1 ARST Listen to this! Yahweh’ s power is not too little to rescue you. He has not become deaf; he can still hear you when you call to him for help. BSB BSB: Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear.
2 ARST But you have separated yourselves from your God by the sins that you have committed. Because of your sins, he has turned away from you, with the result that he does not pay attention to what you request him to do. BSB BSB: But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.
3 ARST You do violent things to others, with the result that your hands are stained with their blood. You constantly tell lies, and you say evil things about others. BSB BSB: For your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters injustice.
4 ARST When you accuse someone in court, what you say is not fair and it is not true. You accuse people falsely; you depend on the lies you tell. You are constantly planning to cause trouble for others, and then you do those evil things that you planned. BSB BSB: No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case honestly. They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
5 ARST What you plan to do to harm people is like the eggs a poisonous snake lays, like a web that a spider catches its victims in. Cobras will hatch from those eggs, and insects will fall into the spider’ s web. BSB BSB: They hatch the eggs of vipers and weave a spider’s web. Whoever eats their eggs will die; crack one open, and a viper is hatched.
6 ARST You cannot hide the evil deeds that you have done. You are constantly acting violently. BSB BSB: Their cobwebs cannot be made into clothing, and they cannot cover themselves with their works. Their deeds are sinful deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands.
7 ARST You are very quick to go and do evil deeds, and you hurry to murder people who are innocent. You are continually thinking about sinning. Wherever you go, you destroy things and cause people to suffer. BSB BSB: Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and destruction lie in their wake.
8 ARST You do not know how to act peacefully or to treat others fairly. You always are dishonest, and those who imitate your behavior never have any peace within themselves. BSB BSB: The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their tracks. They have turned them into crooked paths; no one who treads on them will know peace.
9 ARST Because of that, God does not rescue us from our enemies, it seems that he is not acting fairly toward us. We expect God to give us light, but all he gives us is darkness. BSB BSB: Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We hope for light, but there is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
10 ARST We are like blind people who have to feel along the wall to be able to walk anywhere. We stumble and trip at noontime like we would when it is dark. We are like dead people who are among healthy people. BSB BSB: Like the blind, we feel our way along the wall, groping like those without eyes. We stumble at midday as in the twilight; among the vigorous we are like the dead.
11 ARST We growl like hungry bears; we continually moan like doves. We ask God to do what is just, but nothing happens. We want God to rescue us, but it seems that he is far away. BSB BSB: We all growl like bears and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but find none, for salvation, but it is far from us.
12 ARST But these things are happening because it is as though our sins are piled high in the presence of God, and it is they that testify against us. We cannot deny it; we know that we have done many wrong things. BSB BSB: For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us. Our transgressions are indeed with us, and we know our iniquities:
13 ARST We know that we have rebelled against Yahweh; we have turned away from him. We oppress people by what we testify against them; we do not allow them to get what they have a right to get. We think about the lies that we can tell, and then we tell them. BSB BSB: rebelling and denying the LORD, turning away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering lies from the heart.
14 ARST In our courts, the judges do not decide cases fairly; no one is acting righteously. In plazas where people gather together, no one tells the truth; it seems that people are not allowed to say what is true. BSB BSB: So justice is turned away, and righteousness stands at a distance. For truth has stumbled in the public square, and honesty cannot enter.
15 ARST No one tells the truth, and people try to ruin the reputations of those who quit doing evil. Yahweh looked around, and he saw that no one was doing what is just; he was very displeased. BSB BSB: Truth is missing, and whoever turns from evil becomes prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice.
16 ARST He was disgusted when he saw that no one tried to help those who were being treated cruelly. So he used his own power to rescue them; it is because he is always righteous that he did that. BSB BSB: He saw that there was no man; He was amazed that there was no one to intercede. So His own arm brought salvation, and His own righteousness sustained Him.
17 ARST It is as though he were a soldier who put on his armor and a helmet; his continually doing what is right is like his armor, and his ability to rescue people is like his helmet. His being extremely angry and his being ready to get revenge on those who do evil are like his robes. BSB BSB: He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on His head; He put on garments of vengeance and wrapped Himself in a cloak of zeal.
18 ARST He will repay his enemies for the evil things that they have done. He will severely punish even those who live far from Jerusalem. BSB BSB: So He will repay according to their deeds: fury to His enemies, retribution to His foes, and recompense to the islands.
19 ARST When that happens, people everywhere, from the east to the west, will respect and honor Yahweh, because he will come like a rushing river that is pushed along by the strong wind that Yahweh sent. BSB BSB: So shall they fear the name of the LORD where the sun sets, and His glory where it rises. For He will come like a raging flood, driven by the breath of the LORD.
20 ARST And Yahweh says that he will come to Jerusalem to free his people; he will come to rescue those in Judah who have stopped doing sinful things. BSB BSB: “The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the LORD.
21 ARST This is what Yahweh says to his people:“This is the covenant that I will make with you: My Spirit will not leave you, and you will always have my message. You will be able to declare it, and your children and grandchildren will be able to declare it forever.” BSB BSB: “As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit will not depart from you, and My words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth or from the mouths of your children and grandchildren, from now on and forevermore,” says the LORD.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.