Isaiah 59:7-21 ▼

7 Their feet rush to evil, and they are quick to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; ruin, destruction, and violence are in their paths.

8 The pathway of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their courses. They have made their roads crooked; no one who walks in them will know peace.|

9 |So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We wait for light, but look—there is darkness; we wait for brightness, but we walk in deep darkness.

10 Let's grope along the wall like the blind; let us grope like those who have no eyes. We stumble at midday as if it were twilight, in desolate places like dead people.

11 We all growl like bears; we sigh mournfully like doves. We look for justice, but there is none, and for deliverance, but it's far from us.

12 |For our transgressions before you are many, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we acknowledge them:

13 they've rebelled in treachery against the LORD, and are turning away from following our God; and they've spoken oppression and revolt, and are conceiving lying words from the heart.

14 I'll drive back justice, and righteousness stands at a distance; for truth has fallen in the public square, and honesty cannot enter.

15 Truth is missing, and whoever turns away from evil becomes a prey.| |Then the LORD looked, and it displeased him that there was no justice.

16 He saw that there was no one, and was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm brought him victory, and his righteous acts upheld him.

17 He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in fury like a cloak.

18 So he will repay according to their action: Anger to his enemies, retribution to his foes; to the coastlands he will render their due.

19 So people will fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glories from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a pent-up stream that the breath of the LORD drives along.

20 |And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,| says the LORD.

21 |As for me, this is my covenant with them,| says the LORD. |And my Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, won't depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of your children's children, from now on and forever.|