Isaiah 59

Sin Separates Us from God

(Psalms 14:1–7; Psalms 53:1–6; Romans 3:9–20)

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 built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.

³ For your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters injustice.

⁴ No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case honestly. They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.

⁵ They hatch the eggs of vipers and weave a spider’s web. Whoever eats their eggs will die; crack one open, and a viper is hatched.

⁶ Their cobwebs cannot be made into clothing, and they cannot cover themselves with their works. Their deeds are sinful deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands.

⁷ Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and destruction ¹ lie in their wake.

⁸ The way of peace they have not known,² and there is no justice in their tracks. They have turned them into crooked paths; no one who treads on them will know peace.

⁹ Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We hope for light, but there is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in gloom.

¹⁰ Like the blind, we feel our way along the wall, groping like those without eyes. We stumble at midday as in the twilight; among the vigorous we are like the dead.

¹¹ We all growl like bears and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but find none, for salvation, but it is far from us.

¹² For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us. Our transgressions are indeed with us, and we know our iniquities:

¹³ rebelling and denying the LORD, turning away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering lies from the heart.

¹⁴ So justice is turned away, and righteousness stands at a distance. For truth has stumbled in the public square, and honesty cannot enter.

¹⁵ Truth is missing, and whoever turns from evil becomes prey. The LORD looked and was displeased ³ that there was no justice.

¹⁶ He saw that there was no man; He was amazed that there was no one to intercede. So His own arm brought salvation, and His own righteousness sustained Him.

¹⁷ He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on His head; He put on garments of vengeance and wrapped Himself in a cloak of zeal.

The Covenant of the Redeemer

¹⁸ So He will repay according to their deeds: fury to His enemies, retribution to His foes, and recompense to the islands.⁴

¹⁹ So shall they fear the name of the LORD where the sun sets, and His glory where it rises. For He will come like a raging flood, driven by the breath of the LORD.⁵

²⁰ “The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,⁶” declares the LORD.

²¹ “As for Me, this is My covenant with them,”⁷ says the LORD. “My Spirit will not depart from you,⁸ and My words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth or from the mouths of your children and grandchildren, from now on and forevermore,” says the LORD.