| [1]Lo, the hand of Jehovah Hath not been shortened from  saving, Nor heavy his ear from hearing.
          [2]But your iniquities have been separating Between you and  your God, And your sins have hidden The Presence from you --  from hearing.
          [3]For your hands have been polluted with blood, And your  fingers with iniquity, Your lips have spoken falsehood, Your  tongue perverseness doth mutter.
          [4]There is none calling in righteousness, And there is none  pleading in faithfulness, Trusting on emptiness, and speaking  falsehood, Conceiving perverseness, and bearing iniquity.
          [5]Eggs of a viper they have hatched, And webs of a spider  they weave, Whoso is eating their eggs doth die, And the  crushed hatcheth a viper.
          [6]Their webs become not a garment, Nor do they cover  themselves with their works, Their works [are] works of  iniquity, And a deed of violence [is] in their hands.
          [7]Their feet to evil do run, And they haste to shed innocent  blood, Their thoughts [are] thoughts of iniquity, Spoiling and  destruction [are] in their highways.
          [8]A way of peace they have not known, And there is no  judgment in their paths, Their paths they have made perverse  for themselves, No treader in it hath known peace.
          [9]Therefore hath judgment been far from us, And righteousness  reacheth us not, We wait for light, and lo, darkness, For  brightness -- in thick darkness we go,
          [10]We feel like the blind [for] the wall, Yea, as without  eyes we feel, We have stumbled at noon as at twilight, In  desolate places as the dead.
          [11]We make a noise as bears -- all of us, And as doves we coo  sorely; We wait for judgment, and there is none, For salvation  -- it hath been far from us.
          [12]For our transgressions have been multiplied before Thee,  And our sins have testified against us, For our transgressions  [are] with us, And our iniquities -- we have known them.
          [13]Transgressing, and lying against Jehovah, And removing  from after our God, Speaking oppression and apostacy,  Conceiving and uttering from the heart Words of falsehood.
          [14]And removed backward is judgment, And righteousness afar  off standeth, For truth hath been feeble in the street, And  straightforwardness is not able to enter,
          [15]And the truth is lacking, And whoso is turning aside from  evil, Is making himself a spoil. And Jehovah seeth, and it is  evil in His eyes, That there is no judgment.
          [16]And He seeth that there is no man, And is astonished that  there is no intercessor, And His own arm giveth salvation to  Him, And His righteousness -- it sustained Him.
          [17]And He putteth on righteousness as a breastplate, And an  helmet of salvation on His head, And He putteth on garments of  vengeance [for] clothing, And is covered, as [with] an  upper-robe, [with] zeal.
          [18]According to deeds -- so He repayeth. Fury to His  adversaries, [their] deed to His enemies, To the isles [their]  deed He repayeth.
          [19]And they fear from the west the name of Jehovah, And from  the rising of the sun -- His honour, When come in as a flood  doth an adversary, The Spirit of Jehovah hath raised an ensign  against him.
          [20]And come to Zion hath a redeemer, Even to captives of  transgression in Jacob, An affirmation of Jehovah.
          [21]And I -- this [is] My covenant with them, said Jehovah, My  Spirit that [is] on thee, And My words that I have put in thy  mouth, Depart not from thy mouth, And from the mouth of thy  seed, And from the mouth of thy seed's seed, said Jehovah, From  henceforth unto the age! |