Isaiah Chapter 41
God's security for Israel
1 Escuchadme, costas, y esfuércense los pueblos; acérquense, y entonces hablen; estemos juntamente a juicio.
2 ¿Quién despertó del oriente al justo, lo llamó para que le siguiese, entregó delante de él naciones, y le hizo enseñorear de reyes; los entregó a su espada como polvo, como hojarasca que su arco arrebata?
3 Los siguió, pasó en paz por camino por donde sus pies nunca habían entrado.
4 ¿Quién hizo y realizó esto? ¿Quién llama las generaciones desde el principio? Yo Jehová, el primero, y yo mismo con los postreros.
5 Las costas vieron, y tuvieron temor; los confines de la tierra se espantaron; se congregaron, y vinieron.
6 Cada cual ayudó a su vecino, y a su hermano dijo: Esfuérzate. 7 El carpintero animó al platero, y el que alisaba con martillo al que batía en el yunque, diciendo: Buena está la soldadura; y lo afirmó con clavos, para que no se moviese.
8 Pero tú, Israel, siervo mío eres; tú, Jacob, a quien yo escogí, descendencia de Abraham mi amigo.
9 Porque te tomé de los confines de la tierra, y de tierras lejanas te llamé, y te dije: Mi siervo eres tú; te escogí, y no te deseché.
10 No temas, porque yo estoy contigo; no desmayes, porque yo soy tu Dios que te esfuerzo; siempre te ayudaré, siempre te sustentaré con la diestra de mi justicia. 11 He aquí que todos los que se enojan contra ti serán avergonzados y confundidos; serán como nada y perecerán los que contienden contigo.
12 Buscarás a los que tienen contienda contigo, y no los hallarás; serán como nada, y como cosa que no es, aquellos que te hacen la guerra. 13 Porque yo Jehová soy tu Dios, quien te sostiene de tu mano derecha, y te dice: No temas, yo te ayudo.
14 No temas, gusano de Jacob, oh vosotros los pocos de Israel; yo soy tu socorro, dice Jehová; el Santo de Israel es tu Redentor.
15 He aquí que yo te he puesto por trillo, trillo nuevo, lleno de dientes; trillarás montes y los molerás, y collados reducirás a tamo.
16 Los aventarás, y los llevará el viento, y los esparcirá el torbellino; pero tú te regocijarás en Jehová, te gloriarás en el Santo de Israel.
17 Los afligidos y menesterosos buscan las aguas, y no las hay; seca está de sed su lengua; yo Jehová los oiré, yo el Dios de Israel no los desampararé.
18 En las alturas abriré ríos, y fuentes en medio de los valles; abriré en el desierto estanques de aguas, y manantiales de aguas en la tierra seca.
19 Daré en el desierto cedros, acacias, arrayanes y olivos; pondré en la soledad cipreses, pinos y bojes juntamente,
20 para que vean y conozcan, y adviertan y entiendan todos, que la mano de Jehová hace esto, y que el Santo de Israel lo creó.
Dios reta a los falsos dioses
21 Alegad por vuestra causa, dice Jehová; presentad vuestras pruebas, dice el Rey de Jacob.
22 Traigan, anúnciennos lo que ha de venir; dígannos lo que ha pasado desde el principio, y pondremos nuestro corazón en ello; sepamos también su postrimería, y hacednos entender lo que ha de venir.
23 Dadnos nuevas de lo que ha de ser después, para que sepamos que vosotros sois dioses; o a lo menos haced bien, o mal, para que tengamos qué contar, y juntamente nos maravillemos.
24 He aquí que vosotros sois nada, y vuestras obras vanidad; abominación es el que os escogió.
25 Del norte levanté a uno, y vendrá; del nacimiento del sol invocará mi nombre; y pisoteará príncipes como lodo, y como pisa el barro el alfarero.
26 ¿Quién lo anunció desde el principio, para que sepamos; o de tiempo atrás, y diremos: Es justo? Cierto, no hay quien anuncie; sí, no hay quien enseñe; ciertamente no hay quien oiga vuestras palabras.
27 Yo soy el primero que he enseñado estas cosas a Sion, y a Jerusalén daré un mensajero de alegres nuevas.
28 Miré, y no había ninguno; y pregunté de estas cosas, y ningún consejero hubo; les pregunté, y no respondieron palabra.
29 He aquí, todos son vanidad, y las obras de ellos nada; viento y vanidad son sus imágenes fundidas.
Isaiah Chapter 42
The Servant of Jehovah
1 Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry out or raise his voice, nor make it heard in the streets.
3 A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice.
4 He will not grow weary or faint till he has established justice on earth; in his law the islands will put their hope.
5 This is what the Lord God says—he who created the heavens and stretched them out, spread out the earth and everything in it, gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk on it:
6 “ I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and make you a covenant for the people, a light for the nations,
7 to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness from the prison house.
8 I am the Lord; that is my name; I will no longer give my glory or my praise to idols.
9 See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.
Praise Jehovah for his mighty deliverance
10 Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you coastlands, and all who live in them.
11 Let the wilderness and its towns lift up their voices, the villages where Kedar lives; let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy; let them shout from the tops of the mountains.
12 Let them give glory to the Lord and proclaim his praise in the coastlands.
13 The Lord will go forth like a mighty man, like a warrior he will stir up his zeal; he will cry out and shout aloud, he will prevail against his enemies.
14 “ For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held back; but now, like a woman in labor, I will cry out; I will lay waste and devour.
15 I will make the mountains and hills a wasteland and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn the rivers into islands and dry up the pools.
