_The Existing Wall of Partition Broken Down at Last._
1. Behold, Jehovah's hand is not too short to help, nor His ear too
heavy to hear; 2. but your iniquities have become a party-wall
between you and your God and your sins have hidden His face from you,
so that He does not hear. 3. For your hands are defiled with blood,
and your fingers with iniquity; your lips speak lies, your tongue
murmurs wickedness.
4. No one speaks with justice, and no one pleads with faithfulness;
men trust in vanity, and speak with deception;[1] they conceive
trouble, and bring forth ruin. 5. They hatch basilisks' eggs, and
weave spiders' webs. He that eateth of their eggs must die; and if
one is trodden upon, it splits into an adder. 6. Their webs do not
suffice for clothing,[2] and men cannot cover themselves with their
works: their works are works of ruin, and the practice of injustice
is in their hands. 7. Their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed
innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of wickedness; wasting
and destruction are in their paths. 8. The way of peace they know
not, and there is no right in their roads: they make their paths
crooked: every one who treads upon them knows no peace.
9. Therefore right remains far from us, and righteousness does not
overtake us; we hope for light, and behold darkness; for
brightness--we walk in thick darkness. 10. We grope along the wall
like the blind, and like eyeless men we grope: we stumble in the
light of noon-day as in the darkness, and among the living like the
dead.[3] 11. We roar all like bears, and moan deeply like doves; we
hope for right, and it cometh not; for salvation--it remaineth far
from us.
12. For our transgressions are many before Thee, and our sins testify
against us; for our transgressions are known to us, and our evil
deeds well known: 13. apostasy and denial of Jehovah, and turning
back from following our God, oppressive and false speaking,[4]
conceiving and giving out from the heart words of falsehood. 14. And
right is forced back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is
fallen in the market-place,[5] and honesty finds no admission.
15. And truth became missing, and he who avoids evil is outlawed.
And Jehovah saw it, and it was displeasing in His eyes, that there
was no right. 16. And He saw that there was not a man anywhere, and
was astonished that there was nowhere an intercessor: then His arm
brought Him help and His righteousness became His stay. 17. And He
put on righteousness as a coat of mail, and the helmet of salvation
upon His head; and put on garments of vengeance as armour, and
clothed Himself in zeal as in a cloak. 18. According to the deeds,
accordingly He will repay; burning wrath to His adversaries,
punishment to His foes; the islands He will repay with
chastisement.[6]
19. And they will fear the name of Jehovah from the west, and His
glory from the rising of the sun: for He will come like a stream
dammed up, which a tempest of Jehovah drives away.[7] 20. And a
Redeemer comes from Zion, and for those who turn from apostasy in
Jacob, saith Jehovah.
21. And I, this is My covenant with them, saith Jehovah: My Spirit
which is upon thee, and My word which I have put in thy mouth, shall
not depart out of thy mouth, and out of the mouth of thy seed, and
out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith Jehovah, from henceforth
and for ever.