Isaías 59

¹ Beholde, the Lordes hande is not shortened, that it can not saue: neither is his eare heauie, that it cannot heare.

² But your iniquities haue separated betweene you and your God, and your sinnes haue hidde his face from you, that he will not heare.

³ For your hands are defiled withRead (Isa_1:15).blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath uttered perverseness.

⁴ None calleth for justice, nor [any]All men wink at the injuries and oppressions and none go about to remedy them.pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, andAccording to their wicked devices, they hurt their neighbours.bring forth iniquity.

⁵ They hatchWhatever comes from them is poison, and brings death.eggs of an adder, and weave the spider'sThey are profitable to no purpose.web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.

⁶ Their webbes shall be no garment, neither shall they couer themselues with their labours: for their workes are workes of iniquitie, & the worke of crueltie is in their handes.

⁷ Their feete runne to euill, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are wicked thoughts: desolation and destruction is in their paths.

⁸ The way of peace they knowe not, & there is none equitie in their goings: they haue made them crooked paths: whosoeuer goeth therein, shall not knowe peace.

⁹ Therefore isThat is, God's vengeance to punish our enemies.judgment far from us, neither dothGod's protection to defend us.justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, [but] we walk in darkness.

¹⁰ We grope for the wall like theWe are altogether destitute of counsel, and can find no end to our miseries.blind, and we grope as if [we had] no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; [we are] in desolate places as dead [men].

¹¹ We all roar likeWe express our sorrows by outward signs, some more and some less.bears, and mourn bitterly like doves: we look for judgment, but [there is] none; for salvation, [but] it is far from us.

¹² For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and ourThis confession is general to the Church to obtain remission of sins, and the prophets did not exempt themselves from the same.sins testify against us: for our transgressions [are] with us; and [as for] our iniquities, we know them;

¹³ In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words ofThat is, against our neighbours.falsehood.

¹⁴ AndThere is neither justice nor uprightness among men.judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.

¹⁵ Yea, truth faileth; and he [that] departeth from evil maketh himselfThe wicked will destroy him.a prey: and the LORD saw [it], and it displeased him that [there was] no judgment.

¹⁶ And he saw that [there was] no man, and wondered that [there was] no intercessor:Meaning, to do justice, and to remedy the things that were so far out of order.therefore his arm broughtThat is, his Church or his arm helped itself and did not seek aid from any other.salvation to him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.

¹⁷ For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and anSignifying that God has all means at hand to deliver his Church and to punish their enemies.helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance [for] clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.

¹⁸ According to [their] deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to theThat is, your enemies who dwell in various places, and beyond the sea.isles he will repay recompence.

¹⁹ So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shallHe shows that there will be great affliction in the Church, but God will always deliver his.come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.

²⁰ And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and toBy which he declares that the true deliverance from sin and Satan belongs to none but to the children of God, whom he justifies.them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.

²¹ As for me, this [is] my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that [is] upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth,Because the doctrine is made profitable by the virtue of the Spirit, he joins the one with the other, and promises to give them both to his Church for ever.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 the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.