Isaiah 55-57

Complete Jewish Bible

55 “All you who are thirsty, come to the water!
You without money, come, buy, and eat!
Yes, come! Buy wine and milk
without money — it’s free!
² Why spend money for what isn’t food,
your wages for what doesn’t satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and you will eat well,
you will enjoy the fat of the land.
³ Open your ears, and come to me;
listen well, and you will live —
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
the grace I assured David.
⁴ I have given him as a witness to the peoples,
a leader and lawgiver for the peoples.
⁵ You will summon a nation you do not know,
and a nation that doesn’t know you will run to you,
for the sake of Adonai your God,
the Holy One of Isra’el, who will glorify you.”

⁶ Seek Adonai while he is available,
call on him while he is still nearby.
⁷ Let the wicked person abandon his way
and the evil person his thoughts;
let him return to Adonai,
and he will have mercy on him;
let him return to our God,
for he will freely forgive.

⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
and your ways are not my ways,” says Adonai.
⁹ “As high as the sky is above the earth
are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
¹⁰ For just as rain and snow fall from the sky
and do not return there, but water the earth,
causing it to bud and produce,
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 unfulfilled;
but it will accomplish what I intend,
and cause to succeed what I sent it to do.”

¹² Yes, you will go out with joy,
you will be led forth in peace.
As you come, the mountains and hills
will burst out into song,
and all the trees in the countryside
will clap their hands.
¹³ Cypresses will grow in place of thorns,
myrtles will grow instead of briars.
This will bring fame to Adonai
as an eternal, imperishable sign.

56 Here is what Adonai says:

“Observe justice, do what is right,
for my salvation is close to coming,
my righteousness to being revealed.”
² Happy is the person who does this,
anyone who grasps it firmly,
who keeps Shabbat and does not profane it,
and keeps himself from doing any evil.

³ A foreigner joining Adonai should not say,
“Adonai will separate me from his people”;
likewise the eunuch should not say,
“I am only a dried-up tree.”

⁴ For here is what Adonai says:
“As for the eunuchs who keep my Shabbats,
who choose what pleases me
and hold fast to my covenant:
⁵ in my house, within my walls,
I will give them power and a name
greater than sons and daughters;
I will give him an everlasting name
that will not be cut off.

⁶ “And the foreigners who join themselves to Adonai
to serve him, to love the name of Adonai,
and to be his workers,
all who keep Shabbat and do not profane it,
and hold fast to my covenant,
⁷ I will bring them to my holy mountain
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called
a house of prayer for all peoples.”
⁸ Adonai Elohim says,
he who gathers Isra’el’s exiles:
“There are yet others I will gather,
besides those gathered already.”

⁹ All you wild animals, come and devour,
yes, all you animals in the forest!
¹⁰ [Isra’el’s] watchmen are, all of them, blind;
they don’t know anything.
They are all dumb dogs, unable to bark,
lying there dreaming, loving to sleep.
¹¹ Greedy dogs, never satisfied —
such are the shepherds, unable to understand;
they all turn to their own way,
each one intent on his own gain:
¹² “Come, I’ll get some wine,
we’ll fill up on good, strong liquor!
Tomorrow will be like today;
in fact, it will be even better!”

57 The righteous person perishes,
and nobody gives it a thought.
Godly men are taken away,
and no one understands
that the righteous person is taken away
from the evil yet to come.
² Yes, those who live uprightly
will have peace as they rest on their couches.

³ “But you, you witches’ children, come here,
you spawn of adulterers and whores!
⁴ Whom are you making fun of?
At whom are you laughing and sticking out your tongue?
Aren’t you rebellious children,
just a brood of liars?
⁵ You go into heat among the oak trees,
under every spreading tree.
You kill the children in the valleys
under the cracks in the rocks.
⁶ Your place is among the smooth stones in the vadi;
these, these are what you deserve;
you pour out drink offerings to them,
you offer grain offerings to them.
Should I calmly ignore these things?
⁷ You set up your bed on a high, lofty mountain;
you also went up there to offer sacrifices.
⁸ Behind door and doorpost
you set up your [lewd] memorial;
then, far from me, you uncovered your bed,
climbed up on it and opened it wide,
made an agreement with some of them,
whose bed you loved when you saw their hand beckoning.
⁹ You went to the king with scented oil;
you added to your perfumes;
you sent your envoys far away,
even down to Sh’ol.
¹⁰ Though worn out by so much travel,
you did not say, ‘All hope is gone’;
rather, finding your strength renewed,
you did not grow weak.
¹¹ Of whom have you been so afraid,
so fearful that you lied?
But me you don’t remember,
you don’t give me a thought!
I have held my peace so long
that you no longer fear me.
¹² I will expose your [so-called] ‘righteousness’;
and what you have done won’t help you.
¹³ When you cry, will those [idols] you gathered rescue you?
The wind will carry them all away,
a puff of air will take them off.
But whoever takes refuge in me will possess
the land and inherit my holy mountain.”

¹⁴ Then he will say,

“Keep building! Keep building! Clear the way!
Remove everything blocking my people’s path!”
¹⁵ For thus says the High, Exalted One
who lives forever, whose name is Holy:
“I live in the high and holy place
but also with the broken and humble,
in order to revive the spirit of the humble
and revive the hearts of the broken ones.
¹⁶ For I will not fight them forever
or always nurse my anger;
otherwise their spirits would faint before me,
the creatures I myself have made.
¹⁷ It was because of their flagrant greed
that I was angry and struck them;
I hid myself and was angry,
but they continued on their own rebellious way.
¹⁸ I have seen their ways, and I will heal them;
I will lead them and give comfort
to them and to those who mourn for them —
¹⁹ I will create the right words:
‘Shalom shalom to those far off
and to those nearby!’ says Adonai;
‘I will heal them!’”

²⁰ But the wicked are like the restless sea —
unable to be still,
its waters toss up mud and dirt.
²¹ There is no shalom, says my God,
for the wicked.