1 ¶ Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor is his ear too deaf to hear:

2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with evil; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters perversity.

4 No one calls for justice, or pleads for truth: they trust in falsehood, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.

5 They hatch the eggs of serpents, and weave webs of spiders: anyone who eats their eggs dies, and if you crush them a viper comes out.

6 Their webs will not become garments, nor will their works cover them: the things they do are sinful, and violent acts are in their hands.

7 Their feet run to do evil, and they are quick to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are of doing evil; ruin and destruction is in their wake.

8 They have not known the way of peace; and where they go there is no justice: they have made crooked paths for themselves: and whoever follows them will not know peace.

9 ¶ That is why justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us: we look for light, but see darkness; we look for brightness, but walk without light.

10 We grope along a wall like the blind, and feel our way as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon as if it were dark; we are like dead men in a graveyard.

11 We all growl like bears, and moan like doves: we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.

12 For our transgressions have multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us: for our wrongdoing is with us; and we are aware of our guilt;

13 In rebelling and denying the LORD, and turning our backs on our God, speaking oppression and rebellion, devising lies in the heart and telling them.

14 So justice is rejected, and righteousness remains far away: for truth has fallen in the street, and honesty cannot enter.

15 Yes, truth is missing; and anyone who turns away from evil makes himself a victim: and when the LORD sees it, he is angry that there is no justice.

16 ¶ He saw that there was no one, and was amazed that there was none to intervene: therefore his own arm brought him salvation; and his own righteousness sustained him.

17 For he put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; and he dressed himself in the garments of vengeance, and was wrapped with fury as a cloak.

18 He will repay them according to their deeds, fury to his opponents, and punishment to his enemies; he will render retribution to the islands.

19 Then those of the west will fear the name of the LORD, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him.

20 Then the Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those in Jacob who turn away from sin, says the LORD.

21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, says the LORD; My spirit which is on you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouth of your children, or from the mouth of your children’s children, says the LORD, from now on and forever.