Isaiah 59
59
Social Injustice Is Condemned
1The Lord hasn't lost
his powerful strength;
he can still hear
and answer prayers.
2Your sins are the roadblock
between you and your God.
That's why he doesn't answer
your prayers
or let you see his face.
3Your talk is filled with lies
and plans for violence;
every finger on your hands
is covered with blood.
4You falsely accuse others
and tell lies in court;
sin and trouble are the names
of your children.
5You eat the deadly eggs
of poisonous snakes,
and more snakes crawl out
from the eggs left to hatch.
You weave spider webs,
6but you can't make clothes
with those webs
or hide behind them.
You're sinful and brutal.
7 #
Ro 3.15-17. You hurry off to do wrong
or murder innocent victims.
All you think about is sin;
you leave ruin and destruction
wherever you go.
8You don't know how
to live in peace
or to be fair with others.
The roads you make are crooked;
your followers cannot find peace.
The People Confess Their Sins
9No one has come to defend us
or to bring about justice.
We hoped for a day of sunshine,
but all we found
was a dark, gloomy night.
10We feel our way along,
as if we were blind;
we stumble at noon,
as if it were night.
We can see no better
than someone dead.#59.10 We can … dead: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
11We growl like bears
and mourn like doves.
We hope for justice and victory,
but they escape us.
12How often have we sinned
and turned against you,
the Lord God?
Our sins condemn us!
We have done wrong.
13We have rebelled and refused
to follow you.
Our hearts were deceitful,
and so we lied;
we planned to abuse others
and turn our backs on you.
14Injustice is everywhere;
justice seems far away.
Truth is chased out of court;
honesty is shoved aside.
15Everyone tells lies;
those who turn from crime
end up ruined.
The Lord Will Rescue His People
When the Lord noticed
that justice had disappeared,
he became very displeased.
16 #
Is 63.5. It disgusted him even more
to learn that no one
would do a thing about it.
So with his own powerful arm,
he won victories for truth.
17 #
Ws 5.17-23; Eph 6.14,17; 1 Th 5.8. Justice was the Lord's armor;
saving power was his helmet;
anger and revenge
were his clothes.
18Now the Lord will get furious
and do to his enemies,
both near and far,
what they did to his people.
19He will attack like a flood
in a mighty windstorm.
Nations in the west and the east
will then honor and praise
his wonderful name.
20 #
Ro 11.26. The Lord has promised to rescue
the city of Zion
and Jacob's descendants
who turn from sin.
21The Lord says: “My people,
I promise to give you my Spirit
and my message.
These will be my gifts to you
and your families forever.
I, the Lord, have spoken.”
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Isaiah 59: CEV
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Isaiah 59
59
Conviction of Sin
1Truly Yahweh’s arm is not too powerless to save you
nor his ear too deaf to hear.
2Rather, your sinful deeds have built a barrier
between you and your God.
Your sins have made God turn his face from you
so that he does not hear your prayers.
3For your hands are stained with blood
and your fingers are dripping with the guilt of sin.
Lies spill from your lips
and your tongue mutters treachery.
4No one seeks true justice;
no one pleads his case with honesty.
They rely on their illusions and misleading lies;
they conceive trouble and give birth to sin.
5They hatch harmful plots like snake’s eggs
and spin their lies like a spider spins its web.
Whoever eats their “eggs” dies
and a poisonous snake gets hatched!
6Their “webs” cannot substitute as clothing,
they cannot cover themselves with the lies they spin,
nor can their works cover them adequately.
Their actions are evil,
and the wages of violence is in their hands.
7Their feet eagerly run after evil,
and they are swift to shed innocent blood. # 59:7 See Prov. 6:16–19; Rom. 3:15–16.
Their imaginations are filled with evil; # 59:7 See Gen. 6:5.
destruction and desolation litter their paths.
8They know nothing of the way of peace, # 59:8 See Rom. 3:17; Eph. 2:14.
and injustice is their way of life.
Their paths are so crooked
that no one who walks in them knows peace.
Confession of Sin
9For this reason, justice is far from us
and righteousness doesn’t reach us.
We hope for light, but sadly, there is only darkness. # 59:9 See John 8:11–12.
We wait for a bright light, but walk in darkness.
10We are like the blind groping along a wall,
inching along in the dark like those who cannot see;
we stumble around in broad daylight like it was night,
like the walking dead. # 59:10 The meaning of this Hebrew clause is uncertain. See Eph. 2:1.
11We are frustrated, growling like bears,
like doves cooing mournfully.
We wait and wait for justice, but it never seems to come;
for salvation, but it remains distant.
12For our many rebellious deeds are stacked high before you;
our sins testify against us.
We are aware of our sins,
and we know our evil deeds all too well.
13We have rebelled and even tried to deny Yahweh;
we have forsaken our God.
Our speech stirs up oppression and revolt,
and our hearts conceive, then confess, lies. # 59:13 See Eph. 4:25.
14Justice is driven away
and righteousness stands on the sidelines,
for truth has stumbled in the public square
and morality cannot enter.
15Yes, truth has disappeared, # 59:15 Or “truth is hidden” (Vulg.).
and those who turn from evil become the next victims.
Yahweh saw this and was greatly displeased
that there was no justice.
The Lord, Our Redeemer
16And then he was astonished to see that there was no champion, # 59:16 Or “intercessor.”
not even one, who would rescue the oppressed. # 59:16 Or “intercede.”
So then his own mighty power # 59:16 Or “arm,” a metaphor for his mighty power. rescued him,
and his own righteousness supported him.
17He put on righteousness as his body armor, # 59:17 See Eph. 6:10–18.
salvation for a helmet;
a garment of warring vengeance was his uniform
and passion, his cape.
18He will repay wrath to his enemies
and retribution to his foes,
according to what they have done.
Reckoning is coming to the islands for what is due them.
19From the west to the lands of the rising sun,
the glory and the name of Yahweh
will be held in highest reverence,
for he will break in as a flooding, rushing river # 59:19 God broke into the human condition as a man who died on the cross. His blood, like a flood of righteousness, washes away the sins of those who believe in him.
driven on by the breath of Yahweh! # 59:19 Or “When the enemy comes in, the Spirit of Yahweh, like a flood, will lift up a standard against him”; or “When the enemy comes in like a flood, the breath of Yahweh will put him to flight.”
God’s Covenant with Zion
20“He will come to Zion as a Kinsman-Redeemer
to those of Jacob’s tribes who repent of their rebellion,”
says Yahweh.
21“And this is my covenant promise with them,” # 59:21 See Jer. 31:33; Rom. 11:26–27; Gal. 3:29; Heb. 12:22–24.
says Lord Yahweh.
“From now on, my Holy Spirit will rest on them
and not depart from them,
and my prophetic words will fill their mouths
and will not depart from them, nor from their children,
nor from their descendants, from now on and forever,”
says Lord Yahweh.
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