1. Lo, the hand of Jehovah Hath not been shortened from saving, Nor heavy his ear from hearing.
2. But your iniquities have been separating Between you and your God, And your sins have hidden The Presence from you--from hearing.
3. For your hands have been polluted with blood, And your fingers with iniquity, Your lips have spoken falsehood, Your tongue perverseness doth mutter.
4. There is none calling in righteousness, And there is none pleading in faithfulness, Trusting on emptiness, and speaking falsehood, Conceiving perverseness, and bearing iniquity.
5. Eggs of a viper they have hatched, And webs of a spider they weave, Whoso is eating their eggs doth die, And the crushed hatcheth a viper.
6. Their webs become not a garment, Nor do they cover themselves with their works, Their works [are] works of iniquity, And a deed of violence [is] in their hands.
7. Their feet to evil do run, And they haste to shed innocent blood, Their thoughts [are] thoughts of iniquity, Spoiling and destruction [are] in their highways.
8. A way of peace they have not known, And there is no judgment in their paths, Their paths they have made perverse for themselves, No treader in it hath known peace.
9. Therefore hath judgment been far from us, And righteousness reacheth us not, We wait for light, and lo, darkness, For brightness--in thick darkness we go,
10. We feel like the blind [for] the wall, Yea, as without eyes we feel, We have stumbled at noon as at twilight, In desolate places as the dead.
11. We make a noise as bears--all of us, And as doves we coo sorely; We wait for judgment, and there is none, For salvation--it hath been far from us.
12. For our transgressions have been multiplied before Thee, And our sins have testified against us, For our transgressions [are] with us, And our iniquities--we have known them.