| International Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1"See, the LORD's hand is not too short to save, nor are his ears too dull to hear. | 1Listen! The LORD’s arm is not too weak to save you, nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call. |
| 2Instead, your iniquities have been barriers between you and your God, and your sins have concealed his face from you so that he won't listen. | 2It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore. |
| 3For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your tongue mutters wickedness. | 3Your hands are the hands of murderers, and your fingers are filthy with sin. Your lips are full of lies, and your mouth spews corruption. |
| 4No one brings a lawsuit fairly, and no one goes to law honestly; they have relied on empty arguments and they tell lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to iniquity. | 4No one cares about being fair and honest. The people’s lawsuits are based on lies. They conceive evil deeds and then give birth to sin. |
| 5They hatch adders' eggs and weave a spider's web; whoever eats their eggs dies, and any crushed egg hatches out futility. | 5They hatch deadly snakes and weave spiders’ webs. Whoever eats their eggs will die; whoever cracks them will hatch a viper. |
| 6Their cobwebs cannot become clothing, they cannot cover themselves with what they make. Their deeds are deeds of iniquity, and acts of violence fill their hands. | 6Their webs can’t be made into clothing, and nothing they do is productive. All their activity is filled with sin, and violence is their trademark. |
| 7Their feet rush to evil, and they are quick to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; ruin, destruction, and violence are in their paths. | 7Their feet run to do evil, and they rush to commit murder. They think only about sinning. Misery and destruction always follow them. |
| 8The pathway of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their courses. They have made their roads crooked; no one who walks in them will know peace." | 8They don’t know where to find peace or what it means to be just and good. They have mapped out crooked roads, and no one who follows them knows a moment’s peace. |
| 9"So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We wait for light, but look—there is darkness; we wait for brightness, but we walk in deep darkness. | 9So there is no justice among us, and we know nothing about right living. We look for light but find only darkness. We look for bright skies but walk in gloom. |
| 10Let's grope along the wall like the blind; let us grope like those who have no eyes. We stumble at midday as if it were twilight, in desolate places like dead people. | 10We grope like the blind along a wall, feeling our way like people without eyes. Even at brightest noontime, we stumble as though it were dark. Among the living, we are like the dead. |
| 11We all growl like bears; we sigh mournfully like doves. We look for justice, but there is none, and for deliverance, but it's far from us. | 11We growl like hungry bears; we moan like mournful doves. We look for justice, but it never comes. We look for rescue, but it is far away from us. |
| 12"For our transgressions before you are many, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we acknowledge them: | 12For our sins are piled up before God and testify against us. Yes, we know what sinners we are. |
| 13they've rebelled in treachery against the LORD, and are turning away from following our God; and they've spoken oppression and revolt, and are conceiving lying words from the heart. | 13We know we have rebelled and have denied the LORD. We have turned our backs on our God. We know how unfair and oppressive we have been, carefully planning our deceitful lies. |
| 14I'll drive back justice, and righteousness stands at a distance; for truth has fallen in the public square, and honesty cannot enter. | 14Our courts oppose the righteous, and justice is nowhere to be found. Truth stumbles in the streets, and honesty has been outlawed. |
| 15Truth is missing, and whoever turns away from evil becomes a prey." "Then the LORD looked, and it displeased him that there was no justice. | 15Yes, truth is gone, and anyone who renounces evil is attacked. The LORD looked and was displeased to find there was no justice. |
| 16He saw that there was no one, and was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm brought him victory, and his righteous acts upheld him. | 16He was amazed to see that no one intervened to help the oppressed. So he himself stepped in to save them with his strong arm, and his justice sustained him. |
| 17He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in fury like a cloak. | 17He put on righteousness as his body armor and placed the helmet of salvation on his head. He clothed himself with a robe of vengeance and wrapped himself in a cloak of divine passion. |
| 18So he will repay according to their action: Anger to his enemies, retribution to his foes; to the coastlands he will render their due. | 18He will repay his enemies for their evil deeds. His fury will fall on his foes. He will pay them back even to the ends of the earth. |
| 19So people will fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glories from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a pent-up stream that the breath of the LORD drives along. | 19In the west, people will respect the name of the LORD; in the east, they will glorify him. For he will come like a raging flood tide driven by the breath of the LORD. |
| 20"And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression," says the LORD. | 20“The Redeemer will come to Jerusalem to buy back those in Israel who have turned from their sins,” says the LORD. |
| 21"As for me, this is my covenant with them," says the LORD. "And my Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, won't depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of your children's children, from now on and forever." | 21“And this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit will not leave them, and neither will these words I have given you. They will be on your lips and on the lips of your children and your children’s children forever. I, the LORD, have spoken! |
The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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