16 I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These things I will do for them; I will not forsake them.
17 Those who trust in idols, who say to molten images, “You are our gods,” will be turned back and utterly ashamed.
Israel does not learn from discipline
18 You deaf, hear; you blind, look so you can see.
19 Who is blind but my servant? Who is deaf like the messenger I send? Who is blind like my chosen one, blind like the servant of the Lord,
20 who sees many things but does not perceive, who opens his ears but does not hear?
21 The Lord was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify the law and make it glorious.
22 But this is a people plundered and trampled underfoot; all of them are trapped in caves and hidden in prisons. They are made plunder, with no one to deliver them; they are plundered, with no one to say, “Restore!”
23 Who among you will hear this? Who will pay attention and listen for the future?
24 Who gave Jacob up as plunder, and gave Israel over to plunderers? Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned? They would not walk in his ways or obey his law.
25 Therefore he poured out on him the heat of his anger, and the might of war; he set fire to him all over, but he did not understand; and it consumed him, but he paid no attention.
Isaiah Chapter 43
Jehovah is the only Redeemer
1 Now, this is what the Lord says—he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
3 For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place.
4 Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I give people in exchange for you, nations in exchange for your life.
5 Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east and gather you from the west.
6 I will say to the north, ‘Give them up,’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth—
7 everyone who is called by my name, For my glory I created them, I formed them, and I made them.
8 Bring out the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf people who have ears.
9 Let all the nations gather together, and let all the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare this to us, and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses, and be justified; let them hear and say, “It is true.”
10 “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me.
11 I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior.
12 I have revealed and saved and proclaimed—and there was no foreign god among you. You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “that I am God.
13 Even before there was a day, I was; And there is no one who can deliver out of my hand. What I do, who can hinder it?
14 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I sent to Babylon, and brought down all of them as fugitives, even the Chaldeans in the ships in which they gloried.
15 I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.
16 Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters,
17 who brings out chariot and horse, army and power; they lie down together, never to rise again; they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
18 Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.
19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it springs forth; shall you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
20 The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I provide water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen ones.
21 This people I formed for myself, that they may declare my praise.
22 Yet you have not called upon me, O Jacob, but you have grown weary of me, O Israel.
23 You have not brought me the animals of your burnt offerings, nor honored me with your sacrifices; I have not burdened you with offerings, nor wearied you with incense.
24 You have not bought me sweet cane with money, nor satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices, but you have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your iniquities.
25 I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.
26 Remind me, let us enter into judgment together; speak up, that you may be justified.
27 Your first father sinned, and your teachers transgressed against me.
28 Therefore I profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and I made Jacob a curse and Israel a reproach.
Isaiah Chapter 44
Jehovah is the only God
1 Now therefore, hear, Jacob my servant, and you, Israel, whom I have chosen.
2 Thus says the Lord, your Maker, and he who formed you from the womb, who will help you: Do not fear, Jacob my servant, and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.
3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.
4 They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like willows by flowing streams.
5 One will say, “I belong to the Lord”; another will call himself by the name of Jacob; and another will write on his hand, “The Lord,” and will take the name of Israel.
6 Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.”
7 And who will proclaim the future, declare it, and set it in order before me, as I have done since I established the ancient people? Let them announce to them what is coming and what is yet to come.
8 Do not fear, nor be dismayed; did I not proclaim it to you from ancient times, and declare it? You are my witnesses. There is no God besides me. There is no Rock; I know of none.
The folly of idolatry
9 Those who make idols are all worthless, and their most precious things are of no use. They themselves bear witness to their own shame, for they neither see nor understand.
10 Who has fashioned a god, or cast an image that is of no benefit?
11 Behold, all who make them will be put to shame, for the craftsmen themselves are mere men. They will all come together, stand up, be astonished, and be put to shame together.
12 The blacksmith takes the tongs, works in the coals, shapes it with hammers, and works on it with the strength of his arm; then he grows hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water, and faints.
13 The carpenter stretches out the ruler, marks it with red chalk, shapes it with planes, molds it with compasses, and makes it in the form of a man, in the likeness of a handsome man, to keep it in his house.
14 He cuts down cedars, and takes cypress and oak, which grow among the trees of the forest; he plants pine, which flourishes with the rain.
15 Then a man uses it for burning, and takes some of it to warm himself; he also kindles the oven, and bakes bread; he makes a god, and worships it; he fashions an idol, and bows down to it.
16 Part of the wood he burns in the fire; with part of it he eats meat, prepares a roast, and is satisfied; then he warms himself, and says, “Ah! I am warm, I have seen the fire!”
17 And from the remainder he makes a god, his own idol; he bows down to it, worships it, and prays to it, saying, “Deliver me, for you are my god.”
18 They do not know, nor do they understand; for their eyes are closed so that they cannot see, and their hearts so that they cannot understand.
19 He does not reason within himself; he has no sense or understanding to say, “I burned some of it in the fire; I baked bread on its coals, roasted meat, and ate it. Shall I make an abomination of the rest of it? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?”
20 He feeds on ashes; his deluded heart leads him astray, so that he cannot deliver himself, nor say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”
Jehovah is the Redeemer of Israel
21 Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant. I formed you, you are my servant; Israel, do not forget me.
22 I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.
23 Sing for joy, O heavens, for the Lord has done it; shout aloud, O depths of the earth; burst into song, O mountains, O forest, and every tree in it; for the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and in Israel he will be glorified.
24 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself;
25 who frustrates the signs of diviners and makes fools of soothsayers; who turns wise men backward and makes their knowledge vanish.
