Good News Translation GNT
World English Bible WEB
1 Don't think that the Lord is too weak to save you or too deaf to hear your call for help!
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Behold, Yahweh's hand is not shortened, that it can't save; neither his ear heavy, that it can't hear:
2 It is because of your sins that he doesn't hear you. It is your sins that separate you from God when you try to worship him.
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but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
3 You are guilty of lying, violence, and murder.
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For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness.
4 You go to court, but you do not have justice on your side. You depend on lies to win your case. You carry out your plans to hurt others.
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None sues in righteousness, and none pleads in truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
5 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!
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They hatch adders' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he who eats of their eggs dies; and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.
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,
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Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their paths.
8 and no one is safe when you are around. Everything you do is unjust. You follow a crooked path, and no one who walks that path will ever be safe.
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The way of peace they don't know; and there is no justice in their goings: they have made them crooked paths; whoever goes therein does not know peace.
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,
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Therefore is justice far from us, neither does righteousness overtake us: we look for light, but, behold, darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity.
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.
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We grope for the wall like the blind; yes, we grope as those who have no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the twilight; among those who are lusty we are as dead men.
11 We are frightened and distressed. We long for God to save us from oppression and wrong, but nothing happens.
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We roar all like bears, and moan sore like doves: we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
12 "Lord, our crimes against you are many. Our sins accuse us. We are well aware of them all.
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For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them:
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.
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transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
14 Justice is driven away, and right cannot come near. Truth stumbles in the public square, and honesty finds no place there.
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Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and uprightness can't enter.
15 There is so little honesty that those who stop doing evil find themselves the victims of crime." The Lord has seen this, and he is displeased that there is no justice.
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Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Yahweh saw it, and it displeased him who there was no justice.
16 He is astonished to see that there is no one to help the oppressed. So he will use his own power to rescue them and to win the victory.
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He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his own arm brought salvation to him; and his righteousness, it upheld him.
17 He will wear justice like a coat of armor and saving power like a helmet. He will clothe himself with the strong desire to set things right and to punish and avenge the wrongs that people suffer.
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He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; and he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle.
18 He will punish his enemies according to what they have done, even those who live in distant lands.
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According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, wrath to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompense.
19 From east to west everyone will fear him and his great power. He will come like a rushing river, like a strong wind.
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So shall they fear the name of Yahweh from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which the breath of Yahweh drives.
20 The Lord says to his people, "I will come to Jerusalem to defend you and to save all of you that turn from your sins.
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A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from disobedience in Jacob, says Yahweh.
21 And I make a covenant with you: I have given you my power and my teachings to be yours forever, and from now on you are to obey me and teach your children and your descendants to obey me for all time to come."
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As for me, this is my covenant with them, says Yahweh: my Spirit who is on you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed's seed, says Yahweh, from henceforth and forever.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
The World English Bible is in the public domain.