Isaiah 59:1-13--Evil and Oppression

Isaiah 59:1-13
English Standard Version

Evil and Oppression
59 Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
    or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
2 but your iniquities have made a separation
    between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
    so that he does not hear.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood
    and your fingers with iniquity;
your lips have spoken lies;
    your tongue mutters wickedness.
4 No one enters suit justly;
    no one goes to law honestly;
they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies,
    they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
5 They hatch adders' eggs;
    they weave the spider's web;
he who eats their eggs dies,
    and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched.
6 Their webs will not serve as clothing;
    men will not cover themselves with what they make.
Their works are works of iniquity,
    and deeds of violence are in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil,
    and they are swift to shed innocent blood;
their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
    desolation and destruction are in their highways.
8 The way of peace they do not know,
    and there is no justice in their paths;
they have made their roads crooked;
    no one who treads on them knows peace.

9 Therefore justice is far from us,
    and righteousness does not overtake us;
we hope for light, and behold, darkness,
    and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
10 We grope for the wall like the blind;
    we grope like those who have no eyes;
we stumble at noon as in the twilight,
    among those in full vigor we are like dead men.
11 We all growl like bears;
    we moan and moan like doves;
we hope for justice, but there is none;
    for salvation, but it is far from us.
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before you,
    and our sins testify against us;
for our transgressions are with us,
    and we know our iniquities:
13 transgressing, and denying the LORD,
    and turning back from following our God,
speaking oppression and revolt,
    conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words.

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God makes it clear in the beginning of this chapter that the judgment of His people is not because He has changed and is unable to save them, but because they have become the wicked people whom He has to judge.  He is the one that opposes evil and judges it still.  It is because of their iniquities that they are not experiencing His blessings and they are keeping the people from crying out for the true salvation that only He can provide.  Their hands are covered with blood--many, with the innocent blood of children they have sacrificed to the idols they worshiped.  They have been using their hands to do much evil, and their lips have spoken many lies.  Their words are full of traps like a spider's web and venom like the death that would come from eating an adder's egg. 

The people run to do evil and they do not know the way of peace.  They love their wickedness and inequity, and they love to get others caught up in their evil and inequity as well  There is no justice, especially for the poor who are unable to bribe the justices and officials.  The week and the defenseless like the widows and orphans are taken advantage of by those in power and by wicked men whom those in power refuse to prosecute.  Where there should be "light," with the people of God, there is only "darkness" that is as dark as the wickedness of the Canaanites.  The people are like dumb animals before the LORD--all their sins are exposed before Him.  They are unable to hide any of it from Him, though they may lie to themselves and imagine they can.  Even when confronted, they do not repent, and they continue in their sin, and they multiply their sins so that the LORD is just in executing His judgment on them.  It is obvious to all people everywhere that the LORD is Just.