1 Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened so that it cannot save, nor is His ear heavy so that it cannot hear.
2 But your iniquities have come 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 has muttered perverseness.
4 None calls for justice, nor does anyone plead for truth; they trust in vanity and speak lies. They conceive mischief and bring out iniquity.
5 They hatch adders' eggs and weave the spider's web; he who eats their eggs dies, and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.
6 Their webs shall not become clothing, nor shall they cover themselves with their works; their works [are] works of iniquity, and the act of violence [is] in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts [are] thoughts of iniquity; wasting and ruin [are] in their paths.
8 They did not know the way of peace, and [there is] no judgment in their paths. They have made crooked paths for themselves; whoever goes in them shall not know peace.
9 Therefore judgment is far from us; nor does justice overtake us. We wait for light, but behold, dimness; for brightness, [but] we walk in darkness.
10 We grope [for] the wall like the blind, and we grope as if [we had] no eyes. We stumble at noonday as in the night; [we are] in deserted places like dead men.
11 We all roar like bears, and mourn grievously like doves; we look for judgment, but none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
12 For our transgressions [are] multiplied before You, and our 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 going away from our God, talking cruelty and revolt, conceiving and speaking from the heart words of falsehood.
14 And justice is driven back, and justice stands afar off; for truth has fallen in the street, and right cannot enter.
15 Yea, truth fails; and he [who] departs from evil makes himself a prey. And the LORD saw, 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. Therefore His own arm brought salvation to Him; and His righteousness sustained Him.
17 For He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head. And He put on the garments of vengeance [for] clothing, and was covered with zeal like a cloak.
18 According to [their] deeds, accordingly He will repay; fury to His foes, deed for deed to His enemies. He will repay their deeds to the coastlands.
19 So they shall fear the name of the LORD from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall make him flee.
20 And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob, says the LORD.
21 As for Me, this [is] My covenant with them, says the LORD; My spirit that is on you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed's seed, says the LORD, from now on and forever.