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Behold, 1the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
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2but 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.
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3For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness.
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4No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, 5they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
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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.
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6Their 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.
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7Their 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.
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The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; 8no one who treads on them knows peace.
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Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; 9we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
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10We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, 11among those in full vigor we are like dead men.
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We all growl like bears; 12we moan and moan like doves; 13we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.
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For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities:
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transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God, 14speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words.