Isaiah Chapter 59

Isaiah 59 — English translation

Translation: THE JPS TANAKH: Gender-Sensitive Edition. Verse numbers match the Hebrew text below.

1. 1No, G OD ’s arm is not too short to save, Or ear too dull to hear;
2. 2But your iniquities have been a barrier Between you and your God— Your sins have turned the divine face away In refusal to hear you.
3. 3For your hands are defiled with crime And your fingers with iniquity. Your lips speak falsehood, Your tongue utters treachery.
4. 4No one sues justly Or pleads honestly; They rely on emptiness and speak falsehood, Conceiving wrong and begetting evil.
5. 5They hatch adder’s eggs And weave spider webs; Whoever eats of those eggs will die, And if one is crushed, it hatches out a viper.
6. 6Their webs will not serve as a garment, What they make cannot serve as clothing; Their deeds are deeds of mischief, Their hands commit lawless acts,
7. 7Their feet run after evil, They hasten to shed the blood of the innocent. Their plans are plans of mischief, Destructiveness and injury are on their roads.
8. 8They do not care for the way of integrity, There is no justice on their paths. They make their courses crooked, No one who walks in them cares for integrity.
9. 9“That is why redress is far from us, And vindication does not reach us. We hope for light, and lo! there is darkness; For a gleam, and we must walk in gloom.
10. 10We grope, like the blind along a wall; Like those without eyes we grope. We stumble at noon, as if in darkness; Among the sturdy, we are like the dead.
11. 11We all growl like bears And moan like doves. We hope for redress, and there is none; For victory, and it is far from us.
12. 12For our many sins are before You, Our guilt testifies against us. We are aware of our sins, And we know well our iniquities:
13. 13Rebellion, faithlessness to G OD , And turning away from our God, Planning fraud and treachery, Conceiving lies and uttering them with the throat.
14. 14And so redress is turned back And vindication stays afar, Because honesty stumbles in the public square And uprightness cannot enter.
15. 15Honesty has been lacking, Whoever turns away from evil is despoiled.” G OD saw and was displeased That there was no redress.
16. 16[God] saw that there was nobody else, Gazing long, but no one intervened. Then God’s own arm did win triumph, The victorious right hand gave support.
17. 17[God] donned victory like a coat of mail, Wearing a helmet of triumph— Dressing in garments of retribution, Wrapped in zeal like a robe.
18. 18According to their deserts, So shall fury be repaid to God’s foes; Requital shall be made to God’s enemies, Requital to the distant lands.
19. 19From the west, they shall revere G OD ’s name, And from the east, the divine Presence. For [God] shall come like a hemmed-in stream That the wind of the E TERNAL drives on;
20. 20[God] shall come as redeemer to Zion, To those in Jacob who turn back from sin —declares G OD .
21. 21And this shall be My covenant with them, said G OD : My spirit that is upon you, and the words that I have placed in your mouth, shall not be absent from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your children, nor from the mouth of your children’s children—said G OD —from now on, for all time.

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