Open English Translation ISA Chapter 59

59 Listen, don’t think that Yahweh can’t rescue you,

≈ or that he won’t be able to hear you.

2 However, your disobedience causes separation between you all and your god,

≈ and your sins have made him turn away from listening to you,

3 because your hands are defiled with blood,

≈ and your fingers with sin.

Your lips spew out lies

and your tongue works against justice.

4 No one stands up for justice,

and no one pleads their case truthfully.

They rely on being meaningless, or fancy words of no value—

conceiving mischief and advancing wickedness.

5 They hatch vipers’ eggs

and weave spiders’ webs

Anyone who eats any of their eggs will die—

when they’re cracked open, a viper will be hatched.

6 Their weavings aren’t for clothes,

so they don’t cover themselves with their products.

Their products are products of wickedness,

and their hands are involved in violence.

7 Their feet run towards evil,

and they’re quick to shed innocent blood.

They’re always thinking about wickedness—

they walk the paths of causing ruin and destruction.

8 They don’t know the way of peace,

and there’s no justice on their tracks.

They’ve make their paths crooked—

none of those who tread on them will experience peace.

9 Therefore, justice is far from us

and righteousness doesn’t reach us.

We wait for light, but look, we get darkness.

We wait for gleams of light, but walk in the gloom.

10 We grope along the wall like the blind,

and feel around as though we had no eyes.

Even at midday, we stumble as if it’s twilight—

among the living but behaving like the dead.

11 All of us growl like bears,

≈ and moan mournfully like doves.

We keep hoping for justice, but none comes,

≈ for rescue, but it’s far away

12 because our transgressions in front of you are many.

≈ Our sins have testified against us

because our transgressions are with us,

≈ and as for our iniquities, we know them.

13 We’ve rebelled and denied Yahweh,

and turned away from following our god—

promoting oppression and rebellion instead.

We’ve conceived and told lies as if they were the heart-felt truth.

14 Justice is driven right back,

and righteousness stands off at a distance,

because truth has stumbled in the public square,

and honesty can’t enter.

15 So then truth went missing,

and the one who turned away from evil got robbed.

Yahweh saw it and wasn’t pleased that there was no justice.

16 Yahweh saw that there wasn’t anyone to make a stand,

and was appalled that there was no one to intervene.

So he applied his own power to bring salvation,

and his own desire to do what’s right, sustained him.[ref]

17 He put righteousness on like armour,

≈ and a helmet of salvation on his head.[ref]

He dressed in clothes of vengeance

≈ and wrapped himself with zeal like a robe.

18 He will repay his enemies for the evil things that they have done.

He will repay the islands with the appropriate reward.

19 Then those in the west will respect Yahweh’s reputation,

≈ and in the east, will respect his splendour,

→ because he’ll come like a swift river with Yahweh’s wind driving it.

20 Then a redeemer will come to Tsiyyon (Zion)

≈ and to those descendants of Yakov (Jacob) who repent of their disobedience.

That’s what Yahweh declares.

21 Then Yahweh says:

This is my agreement with them.

My spirit which is on you and my messages that I’ve put in your mouth,

they won’t leave your mouth or the mouths of your descendants,

even the distant generations from now and forever onwards.

That is Yahweh’s declaration.