26 I am the one who confirms the word of his servant and fulfills the counsel of his messengers, who says to Jerusalem, “You shall be inhabited,” and to the cities of Judah, “They shall be rebuilt, and their ruins I will restore,”
27 who says to the deep, “Be dry, and I will dry up your rivers,”
28 who says of Cyrus, “He is my shepherd, and he will accomplish all that I please,” saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be rebuilt,” and to the temple, “Your foundations shall be laid.”
Isaiah Chapter 45
God's commission to Cyrus
1 This is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:
2 “ I will go before you and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.
3 I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who summon you by name.
4 For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me.
5 I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you do not acknowledge me,
6 so that from the rising of the sun to its setting people may know that there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other;
I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things.
Jehovah the Creator
8 Shower down, you heavens above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open up, let salvation and righteousness spring up; let them flourish together. I, the Lord, have created them.
9 Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, a potsherd with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who shapes it, “What are you making?” or your work, “He has no hands”?
10 Woe to him who says to his father, “Why did you beget?” or to his woman, “Why did you give birth?”
11 Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: “Ask me about things to come; command me concerning my children and the work of my hands.
12 I made the earth and created humankind upon it. I, my hands, stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.
13 I have raised them up in righteousness, and I will make all their ways straight; He will rebuild my city and set my captives free, not for a price or a bribe, says the Lord Almighty.
14 This is what the Lord says: “The labor of Egypt, the merchandise of Cush, and the Sabeans, men of stature, will come over to you and be yours; they will follow you, they will come over in chains; they will bow down to you and plead with you, saying, ‘Surely God is with you, and there is no other besides God.’
15 Truly you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.
16 All of them will be put to shame and confounded; all the idol makers will go away in disgrace.
17 But Israel will be saved by the Lord with an everlasting salvation; you will never be put to shame or disgraced, to all eternity.”
18 For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God), who formed the earth and made it and established it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited: “I am the Lord, and there is no other.
19 I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I have not said to the descendants of Jacob, ‘You seek me in vain.’ I, the Lord, speak righteousness; I declare what is right.”
Jehovah and the idols of Babylon
20 Assemble yourselves and come; gather together, all you survivors from the nations. They have no knowledge, those who set up their wooden idols and pray to a god that cannot save.
21 Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from ancient times? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no God besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me.
22 Look to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.
23 By myself I have sworn; my mouth has uttered a word in righteousness that will not be revoked: “To me every knee will bow; every tongue will swear allegiance.”
24 It will be said of me, “Surely in the Lord are righteousness and strength.” To him all will come, and all who are incensed against him will be put to shame.
25 In the Lord all the descendants of Israel will be justified and will glory.
Isaiah Chapter 46
1 Bel bows down, Nebo stoops; their idols are placed on beasts of burden, on pack animals; the things you used to carry are now lifted up like a burden on weary animals.
2 They are brought low, they are brought low together; they cannot escape the burden, but they themselves must go into captivity.
3 Listen to me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, you whom I have carried from the womb, whom I have borne from birth.
4 Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you; I have made you and I will carry you, I will sustain you and I will deliver you.
5 To whom will you liken me, or make me equal, or compare me, that we may be alike?
6 They pour out gold from the purse, and weigh out silver on the scales; they hire a goldsmith to make it into a god; then they bow down and worship it.
7 They lift it on their shoulders, carry it, and set it in its place; there it stands, and it cannot move from its place. They cry out to it, but it does not answer, nor does it deliver them from their trouble.
8 Remember these things, and be ashamed; turn back to yourselves, you transgressors.
9 Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me,
10 declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all that I please.”
11 I call a bird of prey from the east, and the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will also do it.
12 Listen to me, you stubborn of heart, you who are far from righteousness:
13 I will bring my righteousness near; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not be delayed. And I will place salvation in Zion, and my glory in Israel.
Isaiah Chapter 47
Judgment on Babylon
1 Come down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground, without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans; for you will no longer be called tender and delicate.
2 Take up the mill and grind flour; uncover your hair, take off your shoes, bare your legs, cross the rivers.
3 Your shame will be exposed, and your disgrace will be seen; I will exact retribution, and no one will escape.
4 Our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.
5 Sit in silence, go into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans; for you will no longer be called queen of kingdoms.
6 I was angry with my people, I defiled my inheritance, and I gave them into your hand; you had no compassion on them; you made your yoke very heavy on the elderly.
7 You said, “I will be queen forever”; but you did not consider this, nor did you remember your end.
8 Now therefore, listen to this, you voluptuous woman, you who sit so confidently, you who say in your heart, “I am, and there is no other; I will not be a widow, nor will I know fatherlessness.”
9 These two things will come upon you suddenly in one day: fatherlessness and widowhood. They will come upon you in full force, despite the multitude of your sorceries and your many enchantments.
10 For you trusted in your wickedness, saying, “No one sees me.” Your wisdom and your very knowledge deceived you, and you said in your heart, “I am, and there is no one else.”
11 Therefore, evil will come upon you, the birth of which you will not know; destruction will fall upon you, which you will not be able to remedy; and ruin, which you will not know, will come upon you suddenly.
12 Remain now in your enchantments and in the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth. Perhaps you may succeed, perhaps you may become strong.
13 You have wearied yourself with your many counsels. Let those who contemplate the heavens, those who observe the stars, those who count the months, come forward now and defend you, to predict what will come upon you.
14 Behold, they will be like chaff; the fire will burn them up, they will not deliver themselves from the power of the flame; there will be no coal left to warm themselves by, no fire to sit by.
15 So will those with whom you have labored be to you, those who have trafficked with you from your youth; each will go his own way, and there will be no one to save you.
