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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.

14. And judgment is driven back. It is a mistake to suppose that the Prophet returns to his earliest subject, (Isaiah 1:5) and speaks of the punishments which the people had suffered at the hand of God; for he still proceeds with the preceding narrative, and explains the diseases under which the people labored, that they may see clearly that they are justly punished. But we must distinguish this verse from the ninth, in which he said that “judgment had gone back;” for there he declared that they were deprived of God’s assistance, because they did not deserve to have him as the defender of their cause; but here he says that “judgment is driven back” in a different sense, that is, because they have overthrown all justice and equity among themselves. They have therefore received a just reward, because no justice of God has shone forth to render assistance, when they have banished far from them justice and equity; for in vain do we expect from God what we have refused to others and cast away from ourselves.

In the street. That is, in a public place. He describes those places in which judicial sentences were pronounced. When he says that “truth is fallen in the street,” he means that not only some private individuals have been corrupted, but the whole condition of the people is so thoroughly depraved as to leave no part sound; for, if some vices reign among the common people, some remedy may be obtained, so long as there is room for judgment; but if judgments are overthrown or corrupted, it follows that all things are infected by a universal contagion. He describes also their unbridled licentiousness, in not being ashamed of conduct openly wicked, and in not shrinking from the light and from the eyes of men.