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. |
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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. |
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7: Their feet run to evil, and they make hast to shed innocent
blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction
are in their paths. |
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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. |
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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 noonday as in the night; we are in desolate
places as dead men. |
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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; |
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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.
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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. |
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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 cloke. |
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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. |
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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. |