Isaiah 54-55

Common English Bible

Sing, barren woman

54 Sing, barren woman who has borne no child;
    break forth into singing and cry out,
        you who were never in labor,
    for the children of the wife who has been deserted will be more numerous than the children of the married, says the Lord.
²Enlarge the site of your tent,
    and stretch out the drapes of your dwellings;
    don’t hold back.
    Lengthen your tent ropes and strengthen your stakes.
³    To the right and to the left you will burst out,
    and your children will possess the nations’ land
    and settle their desolate cities.

⁴Don’t fear,
    because you won’t be ashamed;
    don’t be dismayed,
    because you won’t be disgraced.
You will forget the shame of your youth;
    you’ll no longer remember the disgrace of your widowhood.
⁵The one marrying you is the one who made you—
    the Lord of heavenly forces is his name.
The one redeeming you is the holy one of Israel,
    the one called the God of all the earth.
⁶As an abandoned and dejected woman the Lord has summoned you;
    as a young wife when she is rejected,
        says your God.
⁷For a brief moment I abandoned you,
    but with great mercy I will bring you back.
⁸    In an outburst of rage,
    I hid my face from you for a moment,
    but with everlasting love I have consoled you,
    says your redeemer, the Lord.

⁹These are like the days^[a] of Noah for me,
    when I promised that Noah’s waters would never again cover the earth.
    Likewise I promise not to rage against you or rebuke you.
¹⁰The mountains may shift,
    and the hills may be shaken,
    but my faithful love won’t shift from you,
    and my covenant of peace won’t be shaken,
    says the Lord, the one who pities you.

¹¹Suffering one, storm-tossed, uncomforted,
    look, I am setting your gemstones in silvery metal
    and your foundations with sapphires.
¹²I will make your towers of rubies,
    and your gates of beryl,
    and all your walls of precious jewels.
¹³    All your children will be disciples of the Lord—
    I will make peace abound for your children.
¹⁴You will be firmly founded in righteousness.
    You will stay far from oppression because you won’t fear,
    far from terror because it won’t come near you.
¹⁵If anyone attacks you, it’s none of my doing.
    Whoever attacks you will fall because of you.
¹⁶Look, I myself created the metalworker who blows the fire of coal and who produces a tool for his work.
    And I myself created the looter to destroy.
¹⁷No weapon fashioned against you will succeed,
    and you may condemn every tongue that disputes with you.
This is the heritage of the Lord’s servants,
    whose righteousness comes from me, says the Lord.

Invitation to the feast

55 All of you who are thirsty, come to the water!
Whoever has no money, come, buy food and eat!
Without money, at no cost, buy wine and milk!
²Why spend money for what isn’t food,
    and your earnings for what doesn’t satisfy?
Listen carefully to me and eat what is good;
    enjoy the richest of feasts.
³Listen and come to me;
    listen, and you will live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
    my faithful loyalty to David.
⁴Look, I made him a witness to the peoples,
    a prince and commander of peoples.
⁵Look, you will call a nation you don’t know,
    a nation you don’t know will run to you
    because of the Lord your God,
    the holy one of Israel, who has glorified you.

⁶Seek the Lord when he can still be found;
    call him while he is yet near.
⁷Let the wicked abandon their ways
    and the sinful their schemes.
Let them return to the Lord so that he may have mercy on them,
    to our God, because he is generous with forgiveness.
⁸My plans aren’t your plans,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
⁹Just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways,
    and my plans than your plans.
¹⁰Just as the rain and the snow come down from the sky
        and don’t return there without watering the earth,
        making it conceive and yield plants
        and providing seed to the sower and food to the eater,
¹¹    so is my word that comes from my mouth;
        it does not return to me empty.
        Instead, it does what I want,
        and accomplishes what I intend.

¹²Yes, you will go out with celebration,
    and you will be brought back in peace.
Even the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you;
    all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
¹³In place of the thorn the cypress will grow;
    in place of the nettle the myrtle will grow.
This will attest to the Lord’s stature,
        an enduring reminder that won’t be removed.