Isaiah 59:3-5

59:3 For your hands are stained with blood

and your fingers with sin;

your lips speak lies,

your tongue utters malicious words.

59:4 No one is concerned about justice; ¹ 

no one sets forth his case truthfully.

They depend on false words ²  and tell lies;

they conceive of oppression ³ 

and give birth to sin.

59:5 They hatch the eggs of a poisonous snake

and spin a spider’s web.

Whoever eats their eggs will die,

a poisonous snake is hatched. ⁴ 

Isaiah 59:13-15

59:13 We have rebelled and tried to deceive the Lord;

we turned back from following our God.

We stir up ⁵  oppression and rebellion;

we tell lies we concocted in our minds. ⁶ 

59:14 Justice is driven back;

godliness ⁷  stands far off.

Indeed, ⁸  honesty stumbles in the city square

and morality is not even able to enter.

59:15 Honesty has disappeared;

the one who tries to avoid evil is robbed.

The Lord watches and is displeased, ⁹ 

for there is no justice.

[59:4]  ¹ tn Heb “no one pleads with justice.”

[59:4]  ² tn Heb “nothing”; NAB “emptiness.”

[59:4]  ³ tn Or “trouble” (NIV), or “harm.”

[59:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “that which is pressed in hatches [as] a snake.”

[59:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “speaking.” A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[59:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.”

[59:14]  ⁷ tn Or “righteousness” (ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); KJV, NAB “justice.”

[59:14]  ⁸ tn Or “for” (KJV, NRSV).

[59:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “and it is displeasing in his eyes.”