79 lines
3.3 KiB
Markdown
79 lines
3.3 KiB
Markdown
# Chapter 59
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1 Listen! The Lord’s arm is not too weak to save you,
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nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call.
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2 It’s your sins that have cut you off from God.
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Because of your sins, he has turned away
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and will not listen anymore.
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3 Your hands are the hands of murderers,
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and your fingers are filthy with sin.
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Your lips are full of lies,
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and your mouth spews corruption.
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4 No one cares about being fair and honest.
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The people’s lawsuits are based on lies.
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They conceive evil deeds
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and then give birth to sin.
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5 They hatch deadly snakes
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and weave spiders’ webs.
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Whoever eats their eggs will die;
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whoever cracks them will hatch a viper.
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6 Their webs can’t be made into clothing,
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and nothing they do is productive.
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All their activity is filled with sin,
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and violence is their trademark.
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7 Their feet run to do evil,
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and they rush to commit murder.
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They think only about sinning.
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Misery and destruction always follow them.
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8 They don’t know where to find peace
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or what it means to be just and good.
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They have mapped out crooked roads,
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and no one who follows them knows a moment’s peace.
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9 So there is no justice among us,
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and we know nothing about right living.
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We look for light but find only darkness.
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We look for bright skies but walk in gloom.
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10 We grope like the blind along a wall,
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feeling our way like people without eyes.
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Even at brightest noontime,
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we stumble as though it were dark.
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Among the living,
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we are like the dead.
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11 We growl like hungry bears;
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we moan like mournful doves.
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We look for justice, but it never comes.
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We look for rescue, but it is far away from us.
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12 For our sins are piled up before God
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and testify against us.
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Yes, we know what sinners we are.
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13 We know we have rebelled and have denied the Lord.
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We have turned our backs on our God.
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We know how unfair and oppressive we have been,
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carefully planning our deceitful lies.
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14 Our courts oppose the righteous,
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and justice is nowhere to be found.
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Truth stumbles in the streets,
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and honesty has been outlawed.
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15 Yes, truth is gone,
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and anyone who renounces evil is attacked.
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The Lord looked and was displeased
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to find there was no justice.
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16 He was amazed to see that no one intervened
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to help the oppressed.
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So he himself stepped in to save them with his strong arm,
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and his justice sustained him.
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17 He put on righteousness as his body armor
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and placed the helmet of salvation on his head.
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He clothed himself with a robe of vengeance
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and wrapped himself in a cloak of divine passion.
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18 He will repay his enemies for their evil deeds.
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His fury will fall on his foes.
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He will pay them back even to the ends of the earth.
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19 In the west, people will respect the name of the Lord;
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in the east, they will glorify him.
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For he will come like a raging flood tide
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driven by the breath of the Lord.
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20 “The Redeemer will come to Jerusalem
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to buy back those in Israel
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who have turned from their sins,”
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says the Lord.
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21 “And this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord. “My Spirit will not leave them, and neither will these words I have given you. They will be on your lips and on the lips of your children and your children’s children forever. I, the Lord, have spoken! |