1     The LORD’S hand is not cut off from saving,— And His ears are not deaf to a sound,

2     If your vices had not made division Between you, and between your own GOD,

        And your sins hindered listening to you.

3     For your hands are polluted with blood, And your fingers are filthy with sin;

        You speak lies from your lips, And your tongue mutters crime.

4     None pleads for the right; None decides for the truth;

        They trust upon tricks and false speech, Conceive mischief and bring forth deceit.

5     They hatch vipers’ eggs, And they spin spiders’ webs;

        Who eats their eggs dies, And who hatches,—produces a snake.

6     Their webs make no cloak, Nor their fabrics make clothing,

        Their products make nothing, But wrong in their hands.

7     Their feet run to evil,— And haste to shed innocent blood;

        Their genius,—contrivance of crime,— In their haunts are destruction and ruin;

8     They know no path of Peace;— No Justice is found in their trades;

        They distort their own roads; All who travel them never know peace.

9     Therefore Justice is distant from us; And Right does not accost,—

        When we hope for the light, it is dark; When for brightness,—we walk in the gloom.

10    We grope like the blind for a wall; We stumble in light as at dusk, In prosperity fear as at Death!

11    We all groan like the bears;— And we mourn like the doves;—

        Hope for Justice,—but find not— For safety,—but it is far off!

12    For our crimes grow before you,— Our sins speak, against us,—

        Our crimes are convicting, And the witnesses are our lusts!

13    By revolt and deserting the LORD, And marching away from our GOD,

        By distorting, and breeding the wrong, By false reasons sent out from the heart,

14    So Justice retires, And right stands afar off, For Truth falls in the Square, And Right cannot come in.

15    And Truth has been lost,— That the Head Shepherd stole,—

        But the LORD saw, and His eyes were displeased, For no Justice was done!—

16    And He saw that there was not a Man;— And He wondered that none interfered,

        But His own arm then saved for itself, It supported His Rights.

17    As armour, He Righteousness wore, Salvation the Helm on His head,

        And wore garments of Justice as robes, And Energy spread as a cloak,

18    Then rose up to punish,— Rose up to repay,—

        To His enemies wrath,— To His haters their due,— And their due to the Isles.

19    Then from the West they shall see the LORD’S power — From the sunrise His glory,—

        When He comes like a torrent, Which fierce wind from the LORD drives along:

        "And bringing Redemption to Zion,

20    And driving rebellion from Jacob," says THE LIFE,

21    "I will make this My Treaty with them," says the LORD, "The Spirit I place upon you,

        And the Words that I put in your mouth, Shall not go from your mouth,

        Or the mouth of your Race, Or the mouth of the seed of your Race,"

        Says the LORD, "From now and for ever!"

From: The Holy Bible in Modern English translated by Ferrar Fenton