Isaiah chapter 48
God rebukes Israel's unfaithfulness
1 Hear this, O house of Jacob, who call yourselves by the name of Israel, who came forth from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth or in righteousness;
2 for they call themselves by the name of the holy city, and they trust in the God of Israel; his name is the Lord of hosts.
3 What shall come to pass, I foretold beforehand, and it went forth from my mouth; I made it known, I brought it about swiftly, and it came to pass.
4 For I know that you are stubborn, your neck an iron rod, your forehead bronze;
5 I foretold it long ago; I warned you before it happened, so that you would not say, “My idol did it; my carved and cast images commanded these things.”
6 You heard it, and you saw it all; and will you not declare it? Now therefore I have told you new and hidden things that you did not know.
7 Now they have been created, not in days of old, nor had you heard of them before this day, so that you cannot say, “Behold, I knew it.”
8 Yes, you had never heard it, nor had you ever known it; surely your ear was not opened before; for I knew that you would be faithless and disobedient; therefore I called you a rebel from the womb.
9 For my name’s sake I defer my anger, and for my praise I restrain it, so that I will not destroy you.
10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.
11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, so that my name will not be profaned, and my glory I will not give to another.
12 Listen to me, Jacob, and you, Israel, whom I have called: I am he; I am the first, and I am also the last.
13 My hand also laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand measured the heavens with a span; When I summoned them, they came together.
14 Assemble all of you and listen. Who among them can declare these things? The one whom the Lord loves will accomplish his will in Babylon, and his arm will be against the Chaldeans.
15 I, even I, have spoken; I have called him and brought him, so that his way may prosper.
16 Come near to me and hear this: From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time it happened, I was there; and now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit.
17 This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.
18 If only you had paid attention to my commands! Then your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea.
19 Your descendants would have been like the sand, your offspring like its grains; their name would never be cut off or blotted out from before me.
20 Go out from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans! Declare this with shouts of joy, proclaim it, send it out to the ends of the earth, say: ‘The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.’
21 They did not thirst when he led them through the wilderness; he brought water for them from the rock; he split the rock, and water gushed out.
22 “There is no peace for the wicked,” declares the Lord.
Isaiah Chapter 49
Israel, servant of Jehovah
1 Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: The Lord called me from the womb, from my mother’s womb he named me.
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver.
3 He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
4 But I said, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain. Yet my right is with the Lord, and my reward is with my God.”
5 And now the Lord says—he who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to him (for I will be honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God will be my strength)—
6 “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the remnant of Israel; I have also given you as a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the ends of the earth.
7 Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, to him who is despised in soul, to him who is abhorred by the nations, to the servant of tyrants: Kings shall see, and princes shall rise, and worship because of the Lord; for faithful is the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.
God promises to restore Zion
8 Thus says the Lord: “In the time of my favor I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you; I will keep you and will give you as a covenant to the people, to restore the land and to inherit its desolate inheritances,
9 to say to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ They will feed along the roads and find pasture on all the barren heights.
10 They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the heat or the sun beat down on them. For he who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water.
11 I will make all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up.
12 See, these will come from afar—these from the north and the west, and these from the land of Sinim.
13 Sing for joy, you heavens, and be glad, you earth; burst into song, you mountains; For the Lord has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.
14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.”
15 “Can a mother forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.
16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.
17 Your builders will come in haste; those who destroyed you and laid you waste will depart from you.”
18 Lift up your eyes all around, and see: all these have gathered together, they have come to you. As surely as I live, declares the Lord, you will clothe yourself with them all as with an elegant garment, and a bride will adorn herself with them as she does.
19 For your land, desolate, ruined, and deserted, will now be too small for its inhabitants, and those who destroyed you will be far away.
20 Even the children of your bereavement will say in your hearing, “This place is too small for me; move aside, so that I may dwell here.”
21 And you will say in your heart, “Who bore me these? For I was bereaved of children and alone, a stranger and an exile; who then brought these up? Behold, I was left alone; where did these come from?”
22 Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I will stretch out my hand to the nations, and raise my banner to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
23 Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers; they shall bow down before you with their faces to the ground, and lick the dust of your feet; and you shall know that I am the Lord; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.”
24 Can plunder be taken from the mighty, or captives rescued from the tyrant?
25 But this is what the Lord says: “Surely captives will be taken from the mighty, and plunder retrieved from the tyrant; I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.
26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they will be drunk on their own blood as with wine. Then all mankind will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
Isaiah Chapter 50
Jehovah helps those who trust in him
1 This is what the Lord says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away? Or who are my creditors, to whom I have sold you? Look, you were sold for your sins, and your mother was sent away for your transgressions.
2 Why, when I came, was there no one? Why, when I called, was there no answer? Is my arm too short to redeem? Do I have no power to deliver? See, at my rebuke I dry up the sea; I make the rivers a desert; their fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst.
3 I clothe the heavens with darkness and make sackcloth their covering.
4 The Sovereign Lord has given me the tongue of the learned, that I may know how to speak a word to him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens my ear to hear as those who are learned.
5 The Sovereign Lord has opened my ear, and I have not been rebellious, nor have I turned back.
6 I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who plucked out my beard; I did not hide my face from insults and spitting.
7 For the Lord God will help me; therefore I will not be ashamed; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
8 He who saves me is near; who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.
9 Behold, the Lord God will help me; who is he who will condemn me? Behold, they will all wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.
10 Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.
11 Behold, all of you kindle a fire and encircle yourselves with torches; walk in the light of your fire and of the torches you have kindled. This will come to you from my hand; you will be buried in sorrow.
Isaiah Chapter 51
Words of comfort for Zion
1 Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord: Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.
