1Look, the LORD's hand is not too short to save. His ear is not too dull to hear.
2But your sins have made a wall between you and your God. Your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
3For your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with sin. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue has muttered twisted things.
4No one calls for justice, and no one pleads for truth. They trust in what is empty and speak lies. They conceive trouble and give birth to sin.
5They hatch cockatrice eggs and weave the spider's web. Whoever eats their eggs dies, and the egg that is crushed hatches out a viper.
6Their webs will not make clothes, and they cannot cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of sin, and acts of violence are in their hands.
7Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of sin. Ruin and destruction are in their paths.
8They do not know the way of peace, and there is no justice in their ways. They have made their paths crooked. No one who walks in them will know peace.
9So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We wait for light, but look, there is darkness. We wait for brightness, but we walk in the dark.
10We feel along the wall like blind men. We grope as if we had no eyes. We stumble at midday as if it were night. We are like dead men in empty places.
11We all growl like bears, and we mourn sadly like doves. We look for justice, but there is none. We look for salvation, but it is far away from us.
12For our wrongdoing is piled high before you, and our sins speak against us. Our wrongdoing stays with us, and we know our sins well.
13We have rebelled and lied against the LORD, and turned away from following our God. We have spoken of crushing others and of revolt. We have planned lies in our hearts and spoken them out.
14So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands far off. Truth has fallen in the street, and fairness cannot come in.
15Yes, truth is gone, and whoever turns away from evil is attacked. The LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.
16He saw that there was no one, and he was amazed that there was no one to plead for them. So his own arm brought him salvation, and his own righteousness held him up.
17He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal like a cloak.
18He will pay them back for what they have done: fury for those who oppose him, and full payment for his enemies. He will pay the islands what they are owed.
19So they will fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from where the sun rises. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will lift up a banner against him.
20"The Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those in Jacob who turn away from their sin," says the LORD.
21"As for me, this is my covenant with them," says the LORD. "My Spirit that is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, will not leave your mouth, nor the mouth of your children, nor the mouth of your children's children," says the LORD, "from now on and for ever."