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.