2 Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who gave you birth; for when he was but one, I called him, and blessed him and made him numerous.
3 Surely the Lord will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places, and make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of singing.
4 Give ear to me, my people, and listen to me, my nation; for the law will go out from me, and my righteousness as a light to the nations.
5 My righteousness draws near, my salvation goes forth, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands wait for me, and put their hope in my arm.
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; For the heavens will vanish like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment; its inhabitants will die in the same way. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail.
7 Listen to me, you who know righteousness, you people in whose hearts is my law: Do not fear the reproach of men, nor be dismayed by their insults.
8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will devour them like wool. But my righteousness will stand forever, and my salvation through all generations.
9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord! Awake as in days of old, as in the generations of long ago! Was it not you who cut Rahab in two, who pierced the dragon?
10 Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made a path in the depths of the sea for the redeemed to cross over?
11 Surely the redeemed of the Lord will return; They will return to Zion singing, and everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
12 I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you should fear mere mortals, human beings who are but grass?
13 Have you forgotten the Lord your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth? All day long you have lived in constant fear of the wrath of the oppressor, who was bent on destruction. But where is the wrath of the oppressor now?
14 The oppressed prisoner will soon be set free; he will not die in the dungeon, nor will he lack bread.
15 For I, the Lord your God, stir up the sea so that its waves roar—the Lord Almighty is his name.
16 I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand, I who set the heavens in place and laid the foundations of the earth, saying to Zion, “You are my people.”
17 Awake, awake, rise up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the Lord’s hand the cup of his wrath; you have drunk the cup of staggering to the dregs.
18 Of all the children she bore, there is no one to lead her, no one to take her hand, of all the children she raised.
19 These two things have happened to you: devastation and destruction, famine and the sword. Who will grieve for you? Who will comfort you?
20 Your children faint; they lie at the head of every street like an antelope caught in a net, full of the Lord’s indignation, the wrath of your God.
21 Hear this, O afflicted one, drunk, but not with wine:
22 Thus says the Lord your God, who pleads for his people: Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering, the dregs of the cup of my wrath; you shall drink it no more.
23 And I will give it into the hand of your tormentors, who said to your soul, “Bow down, so that we may pass over you.” And you made your body like the ground, and like a road for them to pass over.
Isaiah Chapter 52
God will deliver Zion from captivity
1 Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for the uncircumcised and the unclean shall no more come into you.
2 Shake yourself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem; loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
3 For thus says the Lord: “You were sold for nothing, and without money you shall be redeemed.”
4 For thus says the Lord God: “My people went down to Egypt in days of old to sojourn there, and the Assyrian took them captive without cause.
5 And now what have I done here,” says the Lord, “since my people are taken away for nothing? And those who rule over them make them howl,” says the Lord, “and my name is continually blasphemed all day long.
6 Therefore my people shall know my name; therefore in that day they shall know my name: for it is I who speak; behold, I am here.”
7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
8 The voice of your watchmen lifts up its voice; together they shout for joy, for they will see eye to eye when the Lord returns to Zion.
9 Break forth into joyful song and sing together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord has bared his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
11 Depart, depart, go out from there; touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the Lord.
12 For you shall not go out in haste, nor shall you go in flight; For the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
Sufferings of the Servant of Jehovah
13 See, my servant will prosper; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
14 Just as there were many who were astonished at him—his appearance was so marred beyond human likeness and his form beyond that of any human being—
15 so he will startle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths because of him, for what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.
Isaiah Chapter 53
1 Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the Lord to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11 After the suffering of his soul, he shall see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong; because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors; for he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Isaiah Chapter 54
Jehovah's eternal love for Israel
1 Rejoice, O barren one, you who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who were not in labor; for more are the children of the desolate woman than the children of her who has a husband, says the Lord.
2 Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; do not spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.
3 For you shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations and make their desolate cities inhabited.
4 Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; do not be humiliated, for you will not be put to shame; you will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.
5 For your Maker is your husband—the Lord of hosts is his name—and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; he is called the God of all the earth.
6 For the Lord has called you back like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, like a wife of one’s youth who is rejected, says your God.
7 For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you.
8 In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you, says the Lord your Redeemer.
9 This is like the days of Noah to me, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you.
10 Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
11 Afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in antimony and lay your foundations with sapphires.
12 I will make your windows of precious stones, your gates of carbuncles, and all your walls of precious stones.
13 All your children will be taught by the Lord, and great will be their peace.
14 In righteousness you will be established; you will be far from oppression, for you will have no fear, and from terror, for it will not come near you.
15 If anyone plots against you, it will not be with my consent; whoever plots against you will fall before you.
16 See, I have created the blacksmith who blows the coals in the fire and forges a weapon for its work; and I have created the destroyer to wreak havoc.
17 No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me, declares the Lord.
Isaiah Chapter 55
Free mercy for all
1 Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
2 Why spend your money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
3 Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.
4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a ruler and commander for the nations.
5 Surely you will summon nations you do not know, and nations that do not know you will run to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
8 “ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there but water the earth, making it bud and flourish, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
12 For you will go out with joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thornbush will grow the cypress, and instead of the nettle will spring up the myrtle; and it will be to the Lord for renown, for an everlasting sign that will endure forever.
Isaiah Chapter 56
Reward for those who keep God's covenant
1 Thus says the Lord: “Maintain justice and do righteousness, for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.
2 Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold of it, who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.
3 Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord speak, saying, ‘The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.’ Let not the eunuch say, ‘Behold, I am a dry tree.’
4 For thus says the Lord: ‘To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me, and hold fast my covenant—
5 to them I will give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.
