blood;
bTheir thoughts are thoughts of wickedness;
Devastation and destruction are in their highways.
8 They do not know the away of peace,
And there is bno justice in their tracks;
They have made their paths crooked,
cWhoever treads on them does not know peace.
Transgressing and Denying Yahweh
9 Therefore ajustice is far from us,
And righteousness does not overtake us;
We bhope for light, but behold, darkness,
For brightness, but we walk in thick darkness.
10 We agrope along the wall like blind men;
We grope like those who have no eyes;
We bstumble at midday as in the twilight,
Among those who are vigorous we are clike dead men.
11 All of us growl like bears,
And amoan sadly like doves;
We hope for bjustice, but there is none,
For salvation, but it is far from us.
12 For our atransgressions are multiplied before You,
And our bsins answer against us;
For our transgressions are with us,
And we know our iniquities:
13 Transgressing and adenying Yahweh,
And turning back from our God,
Speaking boppression and revolt,
Conceiving in and cuttering from the heart lying words.
14 aJustice is turned back,
And brighteousness stands far away;
For truth has stumbled in the street,
And rightness cannot enter.
15 So it is that truth is missing;
And he who turns aside from evil amakes himself plunder.
Then Yahweh saw,
And it was evil in His eyes bthat there was no justice.
16 And He saw that there was ano man,
And was astonished that there was no one to intercede;
Then His bown arm brought salvation to Him,
And His righteousness upheld Him.
17 He put on arighteousness like a breastplate,
And a bhelmet of salvation on His head;
And He put on cgarments of vengeance for clothing
And wrapped Himself with dzeal as a mantle.
18 aAccording to what they deserve, so He will pay in full,
Wrath to His adversaries, what is deserved to His enemies;
To the coastlands He will pay what they deserve.
19 So they will fear the name of Yahweh from the awest
And His glory from the brising of the sun,
For He will ccome like a rushing stream
Which the wind of Yahweh makes flee.
20 “A aRedeemer will come to Zion,
And to those who bturn from transgression in Jacob,” declares Yahweh.
21 “As for Me, this is My acovenant with them,” says Yahweh: “My bSpirit which is upon you, and My cwords which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your seed, nor from the mouth of your seed’s seed,” says Yahweh, “from now and forever.”