Isaiah 56-66

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

56 Thus says the Lord:
    Maintain justice, and do what is right,
for soon my salvation will come
    and my deliverance be revealed.^(A)

⁹ All you wild animals,
    all you wild animals in the forest, come to devour!^(I)
10 Israel’s^[b] sentinels are blind;
    they are all without knowledge;
they are all silent dogs
    that cannot bark,
dreaming, lying down,
    loving to slumber.^(J)
11 The dogs have a mighty appetite;
    they never have enough.
The shepherds also have no understanding;
    they have all turned to their own way,
    to their own gain, one and all.
¹² “Come,” they say, “let us^[c] get wine;
    let us fill ourselves with strong drink.
And tomorrow will be like today,
    great beyond measure.”

57 The righteous perish,
    and no one considers why;
the devout are taken away,
    while no one understands
    that it is due to evil that the righteous are taken away.^(K)
2 Those who walk uprightly enter into peace
    and rest on their couches.^(L)
3 But as for you, come here,
    you children of a sorceress,
    you offspring of an adulterer and a prostitute.^[d](M)
4 Whom are you mocking?
    Against whom do you open your mouth wide
    and stick out your tongue?
Are you not children of transgression,
    the offspring of deceit—^(N)
5 you who burn with lust among the oaks,
    under every green tree;
you who slaughter your children in the valleys,
    under the clefts of the rocks?^(O)
6 Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion;
    it is they who are your lot;
to them you have poured out a drink offering;
    you have brought a grain offering.
    Should these acts cause me to relent?^(P)
7 Upon a high and lofty mountain
    you have set your bed,
    and there you went up to offer sacrifice.^(Q)
8 Behind the door and the doorpost
    you have set up your symbol,
for in deserting me^[e] you have uncovered your bed;
    you have gone up to it;
    you have made it wide;
and you have made a bargain for yourself with them;
    you have loved their bed;
    you have gazed on their nakedness.^[f](R)
9 You journeyed to Molech^[g] with oil
    and multiplied your perfumes;
you sent your envoys far away
    and sent them down to Sheol.^(S)
10 You grew weary from your many wanderings,
    but you did not say, “It is no use!”
You found your desire rekindled,
    and so you did not weaken.^(T)

¹⁴ It shall be said,
“Build up, build up, prepare the way;
    remove every obstruction from my people’s way.”^(W)
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 those who are contrite and humble in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the humble
    and to revive the heart of the contrite.^(X)
16 For I will not continually accuse,
    nor will I always be angry,
for then the spirits would grow faint before me,
    even the souls that I have made.^(Y)
17 Because of their wicked covetousness I was angry;
    I struck them; I hid and was angry,
    but they kept turning back to their own ways.^(Z)
18 I have seen their ways, but I will heal them;
    I will lead them and repay them with comfort,
¹⁹     creating for their mourners the fruit of the lips.^[i]
Peace, peace, to the far and the near, says the Lord,
    and I will heal them.^(AA)
20 But the wicked are like the tossing sea
    that cannot keep still;
    its waters toss up mire and mud.^(AB)
21 There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked.^(AC)

58 Shout out; do not hold back!
    Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Announce to my people their rebellion,
    to the house of Jacob their sins.^(AD)
2 Yet day after day they seek me
    and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness
    and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments;
    they want God on their side.^[j](AE)
3 “Why do we fast, but you do not see?
    Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”
Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day
    and oppress all your workers.^(AF)
4 You fast only to quarrel and to fight
    and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today
    will not make your voice heard on high.^(AG)
5 Is such the fast that I choose,
    a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush
    and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast,
    a day acceptable to the Lord?^(AH)

59 See, the Lord’s arm is not too short to save,
    nor his ear too dull to hear.^(AR)
2 Rather, your iniquities have been barriers
    between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
    so that he does not hear.^(AS)
3 For your hands are defiled with blood
    and your fingers with iniquity;
your lips have spoken lies;
    your tongue mutters wickedness.^(AT)
4 No one brings suit justly;
    no one goes to law honestly;
they rely on empty pleas; they speak lies,
    conceiving mischief and bearing iniquity.^(AU)
5 They hatch adders’ eggs
    and weave the spider’s web;
whoever eats their eggs dies,
    and the crushed egg hatches out a viper.^(AV)
6 Their webs cannot serve as clothing;
    they cannot cover themselves with what they make.
Their works are works of iniquity,
    and deeds of violence are in their hands.^(AW)
7 Their feet run to evil,
    and they rush to shed innocent blood;
their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
    desolation and destruction are in their highways.^(AX)
8 The way of peace they do not know,
    and there is no justice in their ways.
Their roads they have made crooked;
    no one who walks in them knows peace.^(AY)

