¹Behold, the arm of the Lord

Is not too short to save,

Nor is his ear

Too dull to hear.

²For your iniquities were separating you

From your God,

And your sins made him hide his face from you

So as not to hear.

³For your hands are stained with blood,

And your fingers with iniquity.

Your lips have spoken lies,

And your tongue has uttered injustice.

⁴There is no-one giving verdicts in righteousness,

And no-one is judged faithfully,

As they trust in a vain thing,

And speak lies,

Engendering sorrow

And conceiving iniquity.

⁵They hatch the eggs of a viper,

And weave a spider's web.

He who eats their eggs will die,

And if one is cracked open,

A viper emerges.

⁶Their webs will not become a garment,

And they will not cover themselves with their deeds.

Their deeds are vain deeds,

And a violent act is on their hands.

⁷Their feet run to evil,

And they are quick to shed innocent blood.

Their thoughts are vain thoughts;

Oppression and wreckage

Are in their ways.

⁸They have not known the way of peace,

And there is no justice in their paths.

They have made a perverse course for themselves;

No-one who follows it

Will know peace.

⁹That is why justice is far from us,

And righteousness has not reached us.

We await light,

But what we get is darkness.

We await shining brightness,

But walk in obscurity.

¹⁰We feel for a wall like the blind,

And we grope like one without eyes.

We have stumbled at midday as if it were darkness,

Well-nourished,

But like the dead.

¹¹We all growl like bears,

And we coo and coo like doves;

We await justice,

But there is none;

We await salvation

But it is far from us.

¹²For our transgressions against you are many,

And our sins testify against us,

For our transgressions are with us,

And we know our iniquities,

¹³In transgressing and acting deceitfully with the Lord,

And in sliding away from our God;

In speaking extortion and apostasy,

And in conceiving and devising false words

From the heart.

¹⁴And justice has been driven back,

And righteousness stands at a distance,

For truth has stumbled in the street,

And straightforwardness is unable to come.

¹⁵And truth has become lacking,

And he who departs from evil becomes a prey,

And the Lord has seen it,

And it is evil in his eyes,

For there is no justice.

¹⁶And he has seen that there is no man,

And he is astonished that there is no-one pleading the case.

But his arm has brought about salvation for him,

And it is his righteousness which has supported him.

¹⁷For he wore righteousness as armour,

And he had a helmet of salvation on his head,

And he wore garments of vengeance as his clothing,

And he wrapped himself in zeal as a coat.

¹⁸As it is with retribution,

So he will repay fury to his adversaries

– Retribution to his enemies.

He will repay retribution to the coastlands.

¹⁹And they will fear the name of the Lord in the west,

And his glory in the east.

When the adversary comes like a river,

The spirit of the Lord will put him to flight.

Says the Lord.

²¹“And as for me,

This is my covenant with them,

Says the Lord:

My spirit which is upon you,

And my words which I have put in your mouth

Will not depart from your mouth,

Or from the mouth of your seed,

Or from the mouth of your seed's seed,

Says the Lord,

From now and age-abidingly.”

Reference(s) in Chapter 59: v.7 ↔ Romans 3:15, Romans 3:16 ● v.8 ↔ Romans 3:17 ● v.17 ↔ Ephesians 6:17 ● v.20 ↔ Romans 11:26 ● v.21 ↔ Romans 11:27.