Behold, theLORD’shand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hidhisface from you, that he will not hear.
For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
None calleth for justice, noranypleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.
Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their worksareworks of iniquity, and the act of violenceisin their hands.
Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughtsarethoughts of iniquity; wasting and destructionarein their paths.
The way of peace they know not; andthere isno judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.
Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness,butwe walk in darkness.
We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as ifwe hadno eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night;we arein desolate places as deadmen.
We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, butthere isnone; for salvation,butit is far off from us.
For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressionsarewith us; andas forour iniquities, we know them;
In transgressing and lying against theLORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
Yea, truth faileth; and hethatdeparteth from evil maketh himself a prey: and theLORDsawit, and it displeased him thatthere wasno judgment.
And he saw thatthere wasno man, and wondered thatthere wasno intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.
For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeanceforclothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.
According totheirdeeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence.
So shall they fear the name of theLORDfrom the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of theLORDshall lift up a standard against him.
And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith theLORD.
As for me, thisismy covenant with them, saith theLORD; My spirit thatisupon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith theLORD, from henceforth and for ever.