60 Arise, shine, for your light has come,
    and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.^(BM)
2 For darkness shall cover the earth
    and thick darkness the peoples,
but the Lord will arise upon you,
    and his glory will appear over you.^(BN)
3 Nations shall come to your light
    and kings to the brightness of your dawn.^(BO)

¹⁹ The sun shall no longer be
    your light by day,
nor for brightness shall the moon
    give light to you by night,^[o]
but the Lord will be your everlasting light,
    and your God will be your glory.^(CC)
20 Your sun shall no more go down
    or your moon withdraw itself,
for the Lord will be your everlasting light,
    and your days of mourning shall be ended.^(CD)
21 Your people shall all be righteous;
    they shall possess the land forever.
They are the shoot that I planted, the work of my hands,
    so that I might be glorified.^(CE)
22 The least of them shall become a clan
    and the smallest one a mighty nation;
I am the Lord;
    in its time I will accomplish it quickly.^(CF)

61 The spirit of the Lord God is upon me
    because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
    to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and release to the prisoners,^(CG)
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
    and the day of vengeance of our God,
    to comfort all who mourn,^(CH)
3 to provide for those who mourn in Zion—
    to give them a garland instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
    the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
    the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.^(CI)
4 They shall build up the ancient ruins;
    they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
    the devastations of many generations.^(CJ)

62 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
    and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest,
until her vindication shines out like the dawn
    and her salvation like a burning torch.^(CR)
2 The nations shall see your vindication
    and all the kings your glory,
and you shall be called by a new name
    that the mouth of the Lord will give.^(CS)
3 You shall be a beautiful crown in the hand of the Lord
    and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.^(CT)
4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken,
    and your land shall no more be termed Desolate,
but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her
    and your land Married,
for the Lord delights in you,
    and your land shall be married.^(CU)
5 For as a young man marries a young woman,
    so shall your builder^[r] marry you,
and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
    so shall your God rejoice over you.^(CV)
6 Upon your walls, O Jerusalem,
    I have posted sentinels;
all day and all night
    they shall never be silent.
You who remind the Lord,
    take no rest,^(CW)
7 and give him no rest
    until he establishes Jerusalem
    and makes it renowned throughout the earth.^(CX)
8 The Lord has sworn by his right hand
    and by his mighty arm:
I will not again give your grain
    to be food for your enemies,
and foreigners shall not drink the wine
    for which you have labored,^(CY)
9 but those who harvest it shall eat it
    and praise the Lord,
and those who gather it shall drink it
    in my holy courts.^(CZ)

63 “Who is this coming from Edom,
    from Bozrah in garments stained crimson?
Who is this so splendidly robed,
    marching in his great might?”

⁷ I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord,
    the praiseworthy acts of the Lord,
because of all that the Lord has done for us
    and the great favor to the house of Israel
that he has shown them according to his mercy,
    according to the abundance of his steadfast love.^(DJ)
8 For he said, “Surely they are my people,
    children who will not act deceitfully,”
and he became their savior
⁹     in all their distress.
It was no messenger or angel
    but his presence that saved them;
in his love and pity it was he who redeemed them;
    he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.^(DK)

¹⁵ Look down from heaven and see,
    from your holy and glorious habitation.
Where are your zeal and your might?
    Your great pity and your compassion are withheld from me.^(DQ)
16 For you are our father,
    though Abraham does not know us
    and Israel does not acknowledge us;
you, O Lord, are our father;
    our Redeemer from of old is your name.^(DR)
17 Why, O Lord, do you let us stray from your ways
    and let our heart harden, so that we do not fear you?
Turn back for the sake of your servants,
    the tribes that are your heritage.^(DS)
18 Your holy people took possession for a little while,
    but now our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary.^(DT)
19 We have long been like those whom you do not rule,
    like those not called by your name.^(DU)

