1 Has the hand of the Lord no power to save? or has he made his ear heavy, so that he should not hear? 2 But your iniquities separate between you and God, and because of your sins he has turned away his face from you, so as not to have mercy upon you.⁠a 3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with sins; your lips also have spoken iniquity, and your tongue meditates unrighteousness. 4 None speaks justly, neither is there true judgment: they trust in vanities, and speak empty words; for they conceive trouble, and bring forth iniquity. 5 They have hatched asps' eggs, and weave a spider's web: and he that is going to eat of their eggs, having crushed an addled egg, has found also in it a basilisk. 6 Their web shall not become a garment, nor shall they at all clothe themselves with their works; for their works are works of iniquity. 7 And their feet run to wickedness, swift to shed blood; their thoughts also are thoughts of fools; destruction and misery are in their ways; 8 and the way of peace they do not know, neither is there judgment in their ways; for their paths by which they go are crooked, and they do not know peace. 9 Therefore has judgment departed from them, and righteousness shall not overtake them: while they waited for light, darkness came upon them; while they waited for brightness, they walked in perplexity. 10 They shall feel for the wall as blind men, and shall feel for it as if they had no eyes: and they shall fall at noon-day as at midnight; they shall groan as dying men. 11 They shall proceed together as a bear and as a dove: we have waited for judgment, and there is no salvation, it is gone far from us. 12 For our iniquity is great before you, and our sins have risen up against us: for our iniquities are in us, and we know our unrighteous deeds. 13 We have been ungodly, and lied,⁠b and turned away from following our God: we have spoken unrighteous words, and have been disobedient; we have conceived and uttered from our heart unrighteous words. 14 And we have turned judgment back, and righteousness has departed afar off: for truth is consumed in their ways, and they could not pass by a straight path. 15 And truth has been taken away, and they have turned aside their mind from understanding. And the Lord saw it, and it did not please him that there was no judgment. 16 And he looked, and there was no man, and he observed, and there was none to help: so he defended them with his arm, and established them with his mercy. 17 And he put on righteousness as a breast-plate, and placed the helmet of salvation on his head;⁠c and he clothed himself with the garment of vengeance, and with his cloak, 18 as one about to render a payment, even reproach to his adversaries. 19 So they will of the west fear the name of the Lord, and they that come from the rising of the sun his glorious name: for the fierce anger of the Lord shall come as a mighty river, it shall come with fury. 20 And the deliverer shall come for Zion's sake, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.⁠d 21 And this shall be my covenant with them, said the Lord; My Spirit which is upon you, and the words which I have put in your mouth, shall never fail from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your seed, for the Lord has spoken it, from now on and for ever.