Isaiah 59:1-21 - Rampant Transgression

¹ Lo! the hand of Yahweh is not too short to say, - Neither is his ear too heavy to hear. ² But, your iniquities, have become separators betwixt you and your God, And your sins, have caused a biding of face from you that he should-not hear. ³ For, your hands, are defiled with blood, And, your fingers, with iniquity, - Your lips, have spoken falsehood, and Your tongue, muttereth, perversity. ⁴ None, sueth in righteousness, and None, pleadeth in faithfulness, - Men are trusting in confusion, And speaking vanity, Conceiving wickedness And bringing forth iniquity: ⁵ Vipers eggs, do they hatch, Spiders threads, do they weave, - he that eateth of their eggs, dieth, And, that which is crushed, bringeth forth an adder; ⁶ Their thread, shall not become a garment, Neither shall they cover themselves with their fabrics, - Their fabrics, are fabrics of iniquity, Yea the product of violence is in their hands; ⁷ Their feet, to mischief, do run, And they speed to shed innocent blood, - Their devices, are devices of iniquity, Wasting and destruction, are in their high roads; ⁸ the way of well-being, have they not known, And there is no justice in their tracks, - Their paths, have they made crooked for themselves, None who treadeth therein knoweth well - being.

⁹ For this cause, hath justice removed far from us, And righteousness overtaketh us not, - We wait for light, But lo! darkness, For brightness, In thick darkness, we walk: ¹⁰ We grope, as blind men for a wall, Yea, as men without eyes, do we grope, - We have stumbled at broad noon as though it were twilight, In desolate places like the dead! ¹¹ We growl like bears all of us, And, like doves, do we, mournfully coo, - We wait For justice, and there is none, For salvation it is far from us! ¹² For our transgressions have multiplied before thee, And flour sins have witnessed against us, - For, our transgressions, are with us, And as for our iniquities, we acknowledge them: ¹³ Transgressing, and denying Yahweh, And turning away from following our God, - Speaking oppression and revolt, Conceiving, and muttering from the heart, words of falsehood. ¹⁴ So then there hath been a driving back of justice, And righteousness, afar off, standeth, - For truth, hath stumbled in the broad-way, And, right, cannot enter; ¹⁵ And the truth hath been found missing, And he that hath turned away from wrong is liable to be despoiled, And when, Yahweh, looked, Then was it grievous in his eyes that there was no justice: ¹⁶ When he saw that there was no mighty man, Then was he astonished that there was none to interpose, - So his own arm brought him salvation, And his own righteousness, the same, upheld him; ¹⁷ And he put on Righteousness as a coat of mail, And a helmet of victory upon his head, - And he put on the garments of avenging, for clothing, And wrapped about him as a cloak - jealousy, ¹⁸ According to their deeds, accordingly, will he repay, Indignation to his adversaries, Recompense to his enemies, - To the Coastlands - recompense, will he repay: ¹⁹ That they may revere - From the West the name of Yahweh, And from the Rising of the Sun his glory, For he will come in like a rushing stream, the breath of Yahweh, driving it on; ²⁰ So shall come in for Zion, a Redeemer, Even for such as are turning from transgression in Jacob, - Declareth Yahweh.

²¹ And as for me, this, shall be my covenant with them, Saith Yahweh: My spirit that is upon thee, And my words which I have put in thy mouth, - Shall not he taken out of thy mouth - Nor out of the mouth of thy seed. Nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed, Saith Yahweh, From henceforth even unto times age-abiding.