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Chapter 59 |
| 1 | Behold, the
LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that
it cannot hear: |
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2 | But your iniquities have separated between you and
your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not
hear. |
| 3 |
For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with
iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered
perverseness. |
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4 | None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for
truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring
forth iniquity. |
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5 | They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's
web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out
into a viper. |
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6 | Their 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. |
| 7 | Their feet run to evil, and
they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of
iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. |
| 8 | The way of
peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made
them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace. |
| 9 |
Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait
for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
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| 10 | We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes:
we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead
men. |
| 11 |
We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for
judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
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| 12 | For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, 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
departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and
uttering from the heart words of falsehood. |
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14 | And 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 himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it
displeased him that there was no judgment. |
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16 | And he saw that there
was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm
brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him. |
| 17 |
For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon
his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad
with zeal as a cloak. |
| 18 | According to their deeds, accordingly he
will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands
he will repay recompence. |
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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
shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard
against him. |
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20 | And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto 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, 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. |
