Isaiah 59:1-21 NIV
Sin, Confession and Redemption
1
Surely the Arm of the Lord is not too short to save,
nor His ear too dull to hear.
2But your iniquities have separated
you from your God;
your sins have hidden His Face from you,
so that He will not hear.
3For
your hands are stained with blood,
your
fingers with guilt.
Your
lips have spoken falsely,
and
your tongue mutters wicked things.
4No one
calls for justice;
no one
pleads a case with integrity.
They
rely on empty arguments, they utter lies;
they
conceive trouble and give birth to evil.
5They
hatch the eggs of vipers
and
spin a spider’s web.
Whoever
eats their eggs will die,
and
when one is broken, an adder is hatched.
6Their
cobwebs are useless for clothing;
they
cannot cover themselves with what they make.
Their
deeds are evil deeds,
and
acts of violence are in their hands.
7Their
feet rush into sin;
they
are swift to shed innocent blood.
They
pursue evil schemes;
acts of
violence mark their ways.
8The way
of peace they do not know;
there
is no justice in their paths.
They
have turned them into crooked roads;
no one
who walks along them will know peace.
9So
justice is far from us,
and
righteousness does not reach us.
We look
for light, but all is darkness;
for
brightness, but we walk in deep shadows.
10Like
the blind we grope along the wall,
feeling
our way like people without eyes.
At
midday we stumble as if it were twilight;
among
the strong, we are like the dead.
11We all
growl like bears;
we moan
mournfully like doves.
We look
for justice, but find none;
for
deliverance, but it is far away.
12For our
offenses are many in Your sight,
and our
sins testify against us.
Our
offenses are ever with us,
and we
acknowledge our iniquities:
13rebellion
and treachery against the Lord,
turning
our backs on our God,
inciting
revolt and oppression,
uttering
lies our hearts have conceived.
14So
justice is driven back,
and
righteousness stands at a distance;
truth
has stumbled in the streets,
honesty
cannot enter.
15Truth
is nowhere to be found,
and
whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.
The Lord looked and was displeased
that
there was no justice.
16
He saw that there was no
one,
He was appalled that there was no one to
intervene;
so His Own Arm achieved Salvation for Him,
and His Own Righteousness sustained Him.
17
He put on Righteousness as
His Breastplate,
and the Helmet of Salvation on His Head;
He put on the garments of vengeance
and wrapped Himself in zeal as in a cloak.
18According
to what they have done,
so will
He repay
wrath
to His enemies
and
retribution to His foes;
He will
repay the islands their due.
19From the
west, people will fear the Name of the Lord,
and
from the rising of the sun, they will revere His Glory.
For He
will come like a pent-up flood
20“The
Redeemer will come to Zion,
to
those in Jacob who repent of their sins,”
declares the Lord.
21 “As for
Me, this is My Covenant with them,” says the Lord. “My Spirit, Who is on you, will
not depart from you, and My words that I have put in your mouth will always be
on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their
descendants—from this time on and forever,” says the Lord.
The foregoing elegant chapter contained a
severe reproof of the Jews, in particular for their hypocrisy in pretending to
make them accepted with God by fasting and outward humiliation without true
repentance; while they still continued to oppress the poor, and indulge their
own passions and vices; with great promises however of God's favor on condition
of their reformation.
This chapter contains a more general reproof
of their wickedness, bloodshed, violence, falsehood, injustice of the Jews, Isaiah 59:1-8. After this they are represented confessing
their sins, and deploring the unhappy consequences of them, Isaiah 59:9-15.
On this act of
humiliation God, ever ready to pardon the penitent, promises that He will have
mercy on them; that the Redeemer will come, mighty to save; and that He will
deliver His people, subdue His enemies and establish a new and everlasting
covenant, Isaiah 59:16-21.
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