Isaiah 59 - Easy To Read Version

¹ Look, the Lord’s power is enough to save you. He can hear you when you ask him for help.

² But your sins separate you from your God. The Lord sees your sins, and he turns away from you.

³ Your hands are dirty; they are covered with blood. Your fingers are covered with guilt. You tell lies with your mouth. Your tongue says evil things.

⁴ No person tells the truth about other people. People sue each other in court, and they depend on false arguments to win their cases. They tell lies about each other. They are full of trouble, and they give birth to evil.

⁵ They hatch \{evil, like\} eggs from poisonous snakes. If you eat one of those eggs you will die. And if you break one of those eggs, a poison snake will come out.

⁶ These webs can’t be used for clothes. You can’t cover yourself with those webs.

⁷ Those people use their feet to run to evil. They hurry to kill people that have done nothing wrong. They think evil thoughts. Rioting and stealing is their way of living.

⁸ Those people don’t know the way of peace. Those people don’t do what is right and fair. They are very crooked. And people who live like that will never have peace in their lives.

⁹ All fairness and goodness is gone.\par There is only darkness near us,\par so we must wait for the light.\par We hope for a bright light,\par but all we have is darkness.\par

¹⁰ We are like people without eyes.\par We walk into walls like blind people.\par We stumble and fall like it is night.\par Even in the daylight we can’t see.\par At noontime we fall like dead men.\par

¹¹ We are all \{very sad\},\par making sad sounds like doves and bears.\par We are waiting for a time\par when people are fair.\par But there is no fairness yet.\par We are waiting to be saved,\par but salvation is still far away.\par

¹² Why? Because we have done many, many wrong things against our God.\par Our sins show we are wrong.\par We know we are guilty of doing these things.\par

¹³ We sinned and turned against the Lord.\par We turned away from him and left him.\par We planned evil things.\par We planned things that are against God.\par We have thought of these things\par and planned them in our hearts.\par

¹⁴ Justice has turned away from us.\par Fairness stands far away.\par Truth has fallen in the streets.\par Goodness is not allowed to enter the city.\par

¹⁵ Truth is gone.\par And people that try to do good are robbed.\par

¹⁶ The Lord looked and was surprised\par that he could find no person\par to stand and speak for the people.\par So the Lord used his own power\par and his own goodness,\par and the Lord saved the people.\par

¹⁷ \{The Lord prepared for battle\}.\par The Lord put on\par the armor of goodness,\par the helmet of salvation,\par the clothes of punishment,\par the coat of strong love. {\cf2\super [448]} \par

¹⁸ The Lord is angry at his enemies.\par So the Lord will give them\par the punishment they deserve.\par The Lord is angry with his enemies.\par So the Lord will punish the people\par in all the faraway places.\par The Lord will give them\par the punishment they deserve.\par

¹⁹ Then people in the west\par will fear and respect the Lord’s name.\par People in the east\par will fear and respect His Glory. {\cf2\super [449]} \par The Lord will come quickly like\par a fast flowing river blown by\par a powerful wind from the Lord.\par

²⁰ Then a Savior will come to Zion. {\cf2\super [450]} \par He will come to the people of Jacob\par that sinned but came back to God.\par

²¹ The Lord says, “I will make an Agreement with those people. I promise, my Spirit and my words that I put in your mouth will never leave you. They will be with your children and your children’s children. They will be with you for now and forever.”