Isaiah 59:9-20

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

⁹ Therefore justice is far from us,
    and righteousness does not overtake us;
we look for light, and behold, darkness,
    and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
¹⁰ We grope for the wall like the blind,
    we grope like those who have no eyes;
we stumble at noon as in the twilight,
    among those in full vigor we are like dead men.
¹¹ We all growl like bears,
    we moan and moan like doves;
we look for justice, but there is none;
    for salvation, but it is far from us.
¹² For our transgressions are multiplied before thee,
    and our sins testify against us;
for our transgressions are with us,
    and we know our iniquities:
¹³ transgressing, and denying the Lord,
    and turning away from following our God,
speaking oppression and revolt,
    conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words.
¹⁴ Justice is turned back,
    and righteousness stands afar off;
for truth has fallen in the public squares,
    and uprightness cannot enter.
¹⁵ Truth is lacking,
    and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

The Lord saw it, and it displeased him
    that there was no justice.
¹⁶ He saw that there was no man,
    and wondered that there was no one to intervene;
then his own arm brought him victory,
    and his righteousness upheld him.
¹⁷ He put on righteousness as a breastplate,
    and a helmet of salvation upon his head;
he put on garments of vengeance for clothing,
    and wrapped himself in fury as a mantle.
¹⁸ According to their deeds, so will he repay,
    wrath to his adversaries, requital to his enemies;
    to the coastlands he will render requital.
¹⁹ So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west,
    and his glory from the rising of the sun;
for he will come like a rushing stream,
    which the wind of the Lord drives.

²⁰ “And he will come to Zion as Redeemer,
    to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, says the Lord.