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59. Sin, Confession and Redemption

¹ Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save,
   nor his ear too dull to hear.
² But your iniquities have separated
   you from your God;
your sins have hidden his face from you,
   so that he will not hear.
³ For your hands are stained with blood,
   your fingers with guilt.
Your lips have spoken falsely,
   and your tongue mutters wicked things.
⁴ No one calls for justice;
   no one pleads a case with integrity.
They rely on empty arguments, they utter lies;
   they conceive trouble and give birth to evil.
⁵ They hatch the eggs of vipers
   and spin a spider’s web.
Whoever eats their eggs will die,
   and when one is broken, an adder is hatched.
⁶ Their cobwebs are useless for clothing;
   they cannot cover themselves with what they make.
Their deeds are evil deeds,
   and acts of violence are in their hands.
⁷ Their feet rush into sin;
   they are swift to shed innocent blood.
They pursue evil schemes;
   acts of violence mark their ways.
⁸ The way of peace they do not know;
   there is no justice in their paths.
They have turned them into crooked roads;
   no one who walks along them will know peace.

    ⁹ So justice is far from us,
   and righteousness does not reach us.
We look for light, but all is darkness;
   for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows.
¹⁰ Like the blind we grope along the wall,
   feeling our way like people without eyes.
At midday we stumble as if it were twilight;
   among the strong, we are like the dead.
¹¹ We all growl like bears;
   we moan mournfully like doves.
We look for justice, but find none;
   for deliverance, but it is far away.

    ¹² For our offenses are many in your sight,
   and our sins testify against us.
Our offenses are ever with us,
   and we acknowledge our iniquities:
¹³ rebellion and treachery against the LORD,
   turning our backs on our God,
inciting revolt and oppression,
   uttering lies our hearts have conceived.
¹⁴ So justice is driven back,
   and righteousness stands at a distance;
truth has stumbled in the streets,
   honesty cannot enter.
¹⁵ Truth is nowhere to be found,
   and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.

   The LORD looked and was displeased
   that there was no justice.
¹⁶ He saw that there was no one,
   he was appalled that there was no one to intervene;
so his own arm achieved salvation for him,
   and his own righteousness sustained him.
¹⁷ He put on righteousness as his breastplate,
   and the helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on the garments of vengeance
   and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.
¹⁸ According to what they have done,
   so will he repay
wrath to his enemies
   and retribution to his foes;
   he will repay the islands their due.
¹⁹ From the west, people will fear the name of the LORD,
   and from the rising of the sun, they will revere his glory.
For he will come like a pent-up flood
   that the breath of the LORD drives along. Or When enemies come in like a flood, / the Spirit of the LORD will put them to flight

²⁰ “The Redeemer will come to Zion,
to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,” declares the LORD.

²¹ “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants—from this time on and forever,” says the LORD.

1. Behold, the hand of Jehovah is not shortened. This discourse closely resembles the preceding one; for, after having torn off the mask from hypocrites, who vainly boasted of themselves, and after having shown that the punishment inflicted on them was just, he now replies to other objections. Hypocrites are wont to accuse God either of weakness or of excessive severity. He shows, therefore, that he does not want either power or will to save his people, but that he is prevented by their wickedness from exercising his kindness towards them; and therefore that they do wrong in blaming God, and in uttering those slanders against him, when they ought, on the contrary, to accuse themselves.

The word הן (hen) “behold,” is emphatic, as if the Prophet spoke of something actually present, and pointed it out with the finger, for the sake of expressing certainty, in order to cut off a handle from hypocrites, that they might no longer practice evasion. We must also supply the contrasts to the words “shortened” and “benumbed;“ as if he had said, that formerly there were abundant resources in the hand of God to render assistance to his people, and that he always was ready to be reconciled and lent a willing car to prayers, and that now he is not unlike himself, ¹²⁹¹²⁹ “Il n’a point change de nature.” “He has not changed his nature.” as if either his hand were broken or his ears grown dull, so that he did not hear distinctly.

2. But your iniquities have made a separation. The amount of what is said is, that they cannot say that God has changed, as if he had swerved from his natural disposition, but that the whole blame lies with themselves; because by their own sins they, in some measure, prevent his kindness, and refuse to receive his assistance. Hence we infer that our sins alone deprive us of the grace of God, and cause separation between us and him; for what the Prophet testifies as to the men of his time is applicable to all ages; since he pleads the cause of God, against the slanders of wicked men. Thus God is always like himself, and is not wearied in doing good; and his power is not diminished, but we hinder the entrance of his grace.

It will be objected, that men cannot anticipate God by deserving well of him, and that consequently he must do good to those who are unworthy. I reply, this is undoubtedly true; but sometimes the frowardness of men grows to such an extent as to shut the door against God’s benefits, as if they purposely intended to drive him far away from them. And although he listens to no man without pardoning him, as we always bring before him supplication for the removal of guilt, yet he does not listen to the prayers of the wicked. We need not wonder, therefore, if the Prophet accuse the people of rejecting God’s benefits by their iniquities, and rendering him irreconcilable by their obstinacy, and, in a word, of making a divorce, which drives away or turns aside the ordinary course of grace.