Behold, the hand of YAHWEH1 is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: 2but your iniquities have separated between you and your God,2 and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. 3For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness. 4None sues in righteousness, and none pleads in truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. 5They hatch adders’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he who eats of their eggs dies; and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper. 6Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. 7Their feet run to evil, and are swift to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; ruin and destruction are in their ways. 8The way of peace they do not know;3 and there is no justice in their goings: they have made them crooked paths; whoever goes therein does not know peace.
9Therefore is justice far from us, neither does righteousness overtake us: we look for light, but, behold, darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity. 10We grope for the wall like the blind; yes, we grope as those who have no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the twilight; among those who are lusty we are as dead men. 11We roar all like bears, and moan heavily like doves: we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
12For 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: 13transgressing and denying YAHWEH, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. 14Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and uprightness cannot enter. 15Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.
YAHWEH saw it, and it displeased him who there was no justice. 16He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his own arm brought salvation to him; and his righteousness, it upheld him. 17He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; and he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle. 18According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, wrath to his adversaries, punishment to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompense. 19So shall they fear the Name of YAHWEH from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which the breath of YAHWEH drives.
20“A Redeemer will come to Al-Quds,4 and to those who turn from disobedience in Yaqub,” says YAHWEH.
21“As for me, this is my covenant with them,”5 says YAHWEH: “my Spirit who 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 YAHWEH, “from now on and forever.”
- 59:1 YAHWEH, the name God revealed to Prophet Musa in the Taurat, Exodus 3:15 – God said moreover to Musa, “You shall tell Bani-Israel this, ‘YAHWEH, the God of your fathers, the God of Ibrahim, the God of Ishaq, and the God of Yaqub, has sent me to you.’ This is my Name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered to all generations.” ↩︎
- 59:2 God, English translation of elohim. Elohim (Hebrew) is related to allah (Arabic) and alaha (Syriac), all of which translate as “God,” and refer to the one true God. ↩︎
- 59:7-8 Quoted in the Injil, Romans 3:16-17 which says: Their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and misery are in their ways. The way of peace they do not know. ↩︎
- 59:20 Al-Quds, meaning “the Holy (City).” The Hebrew text reads Zion, a synonym for Jerusalem. It originally referred to Mount Zion, one of the hills of Jerusalem. ↩︎
- 59:20-21 Quoted in the Injil, Romans 11:25-27 which says: For I do not desire, brothers, to have you ignorant of this mystery, so that you not be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the nations has come in, and so all Israel will be saved. Even as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Al-Quds, And he will turn away ungodliness from Yaqub. This is my covenant to them, When I will take away their sins.” ↩︎