6 And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants— All who keep the Sabbath without profaning it, and who hold fast to my covenant,
7 I will bring to my holy mountain, and give them joy in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.
8 The Lord God, who gathers the dispersed of Israel, says: I will gather yet more to him his gathered ones.
9 All you beasts of the field, all you wild animals of the forest, come to devour.
10 Their watchmen are blind, all of them ignorant; all of them are mute dogs, they cannot bark; slumbering, lying down, they love to sleep.
11 And these greedy dogs are never satisfied; and the shepherds themselves do not know how to understand; they all go their own way, each one seeking his own gain, each one for himself.
12 “Come,” they say, “let us get wine, let us fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow will be like today, or even better.”
Isaiah Chapter 57
Condemnation of Israel's idolatry
1 The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are killed, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away from the face of trouble.
2 Those who walk uprightly will enter into peace and find rest in their beds.
3 But you, come here, you children of the sorceress, you offspring of the adulterer and the prostitute!
4 Whom have you mocked? Against whom have you opened your mouths wide and stuck out your tongues? Are you not rebellious children, a lying generation,
5 who burn with fervor for idols under every green tree, who sacrifice your children in the valleys, under the rocks?
6 Your portion is on the smooth stones of the valley; they are your lot; you have poured out drink offerings on them and offered grain offerings. Should I not punish these things?
7 You have made your bed on a high and lofty mountain; There you also went up to offer sacrifice.
8 You placed your memorial behind the door and the threshold; for you uncovered yourself to another, and not to me, and went up, and enlarged your bed, and made a covenant with them; you loved their bed wherever you saw it.
9 You went to the king with ointment, and multiplied your perfumes, and sent your ambassadors far away, and you humbled yourself to the depths of Sheol.
10 You were wearied by the multitude of your ways, but you did not say, “There is no remedy”; you found new strength in your hand, therefore you were not discouraged.
11 And of whom did you dread and fear, that you have lacked faith, and have not remembered me, nor taken me to heart? Have I not kept silent from ancient times, and have you not feared me?
12 I will declare your righteousness and your deeds, but they will not profit you.
13 When you cry out, let your idols deliver you; but the wind will carry them all away, a breath will snatch them away; but he who trusts in me will inherit the land and possess my holy mountain.
14 And he will say, “Build up, build up; clear the way, remove the obstacles from the path of my people.”
15 For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”
16 For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry; for then the spirit would fail before me, and the souls I have created.
17 Because of the iniquity of their covetousness I was angry, and I struck them; I hid my face and was indignant; and they went on rebelling in the way of their heart.
18 I have seen their ways, but I will heal them; I will guide them and give comfort to them and to their mourners.
19 I will produce the fruit of the lips: “Peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near,” says the Lord, “and I will heal them.”
20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
21 “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”
Isaiah Chapter 58
True fasting
1 Cry aloud, do not hold back; raise your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the law of their God; they ask me for righteous judgments and delight to draw near to God.
3 “Why have we fasted,” they say, “and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?” Yet on the day of your fasting you do as you please and oppress all your workers.
4 Yet you fast only to quarrel and fight and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You cannot fast as you do today, to make your voice heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is this what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?
6 Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here I am. If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing finger, and malicious talk;
10 If you give your bread to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your darkness will become like midday.
11 The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
Observance of the Sabbath
13 If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or speaking your own words,
14 then you shall take delight in the Lord; and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Isaiah chapter 59
Confession of Israel's sin
1 Behold, the Lord’s arm is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor his ear heavy, that it cannot hear.
2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, that he will not hear.
3 For your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with guilt; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness.
4 No one calls for justice, no one pleads for truth; they trust in vanity and speak lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
5 They hatch the eggs of vipers and spin spiders’ webs; whoever eats their eggs will die, and if they crush them, vipers will hatch.
6 Their webs are not for clothing, nor can they cover themselves with their works; their works are works of iniquity, and the work of violence is in their hands.
7 Their feet rush to evil, they hasten to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; ruin and destruction are in their paths.
8 They do not know the way of peace, nor is there justice in their ways; their paths are crooked; whoever walks in them will not know peace.
9 Therefore justice is far from us, and uprightness does not reach us; we look for light, but behold, darkness; for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
10 We grope along the wall like the blind, and we groan like those without eyes; we stumble at midday as in the night; we are in the dark places like the dead.
11 We all growl like bears, and moan pitifully like doves; we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; For our iniquities are with us, and we know our sins:
13 To transgress and lie against the Lord, and to turn away from following our God; to speak slander and rebellion, to conceive and utter from the heart words of falsehood.
14 So justice is withdrawn, and righteousness stands far off; for truth has stumbled in the public square, and equity cannot enter.
15 Truth is restrained, and he who departs from evil is put in prison; and the Lord saw it, and it displeased him, for justice has perished.
16 And he saw that there was no man, and marveled that there was no one to intercede; so his own arm brought him salvation, and his own righteousness sustained him.
17 For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak,
18 as for vindication, as to repay his enemies in wrath, and to give recompense to his adversaries; he will repay those of the coastlands.
19 From the west they shall fear the name of the Lord, and from the rising of the sun his glory; for the enemy shall come in like a flood, but the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.
20 The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, declares the Lord.
21 And this is my covenant with them, declares the Lord: My Spirit, who is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouths of your children, nor from the mouths of your children’s children, declares the Lord, from this time forth and forevermore.
Isaiah Chapter 60
The future glory of Zion
1 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.
3 Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
4 Lift up your eyes all around and see: all these gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried on the hip.
5 Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall marvel and swell with joy, because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, and the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
6 A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold and frankincense, and proclaim the praises of the Lord.
7 All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you, the rams of Nebaioth shall serve you; They will be offered with pleasure on my altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory.
