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¹ Beholde, the Lordes hande is not so shortened that it can not helpe, neither is his eare so stopped that it may not heare:² But your misdeedes haue seperated you from your God, and your sinnes hyde his face from you, that he heareth you not.³ For your handes are defiled with blood, and your fingers with vnrighteousnesse: your lippes speake leasinges, and your tongue setteth out wickednesse.⁴ No man regardeth righteousnesse, and no man iudgeth truely: euery man hopeth in vayne things, and imagineth deceipt, conceaueth weerinesse, and bringeth foorth euill.⁵ They breede cockatrice egges, and weaue the spiders webbe, who so eateth of their egges, dyeth: but if one treade vpon them, there commeth vp a serpent.⁶ Their webbe maketh no cloth, and they may not couer them with their labours: their deedes are the deedes of wickednesse, and the worke of robberie is in their handes.⁷ Their feete runne to euyll, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their counsels are wicked counsels, harme and destruction are in their wayes.⁸ But the way of peace they know not, in their goinges is no equitie: their wayes are so crooked, that whosoeuer goeth therein knoweth of no peace.

⁹ And this is the cause that equitie is so farre from vs, and that righteousnesse commeth not nie vs: We loke for light, lo it is darknesse: for the morning shine, see, we walke in the darke.¹⁰ We grope lyke the blinde vpon the wall, we grope euen as one that hath none eyes, we stumble at the noone day as though it were towarde night, in the falling places, lyke men that are halfe dead.¹¹ We roare all like beares, and mourne still like doues: we looke for equitie, but there is none: for health, but it is farre from vs.¹² For our offences are many before thee, and our sinnes testifie against vs: yea we must confesse that we offende, and knowledge that we do amisse,¹³ [Namely] transgresse and dissemble against the Lorde, and fall away from our God, vsing presumpteous and trayterous imaginations, and casting false matters in our heartes.¹⁴ And therefore is equitie gone aside, and righteousnesse standeth farre of, trueth is fallen downe in the streete, and the thing that is playne and open, may not be shewed.¹⁵ Yea the trueth is taken away, and he that refraineth hym selfe from euyll, must be spoyled: When the Lorde sawe this, it displeased hym sore that there was no equitie.

¹⁶ He sawe also that there was no man righteous, and he wondred that there was no man to helpe hym: wherefore he helde hym by his owne power, and he sustayned hym by his owne righteousnesse.¹⁷ He put righteousnesse vpon hym for a brestplate, he set the helmet of health vpon his head: He put on wrath in the steade of clothing, and toke ielousie about him for a cloke.¹⁸ Euen as when a man goeth foorth wrathfully to recompence his enemies, and to be auenged of his aduersaries, he wyll recompence and rewarde the Ilandes.¹⁹ They shall feare the name of the Lorde from the rising of the sunne, and his maiestie vnto the going downe of the same, for he shall come as a violent water streame which the winde of the Lorde hath moued.²⁰ But vnto Sion there shall come a redeemer, and vnto them in Iacob that turne from wickednesse, saith the Lord.²¹ I wyll make this couenaunt with them (saith the Lord:) My spirite that is vpon thee, and the wordes whiche I haue put in thy mouth, shall neuer go out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy childers chyldren, from this time foorth for euermore, worlde without ende, saith the Lorde.