Add parallel Print Page Options

The Evil That People Do

59 Surely the Lord’s ·power [L hand] is ·enough [L not too short] to save you.
    ·He can hear you when you ask him for help [L …nor his ear too heavy to hear].
It is your ·evil [iniquity] that has separated
    you from your God.
Your sins cause him to ·turn away [L hide his face] from you,
    so he does not hear you.
·With your hands you have killed others [L For your hands are defiled with blood],
    and ·with your fingers you have done wrong [L your fingers with sin/iniquity].
With your lips you have lied,
    and with your tongue you ·say [utter; mutter] evil things.
·People take each other to court unfairly [L No one sues with cause; or No one calls for justice],
    and no one tells the truth in ·arguing [setting forth; pleading] his case.
They ·accuse each other falsely [or rely on empty arguments] and tell lies.
    They ·cause [L conceive] trouble and ·create more [L give birth to] evil.
They hatch ·evil like eggs [L eggs] from ·poisonous snakes [vipers].
    If you eat one of those eggs, you will die,
    and if you break one open, a poisonous snake comes out.
People ·tell lies as they would spin [L spin] a spider’s web.
    The webs they make cannot be used for clothes;
    you can’t cover yourself with ·those webs [L what they make].
The things they do are evil,
    and ·they use their hands to hurt others [L a deed of violence is in their hands].
·They eagerly [L Their feet] run to do evil [Prov. 1:16; Rom. 3:15–17],
    and they are always ready to ·kill innocent people [L shed innocent blood].
They ·think evil thoughts [or devise evil schemes].
    ·They cause ruin and destruction everywhere they go [Ruin and destruction are in their paths/roads].
They don’t know ·how to live in [L the path/way of] peace,
    and there is no ·fairness [justice] in their ·lives [paths].
They ·are dishonest [act deceitfully; L have made their paths/ways crooked].
    Anyone who ·lives as they live [walks on them] will never ·have [know] peace.

Read full chapter

Separation from God

59 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short
That it cannot save,
Nor His ear so [a]impaired
That it cannot hear.

But your wickedness has separated you from your God,
And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.

For your hands are defiled with blood
And your fingers with wickedness [with sin, with injustice, with wrongdoing];
Your lips have spoken lies,
Your tongue mutters wickedness.

No one sues righteously [but for the sake of doing injury to others—to take some undue advantage], and no one pleads [his case] in truth; [but rather]
They trust in empty arguments and speak lies;
They conceive trouble and bring forth injustice.

They hatch vipers’ eggs and weave the spider’s webs;
He who eats of their eggs dies,
And from an egg which is crushed a viper breaks out.

Their webs will not serve as clothing,
Nor will they cover themselves with what they make;
Their works are works of wickedness [of sin, of injustice, of wrongdoing],
And the act of violence is in their hands.

Their feet run to evil,
And they rush to shed innocent blood.
Their thoughts are thoughts of wickedness [of sin, of injustice, of wrongdoing];
Devastation and destruction are in their highways.

They do not know the way of peace,
And there is no justice in their tracks.
They have made them into crooked paths;
Whoever walks on them does not know peace.(A)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 59:1 Lit dull.