8 Who are these that fly like clouds, and like doves to their windows?
9 Surely the coastlands will wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish will come first, to bring your children from afar, their silver and gold with them, to the name of the Lord your God, and to the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.
10 Foreigners will rebuild your walls, and their kings will serve you; for in my anger I punished you, but in my favor I will have mercy on you.
11 Your gates will always stand open; they will never be shut, day or night, so that the wealth of the nations may be brought to you, and their kings led in procession.
12 For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish and be utterly laid waste.
13 The glory of Lebanon will come to you, the cypress, the pine, and the box tree together, to adorn the place of my sanctuary; and I will glorify the place of my feet.
14 The children of those who afflicted you will come bowing down to you, and all who despised you will bow down at the footsteps of yours, and they will call you the City of the Lord, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
15 Instead of being forsaken and hated, so that no one passed through you, I will make you an eternal glory, the joy of all ages.
16 You will drink the milk of nations, you will nurse at the breast of kings; and you will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
17 Instead of bronze I will bring gold, and instead of iron silver, and instead of wood bronze, and instead of stones iron; and I will make peace your tribute, and righteousness your oppressors.
18 Violence will no longer be heard in your land, nor destruction or ruin within your borders, but you will call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.
19 The sun will no longer be your light by day, nor the brightness of the moon shine on you, but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God your glory.
20 Your sun will never set again, nor will your moon wane, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning will be over.
21 Your people, all of them, will be righteous; they will inherit the land forever, the branch I have planted, the work of my hands, for the display of my splendor.
22 The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation. I, the Lord, will do this swiftly in its time.
Isaiah Chapter 61
Good news of salvation for Zion
1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;
3 to provide for those who mourn in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.
4 They shall rebuild the ancient ruins, and raise up the former desolations, and renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.
5 Strangers shall feed your flocks, and foreigners shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.
6 And you shall be called priests of the Lord, you shall be named ministers of our God; You will eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory you will exalt yourselves.
7 Instead of your double shame and dishonor, you will be praised in your inheritances; therefore you will possess double honor in your lands, and everlasting joy will be yours.
8 For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing. In faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them.
9 Their descendants will be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed.
10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with garments of salvation, he has covered me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
Isaiah Chapter 62
1 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a blazing torch.
2 The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.
3 You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
4 No longer will you be called Forsaken, nor will your land be called Desolate; but you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the Lord will take delight in you, and your land will be married.
5 As a young man marries a virgin, so will your sons marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.
6 I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who remember the Lord, give no rest,
7 and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth.
8 The Lord has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm: “Never again will I give your grain as food to your enemies, nor will foreigners drink the wine you have toiled for.
9 But those who harvest it will eat it and praise the Lord; those who gather the grapes will drink it in the courts of my sanctuary.”
10 Go through, go through the gates! Prepare the way for the people! Make straight, make straight the highway; remove the stones! Raise a banner for the nations!
11 See, the Lord has proclaimed to the ends of the earth: “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your Savior comes! See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.’”
12 They will be called the Holy People, the Redeemed of the Lord; and you will be called the City You Desire, Not Forsaken.
Isaiah Chapter 63
The day of Jehovah's vengeance
1 Who is this who comes from Edom, from Bozrah, clothed in crimson? Who is this, resplendent in his robes, marching in the greatness of his strength? “I am he, proclaiming righteousness, mighty to save.”
2 Why is your clothing red, and your garments like those of one who treads the winepress?
3 I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the nations no one was with me; I trodden them in my anger, and trampled them down in my wrath; their blood spattered my garments, and stained all my clothing.
4 For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed has come.
5 I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled that there was no one to uphold me; so my own arm brought me salvation, and my wrath sustained me.
6 In my anger I trampled down the nations, and in my fury I made them drunk, and poured out their blood on the ground.
7 I will remember the mercies of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has given us, and the greatness of his benefits to the house of Israel, which he has done for them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his compassions.
8 For he said, “Surely they are my people, children who do not lie”; and he became their Savior.
9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his compassion he redeemed them, and carried them and lifted them up all the days of old.
10 But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; therefore he turned to be their enemy, and he himself fought against them.
11 But he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, saying, “Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? Where is he who put his Holy Spirit in their midst,
12 who led them at the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm? He who divided the waters before them, making for himself an everlasting name,
13 who led them through the depths, like a horse through the desert, without them stumbling?
14 The Spirit of the Lord shepherded them, like a beast going down into the valley; so you shepherded your people, to make for yourself a glorious name.
Prayer asking for mercy and help
15 Look down from heaven, and see from your holy and glorious dwelling place. Where is your zeal and your power, the yearning of your heart and your compassion toward me? Have they been withheld?
16 Yet you are our Father, though Abraham ignores us and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O Lord, are our Father; our Redeemer from of old is your name.
17 Why, O Lord, have you made us stray from your ways and hardened our hearts so that we do not fear you? Return for the sake of your servants, for the tribes of your inheritance.
18 For a little while your holy people possessed it, but our enemies have trampled your sanctuary underfoot.
19 We have become like those over whom you have not ruled, and over whom your name has never been called.
Isaiah Chapter 64
1 Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble at your presence!
2 Like a fire that sets the furnace ablaze, like fire that makes the waters boil, to make your name known to your enemies, and that the nations would tremble at your presence!
3 When you came down, doing awesome deeds we never expected, the mountains trembled before you.
4 No one has ever heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
5 You came out to meet those who gladly do what is right, those who remember you in your ways. But you were angry because we have sinned; we have persisted in our sins for a long time. Can we then be saved?
