Rampant Transgression

Look! The hand of Yahweh is not too short to save,^[a]

and his ear is not too dull to hear.^[b]

² Rather, your iniquities have been barriers^[c] between you and your God,

and your sins have hidden his face from you, from hearing.

³ For your hands are defiled with blood,

and your fingers with iniquity.

Your lips have spoken lies,

your tongue speaks wickedness.

⁴ There is nobody who pleads with^[d] justice,

and there is nobody who judges with honesty.

They rely on nothing

and speak vanity.

They conceive trouble

and beget iniquity;

⁵ they hatch viper eggs,

and they weave a spider web.

One who eats their eggs dies,

and that which is pressed is hatched as a serpent.

⁶ Their webs cannot become clothing,

and they cannot cover themselves with their works.

Their works are works of iniquity,

and deeds^[e] of violence are in their hands.

⁷ Their feet run to evil,

and they hasten to shed innocent blood.

Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;

devastation and destruction are in their highways.

⁸ They do not know the way of peace,

and there is no justice in their firm paths.

They have made their paths crooked for themselves;

everyone who walks^[f] in it knows no peace.

⁹ Therefore justice is far from us,

and righteousness does not reach us.

We wait for light, but^[g] look! there is darkness;

for brightness, but we walk in darkness.

¹⁰ We grope like the blind along a wall,

and we grope as without^[h] eyes.

We stumble at noon as in the twilight;

among the strong we are like the dead.

¹¹ We all groan like bears,

and we coo mutteringly like doves.

We wait for justice, but^[i] there is none;

for salvation, but it is far from us.

¹² For our transgressions are numerous before you,

and our sins testify^[j] against us.

Indeed, our transgressions are with us,

and we know our iniquities:

¹³ transgressing and denying Yahweh,

and turning away from following^[k] our God;

speaking oppression and falsehood,

conceiving and uttering words of deception from the heart.

¹⁴ And justice is pushed back,

and righteousness stands afar;

for truth stumbles in the public square,

and straightforwardness is unable to enter,

¹⁵ and truth is missing,

and he who turns aside from evil is plundered.

And Yahweh saw,

and it was displeasing in his eyes that there was no justice

¹⁶ And he saw that there was no man,

and he was appalled that there was no one who intercedes,

so^[l] his arm came to assist him,

and his righteousness was what^[m] sustained him.

¹⁷ And he put on righteousness like a breastplate,

and a helmet of salvation on his head,

and he put on garments of vengeance for clothing,

and he wrapped himself in zeal as in a robe.

¹⁸ According to deeds, so he will repay;

wrath to his enemies, requital to those who are his enemies.^[n]

He will repay requital to the coastlands.

¹⁹ So^[o] they shall fear the name of Yahweh from the west,

and his glory from the sunrise,

for he will come like a narrow stream;

the wind of Yahweh drives it on.

²⁰ “And a redeemer will come to Zion,

to those in Jacob who turn away from transgression,”

declares^[p] Yahweh.

²¹ “And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says Yahweh: