[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. The lies people tell are like spider webs.
[6] These webs can’t be used for clothes. You can’t cover yourself with those webs. Some people do evil things and use their hands to hurt other people.
[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. There is only darkness near us, so we must wait for the light. We hope for a bright light, but all we have is darkness.
[10] We are like people without eyes. We walk into walls like blind people. We stumble and fall like it is night. Even in the daylight we can’t see. At noontime we fall like dead men.
[11] We are all ˻very sad˼, making sad sounds like doves and bears. We are waiting for a time when people are fair. But there is no fairness yet. We are waiting to be saved, but salvation is still far away.
[12] Why? Because we have done many, many wrong things against our God. Our sins show we are wrong. We know we are guilty of doing these things.
[13] We sinned and turned against the Lord. We turned away from him and left him. We planned evil things. We planned things that are against God. We have thought of these things and planned them in our hearts.
[14] Justice has turned away from us. Fairness stands far away. Truth has fallen in the streets. Goodness is not allowed to enter the city.
[15] Truth is gone. And people that try to do good are robbed. The Lord looked, and he could not find any goodness. The Lord did not like this.
[16] The Lord looked and was surprised that he could find no person to stand and speak for the people. So the Lord used his own power and his own goodness, and the Lord saved the people.
[17] ˻The Lord prepared for battle˼. The Lord put on the armor of goodness, the helmet of salvation, the clothes of punishment, the coat of strong love.
[18] The Lord is angry at his enemies. So the Lord will give them the punishment they deserve. The Lord is angry with his enemies. So the Lord will punish the people in all the faraway places. The Lord will give them the punishment they deserve.
[19] Then people in the west will fear and respect the Lord’s name. People in the east will fear and respect His Glory. The Lord will come quickly like a fast flowing river blown by a powerful wind from the Lord.
[20] Then a Savior will come to Zion. He will come to the people of Jacob that sinned but came back to God.
[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 n ow and forever.”