Sin Separates People from God
Study note
The chapter begins by making one thing clear: the problem is not that God is too weak to save or too deaf to hear. His arm is not too short and his ears work perfectly fine. The problem is the people's sins, which have put up a barrier between them and God. Their hands are stained with blood, their lips speak lies, and their tongues mutter wicked things. No one seeks justice or speaks the truth. They trust in empty arguments and tell lies. Their evil plans are compared to hatching poisonous snake eggs and weaving spider webs. Their webs cannot be used as clothing, and anyone who touches their eggs finds death.
1 Listen! The Lord's arm is not too short to rescue you, and his ears are not too plugged to hear your cries. Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
2 But your sins have built a wall between you and your God. Your wrongdoing has caused him to hide his face, so he refuses to listen. 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 Your hands are stained with blood and your fingers smeared with sin. Your lips speak lies, and your tongue whispers wicked things. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
4 Nobody stands up for what is fair. Nobody argues an honest case. They lean on empty arguments and spread lies. They dream up evil and then go do it. None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
5 They hatch poisonous snake eggs and weave flimsy spider webs. Eat one of their eggs and you die. Crush one and a viper slithers out. 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.
6 Their spider webs are useless as clothing. You cannot cover yourself with what they produce. Everything they do is sinful, and their hands are full of violence. 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 They sprint toward evil and cannot wait to shed innocent blood. Their minds churn out sinful ideas. Ruin and devastation follow wherever they step. 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 They have no idea what peace looks like. There is no fairness on any road they travel. They have made their paths so crooked that anyone who follows them will never find peace. 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.
The People Confess Their Sin
Study note
The tone shifts as the people themselves speak, confessing that justice is far from them and righteousness does not reach them. They grope along walls like blind people, stumbling at noon as if it were night. They groan like bears and mourn like doves, looking for justice and finding none. Their sins pile up and testify against them. Truth has stumbled in the streets, and honesty cannot enter the city gates. Anyone who turns away from evil becomes a target. God sees all of this, and he is deeply displeased.
9 Therefore justice stays far from us and righteousness never reaches us. We keep looking for light, but all we get is darkness. We search for some brightness, but we end up stumbling through deep shadows. 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.
10 We grope along walls like blind people. We stumble at noon like it is the middle of the night. Among those who are healthy and strong, we are like dead people. 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.
11 We growl like bears and moan like doves. We look for justice, but it never shows up. We look for rescue, but it stays far away. 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.
12 Our sins have stacked up high before you. Our wrongdoing testifies against us. Our sins are always with us, and we are painfully aware of our guilt. 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 We have rebelled against and lied to the Lord. We have turned our backs on our God. We have talked about oppression and revolt. We have cooked up lies in our hearts and spoken them out loud. 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.
14 Justice has been shoved aside, and righteousness stands far off. Truth has tripped and fallen in the streets, and honesty is not allowed in. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
15 Truth has gone missing, and anyone who tries to avoid evil gets attacked. The Lord took one look and was deeply disturbed that justice had disappeared. 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.
God Puts On Armor and Comes as Redeemer
Study note
When God looks and sees that there is no one to step in and no one to stand up for what is right, he takes matters into his own hands. He puts on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head. He wraps himself in the clothing of vengeance and cloths himself in zeal like a cloak. This picture of God as a divine warrior inspired the apostle Paul's description of the 'armor of God' in Ephesians 6. God will repay his enemies according to what they have done. People from west to east will fear and respect the Lord. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will raise up a defense against him. The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from their sins. God makes an everlasting covenant: his Spirit and his words will remain with his people and their descendants forever.
16 He looked around and saw that no one was stepping up. He was shocked that nobody intervened. So his own arm brought the victory, and his own righteousness kept him going. 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 He strapped on righteousness like body armor and placed the helmet of salvation on his head. He dressed himself in clothing of payback and wrapped himself in burning passion like a cloak. 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 He will pay everyone back based on what they have done. His enemies will get his anger. His foes will get their punishment. Faraway lands will get what they deserve. According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence.
19 People in the west will learn to fear the Lord's name, and people in the east will stand in awe of his glory. When the enemy floods in like a river, the Spirit of the Lord will raise a wall against him. 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.
20 "A Savior will come to Zion. He will come to those in Jacob's family who turn away from their sin," the Lord has said. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.
21 "As for me, here is my covenant with them," says the Lord. "My Spirit, who rests on you, and my words that I have placed in your mouth will not leave your mouth, or your children's mouths, or your grandchildren's mouths, from this moment on and forever," says the Lord. 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.