⁹ Therefore justice is far from us,
    and deliverance does not reach us;
we wait for light, but there is only darkness;
    and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
¹⁰ We grope like the blind along a wall,
    groping like those who have no eyes;
we stumble at noon as in the twilight,
    among the vigorous as though we were dead.
¹¹ We all growl like bears;
    like doves we moan mournfully.
We wait for justice, but there is none;
    for salvation, but it is far from us.
¹² For our transgressions before you are many,
    and our sins testify against us.
Our transgressions indeed are with us,
    and we know our iniquities:
¹³ transgressing and denying the Lord
    and turning away from following our God,
talking oppression and revolt,
    conceiving lying words and uttering them from the heart.
¹⁴ Justice is turned back,
    and deliverance stands at a distance,
for truth stumbles in the public square,
    and uprightness cannot enter.
¹⁵ Truth is lacking,
    and whoever turns from evil is despoiled.

The Lord saw it, and it displeased him
    that there was no justice.
¹⁶ He saw that there was no one
    and was appalled that there was no one to intervene,
so his own arm brought him victory,
    and his righteousness upheld him.
¹⁷ He put on righteousness like a breastplate
    and a helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on garments of vengeance for clothing
    and wrapped himself in fury as in a mantle.
¹⁸ According to their deeds, so will he repay
    wrath to his adversaries, requital to his enemies;
    to the coastlands he will render requital.
¹⁹ So those in the west shall fear the name of the Lord,
    and those in the east, his glory,
for he will come like a pent-up stream
    that the wind of the Lord drives on.