1 Look, the LORD's hand {YHWH, Mighty Deliverer} has not grown too short to rescue, and His ear {ōzno: attentive faculty} has not become too heavy to listen.
2 But your iniquities have created a breach between you and your God {elohichem, Righteous Arbiter}, and your sins have concealed His face from you so that He does not hear {mishmoa: responsive listening}.
3 For your hands are stained {negoalu: passive defilement} with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters perverseness {avlah: judicial injustice}.
4 There is no one who calls for justice {tsedek: righteous judgment}, and no one pleads with faithfulness {emunah: steadfast reliability}; they trust in emptiness and speak falsehood; they conceive trouble and bring forth iniquity.
5 They hatch eggs of a viper {tzip‘oni: venomous serpent} and weave spider’s webs {kurei: silken snares}; the eater of their eggs will die, and what is crushed will break forth into a viper.
6 Their webs will not become a garment, nor will they cover themselves with their works; their works are works of iniquity {aven: moral corruption}, and the act of violence {chamas: ruthless oppression} is in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity {aven: guilt and injustice}, and devastation and destruction lie in their paths {bimsilotam: life’s courses}.
8 The way of peace {shalom: wholeness or well-being} they have not known, and there is no justice {mishpat: rightful fairness} in their tracks; they have made their paths crooked for themselves. Everyone who walks in it does not know peace.
9 Therefore justice {mishpat: legal judgment} is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us; we hope for light, but behold, darkness {choshekh: utter gloom}; for brightness, but in deep gloom we walk.
10 We grope along the wall like the blind {ivrim: lacking sight}, and as if we had no eyes, we grope; at noon {tzohorayim: midday brightness} we stumble as in the twilight, in desolate places as dead men.
11 We all roar like bears, and like doves we moan; we hope for justice {mishpat: legal rightness}, but there is none; for salvation {yeshuah: divine deliverance}, but it is far from us.
12 For our transgressions have multiplied before You {YHWH, Judicial Witness}, and our sins testify {anah: legal testimony} against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities.
13 Transgressing and lying against the LORD {YHWH, Just Judge} and turning away from our God {Eloheinu, Sovereign Authority}, speaking oppression {osheq: cruel injustice} and rebellion, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood {sheqer: deliberate deceit}.
14 And justice {mishpat: judicial standard} was turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth {emet: covenant faithfulness} has stumbled in the street, and uprightness cannot enter.
15 And the truth was absent, and the one who turned aside from evil made himself prey; and the LORD {YHWH, Righteous Judge} saw it, and it was displeasing in His eyes because there was no justice {mishpat: righteous judgment}.
16 And He {YHWH, Righteous Judge} saw that there was no man and was appalled that there was no intercessor {mafgi'a: plea bearer}; so His own arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness supported Him.
17 He {YHWH, Righteous Judge} put on righteousness {tzedakah: covenant faithfulness} as His breastplate, and set the helmet of salvation on His head; He dressed Himself in vengeance as His clothing, and covered Himself with zeal as with a cloak.
18 According to their deeds and according to what they have done, He {YHWH, Divine Repayer} will repay; wrath {khemah: burning anger} to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; to the coastlands He will repay recompense.
19 So they will fear the name of the LORD {YHWH, Universal Sovereign} from the west, and His glory {kevodo: majestic presence} from the rising of the sun; for He will come like a rushing river, and the Spirit of the LORD will drive it on.
20 And the Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those in Jacob who turn from transgression {pesh'a: willful rebellion}, declares the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Restorer}.
21 “And this is My covenant with them,” says the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Maker}, “My Spirit {ruchi: divine empowerment} upon you and the words I have placed in your mouth shall not slip away from you, nor from the mouths of your children or their children,” says the LORD, “from this day into all eternity.”