Good News Bible

Isaiah 59:4-13 Good News Bible (GNB)

4. You go to court, but you haven't got justice on your side. You depend on lies to win your case. You carry out your plans to hurt others.

5-6. The evil plots you make are as deadly as the eggs of a poisonous snake. Crush an egg, out comes a snake! But your plots will do you no good — they are as useless as clothing made of cobwebs!

7. You are always planning something evil, and you can hardly wait to do it. You never hesitate to murder innocent people. You leave ruin and destruction wherever you go,

8. and no one is safe when you are about. Everything you do is unjust. You follow a crooked path, and no one who walks that path will ever be safe.

9. The people say, “Now we know why God does not save us from those who oppress us. We hope for light to walk by, but there is only darkness,

10. and we grope about like blind people. We stumble at noon, as if it were night, as if we were in the dark world of the dead.

11. We are frightened and distressed. We long for God to save us from oppression and wrong, but nothing happens.

12. “Lord, our crimes against you are many. Our sins accuse us. We are well aware of them all.

13. We have rebelled against you, rejected you, and refused to follow you. We have oppressed others and turned away from you. Our thoughts are false; our words are lies.