But renders a strong contrast marker in Hebrew. A stronger contrastive conjunction than but would be good here, for example, “Rather” (New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible), “In reality” (Bible en français courant), or “No!” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God: The prophet tells the people that their own sins have separated them from God, resulting in the problems they face. It is not God who is at fault, but they themselves. For iniquities, which is parallel to the more generic term sins, see the comments on 1.4 and 40.2. The idea of separation may be rendered with the image either of a barrier (so New Revised Standard Version, Revised English Bible, Bible en français courant) or of an empty space (so New Jerusalem Bible). Translators may also use a verb such as “separate,” “cut off,” or “come between.” For the first two lines of this verse New Jerusalem Bible has “but your guilty deeds have made a gulf between you and your God.”

And your sins have hid his face from you is parallel to the previous two lines. This line uses a figure of speech that describes God’s rejection of his people due to their sinful conduct. He turns away from them either in anger or disgust. The Hebrew verb rendered have hid is causative, expressing very clearly that the sins of the people make God react in this way. This line is literally “and your sins have made [him] hide [his] face from you” (similarly New Jerusalem Bible). For the imagery of “God hiding his face,” see the comments on 8.17 and 54.8.

So that he does not hear is a result of the previous line. Since the people have sinned, God does not listen to them. This line is literally “from hearing,” which is the same expression used in the previous verse (see the comments there). However, there the sense is God “cannot hear,” but here it is he does not hear. He refuses to listen to them because of their sins.

Good News Translation gives a rather free rendering of verse 2, reversing the lines. The idea of sins causing God not to hear comes first, and that of sins causing a separation comes second. Good News Translation also adds “when you try to worship him.” It is likely that a fairly literal rendering of the Hebrew will probably be clear enough in most languages. But Good News Translation remains a valid translation model if the ideas of separation and “God hiding his face” are difficult to render. Other translation examples for this verse are:

• Rather, it is your iniquities that have cut you off from your God,
it is your sins that make him hide from you;
the result is that he doesn’t hear you.

• Rather, your iniquities are what come between you and your God,
your sins cause him to turn his face away from you;
he doesn’t listen to you.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .