59
Evil things that people do
1 Listen to this! Yahweh has not lost his power, with the result that he cannot save you.
He has not become deaf, with the result that he cannot hear you when you call to him for help.
2 But, you have separated yourselves from 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 your requests.
3 You do violent things to others,
with the result that your hands are stained with their blood.
You constantly tell [MTY] lies,
you say [MTY] evil things about others.
4 When you accuse someone in court, you do not accuse them fairly and honestly.
You accuse people falsely.
You are constantly planning to cause trouble for others,
and then you do those evil things that you planned.
5 Your plans to harm people [MET] are as dangerous as the eggs of a poisonous snake,
because cobras will hatch from those eggs.
You trap people like spiders trap insects in their webs.
6 But we cannot hide our skins with clothes made of spider webs [MET],
and similarly you people cannot hide your evil deeds.
You are constantly acting violently.
7 You [SYN] are very quick to do evil deeds,
and you hurry to murder people [MTY] who are innocent.
You are always thinking about sinning.
Wherever you go, you destroy things and cause people to be miserable.
8 You do not know how to act fairly.
You always are dishonest [MET],
and those who imitate your behavior never have any peace within themselves.
9 That is why God does not rescue us from our enemies,
and that is why he does not punish those who harm us.
We expect God to give us light,
but all he gives us is darkness.
10 We are like blind people who have to feel along the wall to be able to walk anywhere.
We stumble and trip at noontime as we would when it is dark.
We are like dead people who are among healthy people.
11 We growl like hungry bears;
we continually moan like doves.
We seek people who act justly/fairly,
but we cannot find any anywhere.
We want God to rescue us,
but it seems that he is far away.
12 But these things are happening because our sins are piled high in the presence of God,
and they testify against us.
We cannot deny it;
we know about our transgressions.
13 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 we can tell
and then we tell them.
14 In our courts, the judges do not make fair decisions;
no one is acting righteously.
No one tells the truth in plazas where people gather together;
it seems that people are prohibited from being honest.
15 No one tells the truth,
and people try to ruin the reputations of those who turn away from doing evil.
Yahweh looked around, and saw that no one was acting justly/fairly,
and he was very displeased.
16 He was disgusted when he saw that no one tried to help those who were oppressed.
So he used his own power [MTY] to rescue them
and his own righteousness supported him.
17 It is as though he is a soldier who [MET] puts on his armor and a helmet;
his righteous behavior is like his armor, and his ability to rescue people is like his helmet.
His being extremely angry and ready to get revenge on those who do evil are like his robes.
18 He will repay his enemies for the evil things that they have done.
He will severely punish [MTY] even those who live far from Jerusalem.
19 When that happens, people everywhere, from the east to the west, will respect and honor Yahweh [MTY],
because he will come like a rushing river that is pushed along by the spirit of Yahweh.
20 And Yahweh will come to Jerusalem to free his people;
he will come to rescue those in Judah who have turned away from their sinful behavior.
21 And this is what Yahweh says: “This is the agreement that I will make with them:
My Spirit will not leave you,
and you will always have my message.
You will be able to declare it [MTY] and your children and grandchildren will be able to declare it forever.
Note: The Old Testament in this translation is still being worked on, and is in draft form. Updates will be posted at eBible.org/t4t/.