2. Post-Exile: The Blessing & Judgment Cycles ( 40:1 - 66:24 ) - 701-681 B.C., Israel

(These 8 groups of prophecies alternate between blessings on Israel and judgment on God's enemies.)

F. Cycle 6 (57:14 - 59:21)

1. Blessing On the Contrite, Humble, and Repentant in Israel (Continued) (57:14 - 59:15)

¹ Behold,
the LORD'S hand is not shortened,
that it cannot save [open];
neither his ear heavy,
that it cannot hear:
² But your iniquities have separated between you and your God,
and your sins have hid his face from you,
that he will not hear.
³ For your hands are defiled with blood,
and your fingers with iniquity;
your lips have spoken lies,
your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
⁴ None calleth for justice,
nor any pleadeth for truth:
they trust in vanity,
and speak lies;
they conceive mischief,
and bring forth iniquity.
⁵ They hatch cockatrice' eggs,
and weave the spider's web:
he that eateth of their eggs dieth,
and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.
⁶ Their webs shall not become garments,
neither shall they cover themselves with their works:
their works are works of iniquity,
and the act of violence is in their hands.
⁷ Their feet run to evil,
and they make haste to shed innocent blood:
their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
wasting and destruction are in their paths.
⁸ The way of peace they know not;
and there is no judgment in their goings:
they have made them crooked paths:
whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.

⁹ Therefore is judgment far from us,
neither doth justice overtake us:
we wait for light,
but behold obscurity;
for brightness,
but we walk in darkness.
¹⁰ We grope for the wall like the blind,
and we grope as if we had no eyes:
we stumble at noonday as in the night;
we are in desolate places as dead men.
¹¹ We roar all like bears,
and mourn sore [mourning we mourn] like doves:
we look for judgment,
but there is none;
for salvation,
but it is far off from us.
¹² For our transgressions are multiplied before thee,
and our sins testify against us:
for our transgressions are with us;
and as for our iniquities,
we know them;
¹³ In transgressing and lying against the LORD,
and departing away from our God,
speaking oppression and revolt,
conceiving and uttering from the heart
words of falsehood.
¹⁴ And judgment is turned away backward,
and justice standeth afar off:
for truth is fallen in the street,
and equity cannot enter.
¹⁵ Yea,
truth faileth [becomes missing];
and he that departeth from evil
maketh himself a prey:
and the LORD saw it,
and it displeased him [spoiled his eye] that there was no judgment.

2. Judgment: On Wicked Oppressors --- the Adversaries of the LORD and His People (59:16-21)

¹⁶ And he saw that there was no man,
and wondered that there was no intercessor:
therefore his arm bought salvation unto him;
and his righteousness,
it sustained him.
¹⁷ For he put on righteousness as a breastplate,
and an helmet of salvation upon his head;
and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing,
and was clad with zeal as a cloke.
¹⁸ According to their deeds,
accordingly he will repay,
fury to his adversaries,
recompence to his enemies;
to the islands he will repay recompence.
¹⁹ So shall they fear [this] the name of the LORD
from the west,
and [this] his glory
from the rising of the sun.
When the enemy shall come in like a flood,
the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.

²⁰ And the Redeemer shall come to Zion,
and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob,
saith the LORD.