Isaiah 56
Modern English Version
Salvation for the Nations
56 Thus says the Lord:
Preserve justice
and do righteousness,
for My salvation is about to come
and My righteousness to be revealed.
2 Blessed is the man who does this,
and the son of man who takes hold of it,
who keeps from polluting the Sabbath
and keeps his hand from doing any evil.
3 Do not let the son of the foreigner
who has joined himself to the Lord
speak, saying,
“The Lord has utterly separated me from His people”;
do not let the eunuch say,
“I am only a dry tree.”
4 For thus says the Lord:
To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths,
and choose the things that please Me,
and take hold of My covenant,
5 to them I will give in My house and within My walls
a memorial, and a name
better than that of sons and of daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that shall not be cut off.
6 Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord
to serve Him,
and to love the name of the Lord,
and to be His servants,
to everyone who keeps from polluting the Sabbath
and takes hold of My covenant,
7 even them I will bring to My holy mountain
and make them joyful in My house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
shall be accepted on My altar;
for My house shall be called
a house of prayer for all people.
8 The Lord God
who gathers the outcasts of Israel says,
Yet I will gather others to them
besides those who already are gathered to him.
God Accuses the Wicked
9 All you beasts of the field,
all you beasts in the forest, come to devour.
10 His watchmen are blind;
they all are ignorant;
they all are dumb dogs,
unable to bark;
sleepers lying down,
who love to slumber.
11 They are greedy dogs
which can never have enough,
and they are shepherds who cannot understand;
they all turn to their own way,
every one for his gain, from his territory.
12 “Come,” they say, “let us get wine,
and let us fill ourselves with strong drink;
and tomorrow shall be as today,
only more so.”
Isaiah 10-12
Modern English Version
10 Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees
and who write unjust judgments which they have prescribed
2 to turn aside the needy from justice
and to take away the right from the poor of My people,
that widows may be their prey,
and that they may rob the fatherless!
3 And what will you do in the day of punishment
and in the desolation which shall come from afar?
To whom will you flee for help,
and where will you leave your wealth?
4 Nothing remains but to bow down among the prisoners,
and they shall fall among the slain.
For all this His anger is not turned away,
and His hand is stretched out still.
Judgment on Assyria
5 Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger
and the staff in whose hand is My indignation.
6 I will send him against an ungodly nation,
and against the people of My wrath I will give him a command,
to seize the plunder, to take the prey,
and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
7 However he does not so intend,
nor does he plan so in his heart;
but his purpose is to destroy
and to cut off many nations.
8 For he says, “Are not my princes altogether kings?
9 Is not Kalno as Carchemish?
Is not Hamath as Arpad?
Is not Samaria as Damascus?
10 As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols
whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,
11 shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols,
so do to Jerusalem and her idols?”
12 When the Lord has performed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria and the glory of his high looks.” 13 For he says:
“By the strength of my hand and by my wisdom,
I have done it, for I am prudent;
and I have removed the bounds of the people,
and have robbed their treasures,
and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man.
14 And my hand has found as a nest
the riches of the people,
and as one gathers eggs that are left,
I have gathered all the earth
and there was no one who moved the wing
or opened the mouth or peeped.”
15 Shall the axe boast itself against him who hews with it?
Or shall the saw magnify itself against him who wields it?
That is as if the rod wields itself against those who lift it up,
or as if the staff should lift itself up as if it were not wood.
16 Therefore the Lord, God of Hosts,
shall send leanness among his stout ones,
and under his glory he shall kindle a burning
like the burning of a fire.
17 The light of Israel shall be a fire,
and his Holy One a flame,
and it shall burn and devour
his thorns and his briers in one day,
18 and shall consume the glory of his forest,
and of his fruitful field, both soul and body;
and it shall be as when a sick man faints.
19 The rest of the trees of his forest shall be so few
that a child may write them down.
The Returning Remnant of Israel
20 In that day the remnant of Israel
and those who have escaped of the house of Jacob
shall never again depend on him
who struck them,
but shall depend on the Lord,
the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21 The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob,
to the mighty God.
22 For though your people, O Israel, are as the sand of the sea,
yet a remnant of them shall return;
the destruction is decreed,
overflowing with righteousness.
23 For the Lord God of Hosts shall make a complete destruction,
as decreed, in the midst of all the land.
24 Therefore, thus says the Lord God of Hosts:
O My people who dwell in Zion,
do not be afraid of the Assyrian.
He shall strike you with a rod
and shall lift up his staff against you, after the manner of Egypt.
25 For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease,
and My anger will be directed to their destruction.
26 The Lord of Hosts shall stir up a scourge for him
according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb;
and as His rod was over the sea, so shall He lift it up
after the manner of Egypt.
27 In that day his burden shall be taken away from off your shoulder,
and his yoke from off your neck;
and the yoke shall be destroyed
because of the anointing oil.
28 He has come against Aiath,
he has passed through Migron;
at Mikmash he has laid up his carriages.
29 They are gone over the pass,
they have taken up their lodging at Geba.
Ramah is afraid,
Gibeah of Saul has fled.
30 Lift up your voice, O daughter of Gallim.
Listen, Laishah
and poor Anathoth.
31 Madmenah has fled,
the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.
32 Yet today he shall remain at Nob;
he shakes his fist
against the mount of the daughter of Zion,
the hill of Jerusalem.
33 See, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts,
shall lop the bough with terror;
and the tall ones of stature shall be hewn down,
and the haughty shall be humbled.
34 He shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron,
and Lebanon shall fall by the Mighty One.
The Righteous Branch of Jesse
11 And there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
2 The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
3 He shall delight in the fear of the Lord,
and he shall not judge by what his eyes see,
nor reprove by what his ears hear;
4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and reprove with fairness for the meek of the earth.
He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his loins,
and faithfulness the belt about his waist.
6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
and a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young ones shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child shall play by the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den.
9 They shall not hurt or destroy
in all My holy mountain,
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord,
as the waters cover the sea.
10 In that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the peoples. For him shall the nations seek. And his rest shall be glorious. 11 In that day the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, who shall be left, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
12 He shall set up a banner for the nations,
and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel,
and gather together the dispersed of Judah
from the four corners of the earth.
13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart,
and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.
14 But they shall swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines towards the west;
they shall plunder the sons of the east together;
they shall lay their hand on Edom and Moab,
and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
15 The Lord shall utterly destroy
the tongue of the Egyptian sea,
and with His mighty wind He shall shake His hand
over the River,[a]
and shall strike it into seven streams,
and make men walk over dry-shod.
16 There shall be a highway for the remnant of His people,
who will be left from Assyria,
as it was for Israel
when he came up from the land of Egypt.
Hymns of Praise
12 And in that day you shall say:
O Lord, I will praise You;
though You were angry with me,
Your anger has turned away,
and You comforted me.
2 Certainly God is my salvation;
I will trust and not be afraid;
for the Lord God is my strength and my song;
He also has become my salvation.
3 Therefore with joy you shall draw water
out of the wells of salvation.
4 In that day you shall say:
Praise the Lord, call upon His name,
declare His deeds among the peoples,
make them remember that His name is exalted.
5 Sing to the Lord, for He has done excellent things;
let this be known in all the earth.
6 Cry out and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion.
For great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 11:15 Euphrates River.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.