Isaiah 59:9-15

Isaiah 59:9 a. The People Confess that their Piteous Plight is the Fruit of their Wrongdoing. The poet now joins himself to his people and, speaking in their name, owns the truth of the indictment in Isaiah 59:1. True! that is why we do not attain our right, and victory is not ours! No gleam of hope lightens our darkness. We grope like blind men along a wall instead of treading firmly. We stumble in broad daylight. We moan and murmur like growling bears or cooing doves. Right and deliverance seem ever further off, for our numberless rebellions bear witness before Thee against us. Their guilt is ever on our hearts rebellion and transgression against Yahweh, uttering perverseness (so read for oppression), defection, and lying words. So Right turns her back upon us and Victory keeps her distance, since Truth stumbles in our market-square, and Straight-dealing cannot make her way in. So Truth is not to be seen, and Insight departs from the city (cf. LXX).

Isaiah 59:10. Read (cf. mg.) We dwell in darkness like the dead (in the gloomy underworld).

Isaiah 59:13. in: delete.