65 I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask,
    to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, “Here I am, here I am,”
    to a nation that did not call on my name.^(EH)
2 I held out my hands all day long
    to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
    following their own devices;^(EI)
3 a people who provoke me
    to my face continually,
sacrificing in gardens
    and offering incense on bricks;^(EJ)
4 who sit inside tombs
    and spend the night in secret places;
who eat the flesh of pigs,
    with broth of abominable things in their vessels;^(EK)
5 who say, “Keep to yourself;
    do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.”
These are a smoke in my nostrils,
    a fire that burns all day long.^(EL)
6 See, it is written before me:
    I will not keep silent, but I will repay;
I will indeed repay into their laps^(EM)
7     their^[y] iniquities and their^[z] ancestors’ iniquities together,
            says the Lord;
because they offered incense on the mountains
    and reviled me on the hills,
I will measure into their laps
    full payment for their actions.^(EN)
8 Thus says the Lord:
As the wine is found in the cluster,
    and they say, “Do not destroy it,
    for there is a blessing in it,”
so I will do for my servants’ sake
    and not destroy them all.
⁹ I will bring forth descendants from Jacob
    and from Judah inheritors of my mountains;
my chosen shall inherit it,
    and my servants shall settle there.^(EO)
10 Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks
    and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down,
    for my people who have sought me.^(EP)
11 But you who forsake the Lord,
    who forget my holy mountain,
who set a table for Fortune
    and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny,^(EQ)
12 I will destine you to the sword,
    and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter;
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 I did not delight in.^(ER)
13 Therefore thus says the Lord God:
My servants shall eat,
    but you shall be hungry;
my servants shall drink,
    but you shall be thirsty;
my servants shall rejoice,
    but you shall be put to shame;^(ES)
14 my servants shall sing with gladness of heart,
    but you shall cry out in pain of heart
    and shall wail in anguish of spirit.^(ET)
15 You shall leave your name to my chosen to use as a curse,
    and the Lord God will put you to death,
    but to his servants he will give a different name.^(EU)
16 Then whoever invokes a blessing in the land
    shall bless by the God of faithfulness,
and whoever takes an oath in the land
    shall swear by the God of faithfulness,
because the former troubles are forgotten
    and are hidden from my sight.^(EV)

¹⁷ For I am about to create new heavens
    and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered
    or come to mind.^(EW)
18 But be glad and rejoice forever
    in what I am creating,
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy
    and its people as a delight.^(EX)
19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem
    and delight in my people;
no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it
    or the cry of distress.^(EY)
20 No more shall there be in it
    an infant who lives but a few days
    or an old person who does not live out a lifetime,
for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,
    and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.^(EZ)
21 They shall build houses and inhabit them;
    they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.^(FA)
22 They shall not build and another inhabit;
    they shall not plant and another eat,
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
    and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.^(FB)
23 They shall not labor in vain
    or bear children for calamity,^[aa]
for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord—
    and their descendants as well.^(FC)
24 Before they call I will answer,
    while they are yet speaking I will hear.^(FD)
25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together;
    the lion shall eat straw like the ox,
    but the serpent—its food shall be dust!
They shall not hurt or destroy
    on all my holy mountain,
            says the Lord.^(FE)

66 Thus says the Lord:
Heaven is my throne,
    and the earth is my footstool;
so what kind of house could you build for me,
    what sort of place for me to rest?^(FF)
2 All these things my hand has made,
    so all these things are mine,^[ab]
            says the Lord.
But this is the one to whom I will look,
    to the humble and contrite in spirit
    who trembles at my word.^(FG)

⁵ Hear the word of the Lord,
    you who tremble at his word:
Your own people who hate you
    and reject you for my name’s sake
have said, “Let the Lord be glorified,
    so that we may see your joy,”
    but it is they who shall be put to shame.^(FJ)

¹⁴ You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice;
    your bodies^[ac] shall flourish like the grass,
and it shall be known that the power of the Lord is with his servants,
    and his indignation is against his enemies.^(FR)
15 For the Lord will come in fire
    and his chariots in a whirlwind,^[ad]
to vent his anger in fury
    and his rebuke in flames of fire.^(FS)
16 For by fire will the Lord execute judgment,
    and by his sword on all flesh;
    and those slain by the Lord shall be many.^(FT)