6 For we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have swept us away.
7 There is no one who calls on your name, who rouses himself to take refuge in you; therefore you have hidden your face from us and left us to wither away in the power of our iniquities.
8 Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
9 Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, nor remember sin forever; behold, look now, we are all your people.
10 Your holy cities are deserted; Zion is a desert, Jerusalem a wasteland.
11 The house of our sanctuary and of our glory, in which our fathers praised you, has been consumed by fire; all our precious things are destroyed.
12 Will you remain silent, O Lord, in these things? Will you keep quiet and afflict us greatly?
Isaiah Chapter 65
Punishment of the rebels
1 I was sought by those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. I said to a nation that did not call on my name, “Here I am, here I am.”
2 All day long I have held out my hands to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own thoughts;
3 a people who continually provoke me to anger to my face, sacrificing in gardens and burning incense on bricks;
4 who lie among the graves and spend the night in secret places; who eat pig’s flesh, and in their pots is broth of unclean things;
5 who say, “Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am holier than you.” These are smoke in my wrath, a fire that burns all day long.
6 See, it is written before me; I will not keep silent, but will repay, and I will give into their laps
7 for your iniquities, says the Lord, and for the iniquities of your fathers as well, who burned incense on the mountains and reproached me on the hills; therefore I will measure out their former deeds into their laps.
8 Thus says the Lord: As one finds new wine in a cluster of grapes, and says, “Do not waste it, for there is a blessing in it,” so I will do for my servants, that I will not destroy it all.
9 I will bring forth offspring from Jacob, and from Judah an heir of my mountains; my chosen ones shall possess the land for their inheritance, and my servants shall dwell there.
10 Sharon shall be a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a resting place for herds, for my people who have sought me.
11 But you who forsake the Lord, who forget my holy mountain, who set a table for Fortune and fill up drink offerings for Destiny—
12 I will also destine you to the sword, and all of you will kneel down to be slaughtered, because when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not listen, but you did what was evil in my sight and chose what displeased me.
13 Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; my servants will drink, but you will go thirsty; my servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame;
14 Behold, my servants will sing for joy of heart, but you will cry out in anguish of heart and wail in brokenness of spirit.
15 You will leave your name as a curse to my chosen ones, and the Lord God will slay you, but will call his servants by another name.
16 Whoever blesses himself in the land, blesses himself in the God of truth; and whoever swears in the land, swears by the God of truth; for the former troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my eyes.
New heavens and a new earth
17 For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem a delight, and its people a joy.
19 I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; and the sound of weeping and of crying shall no more be heard in it.
20 Never again shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; for the child shall die at a hundred years old, and the sinner at a hundred years old shall be considered accursed.
21 They shall build houses and dwell in them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 They shall not build so that another may live in them, nor plant so that another may eat; for as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of my people, and my chosen ones shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
23 They will not labor in vain, nor bear children doomed to misfortune; for they are the offspring of those blessed by the Lord, and their descendants with them.
24 Before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy o
Isaiah Chapter 66
Jehovah's judgments and the future prosperity of Zion
1 Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me, and where will be the place of my rest?
2 My hand made all these things, and so all these things came into being,” declares the Lord. “These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.
3 He who sacrifices an ox is like one who kills a man, and he who sacrifices a lamb is like one who breaks a dog’s neck. He who presents a grain offering is like one who offers pig’s blood, and he who burns incense is like one who blesses an idol. Because they have chosen their own ways, and their souls delight in their abominations,
4 I also will choose their derisions and bring upon them what they dread. For when I called, no one answered; when I spoke, they did not listen, but they did what was evil in my sight and chose what displeased me.”
5 Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word: Your brothers who hate you and cast you out because of my name have said, “Let the Lord be glorified!” But he will appear to your joy, and they will be put to shame.
6 A sound of tumult from the city, a sound from the temple, the voice of the Lord repaying his enemies.
7 Before she was in labor, she gave birth; before her pain came upon her, she delivered a son.
8 Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be conceived in a day? Can a nation be born in a moment? Yet as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children.
9 “Shall I, who cause to bring forth, not bring forth?” says the Lord. “Shall I, who cause to bring forth, shut the womb?” says your God.
10 Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; Be filled with joy through her, all you who mourn over her,
11 so that you may nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts, so that you may drink deeply and be delighted with the brightness of her glory.
12 For thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse and be carried on her arms and dandled on her knees.
13 As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; and you shall be comforted over Jerusalem.
14 You will see, and your heart will rejoice, and your bones will flourish like grass; the hand of the Lord will be known to his servants, and his wrath will be against his enemies.
15 For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and his chariots like a whirlwind, to pour out his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.”
16 For the Lord will judge all mankind with fire and with his sword; and the slain of the Lord will be many.
17 Those who consecrate themselves and purify themselves in the gardens, one after another, those who eat the flesh of swine, the abomination, and the mouse, will be destroyed together, declares the Lord.
18 For I know their works and their thoughts. The time is coming to gather all nations and languages, and they will come and see my glory.
19 I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who escape to the nations—to Tarshish, Put, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the distant coastlands that have not heard of me or seen my glory. And they will proclaim my glory among the nations.
20 And they will bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the Lord, on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules, and on camels, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, declares the Lord, just as the Israelites bring their offerings in clean vessels to the house of the Lord.
21 I will also take some of them to be priests and Levites, declares the Lord.
22 For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make will remain before me, declares the Lord, so will your descendants and your name remain.
23 From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh will come to worship before me, declares the Lord.
24 And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who rebelled against me; for their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be an abomination to all mankind.