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Zion Glorified

60 “Arise, shine! For your light has come,
    and the glory of Yahweh has risen on you.
For look! darkness shall cover the earth,
    and thick darkness the peoples,
but[a] Yahweh will rise on you,
    and his glory will appear over you.
And nations shall come to your light,
    and kings to the bright light of your sunrise.
Lift up your eyes all around and see!
    All of them gather; they come to you.
Your sons shall come from afar,
    and your daughters shall be looked after on the hip.
Then you shall see
    and you shall be radiant;
and your heart shall tremble
    and open itself wide,
because the abundance of the sea shall fall upon you;
    the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
A multitude of camels shall cover you,
    the young male camels of Midian and Ephah.
All those from Sheba shall come;
    they shall bring gold and frankincense,
        and they shall proclaim the praise of Yahweh.
All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you;
    the rams of Nebaioth shall serve you.
They shall present a sacrifice for favor on my altar,
    and I will glorify my honorable house.[b]
Who are these? They fly like a cloud,
    and like doves to their coops.
Because the coastlands wait for me,
    and the ships of Tarshish are first
to bring your children from afar,
    their silver and gold with them,
for the name of Yahweh your God,
    and for the holy one of Israel, because he has glorified you.
10 And foreigners[c] shall build your walls,
    and their kings shall serve you,
for in my anger I struck you,
    but[d] in my favor I have taken pity on you.
11 And your gates shall continually be open,
    day and night they shall not be shut,
to bring you the wealth of nations,
    and their kings shall be led.
12 For the nation and the kingdom that will not serve you shall perish,
    and the nations shall be utterly devastated.
13 The glory of Lebanon shall come to you;
    the cypress, the plane, and the pine together,
to glorify the place of my sanctuary,
    and I will do honor to the place of my feet.
14 And the children of those who oppressed you shall come to you bending low,
    and all those who treated you disrespectfully shall bow down at the soles of your feet.
And they shall call you the city of Yahweh,
    Zion of the holy one of Israel.
15 Instead of you being forsaken
    and hated with no one passing through,[e]
I will make[f] you an everlasting object of pride,[g]
    a joy of coming generations.[h]
16 And you shall suck the milk of nations,
    and suck the breast of kings,
and you shall know that I am Yahweh your Savior,
    and your Redeemer, the Strong One of Jacob.
17 Instead of bronze I will bring gold,
    and instead of iron I will bring silver,
and instead of wood, bronze,
    and instead of stones, iron.
And I will appoint[i] peace as your overseer,
    and righteousness as your ruling body.[j]
18 Violence shall no longer be heard in your land;
    devastation or[k] destruction on your borders.
And you shall call your walls Salvation,
    and your gates, Praise.
19 The sun shall no longer be your light by day,
    and for bright light the moon shall not give you light,
but[l] Yahweh will be your everlasting light,
    and your God your glory.
20 Your sun shall no longer go down,
    and your moon shall not wane,[m]
for Yahweh himself will be your everlasting light,
    and your days of mourning shall come to an end.
21 And all your people shall be righteous;
    they shall take possession of the land forever,
the shoot of his[n] planting,
    the work of my hands, to show my glory.
22 The small one shall become a tribe,
    and the smallest one a mighty nation.

I am Yahweh; I will hasten it in its time.”

The Year of Yahweh’s Favor

61 The Spirit of the Lord Yahweh is upon me,
    because Yahweh has anointed me,
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
    to bind up the brokenhearted,[o]
to proclaim[p] release to the captives
    and liberation to those who are bound,
to proclaim[q] the year of Yahweh’s favor,
    and our God’s day of vengeance,
to comfort all those in mourning,
    to give[r] for those in mourning in Zion,
to give them a head wrap instead of ashes,
    the oil of joy instead of mourning,
    a garment of praise instead of a faint spirit.
And they will be called[s] oaks of righteousness,
    the planting of Yahweh, to show his glory.
And they shall build the ancient ruins,
    they shall erect the former deserted places.
And they shall restore the devastated cities,[t]
    the deserted places of many generations.[u]
And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks,[v]
    and foreigners[w] shall be your farmers and vinedressers.
But[x] you shall be called the priests of Yahweh,
    you will be called[y] servers of our God.
You shall eat the wealth of the nations,
    and you shall boast in their riches.
Instead of your shame, a double portion,
    and instead of insult, they will rejoice over their portion.
Therefore they will take a double portion in their land;
    they shall possess everlasting joy.[z]
For I, Yahweh, love justice,
    hate robbery and[aa] injustice,
and I will faithfully[ab] give their reward,
    and I will make[ac] an everlasting covenant with[ad] them.
And their descendants[ae] will be known among the nations,
    and their offspring in the midst of the peoples.
All those who see them shall recognize them,
    that they are descendants[af] whom Yahweh has blessed.
10 I will rejoice greatly in Yahweh;
    my being shall shout in exultation in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation,
    he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns himself with a head wrap like a priest,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewelry.
11 For as the earth produces[ag] its sprout,
    and as a garden makes its plants sprout,
so the Lord Yahweh will make righteousness sprout,
    and praise before all the nations.

Zion’s New Identity

62 For the sake of Zion I will not be silent,
    and for the sake of Jerusalem I will not maintain a quiet attitude,
until her righteousness goes out like the bright light,
    and her salvation burns like a torch.
And the nations shall see your righteousness,
    and all the kings your glory,
and you will be called[ah] a new name
    that the mouth of Yahweh will designate.
And you shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of Yahweh,
    and a headband of royalty in the hand of your God.
It shall no longer be said of you, “Forsaken,”
    and it shall no longer be said of your land, “Desolation!”
but you will[ai] be called “My Delight Is In Her,”
    and your land, “Married,”
for Yahweh delights in you,
    and your land shall be married.
For as a young man marries a virgin,
    so shall your sons marry you,
and as is the joy of the bridegroom over the bride,
    so shall your God rejoice over you.
I have appointed watchmen upon your walls, Jerusalem;
    all day and all night they shall never be silent.
You who profess Yahweh have no rest.
    And you must not give him rest until he establishes,
        and until he makes[aj] Jerusalem an object of praise[ak] in the earth.
Yahweh has sworn by his right hand,
    and by his mighty arm,[al]
“Surely I will never again give your grain as food to your enemies,[am]
    and surely foreigners[an] shall not drink your new wine at which you have labored.”
But those who gather it shall eat it, and they shall praise Yahweh,
    and those who gather it shall drink it in my holy courts.[ao]
10 Pass through, pass through the gates!
    Make the way clear for[ap] the people!
Pile up, pile up the highway; clear it of stones![aq]
    Lift up an ensign over the peoples!

11 Look! Yahweh has proclaimed to the end of the earth:

Say to daughter Zion, “Look, your salvation is coming!
    Look, his reward is with him,
    and his reward before him.
12 And they shall call them “The Holy People,[ar] The Redeemed Of Yahweh,”
    and you[as] shall be called “Sought After, A City Is Not Forsaken.”

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 60:2 Or “and”
  2. Isaiah 60:7 Literally “house of my honor”
  3. Isaiah 60:10 Literally “sons of a foreign country”
  4. Isaiah 60:10 Or “and”
  5. Isaiah 60:15 Or “and there is not one who passes through”
  6. Isaiah 60:15 Literally “place”
  7. Isaiah 60:15 Literally “pride”
  8. Isaiah 60:15 Literally “generation and generation”
  9. Isaiah 60:17 Literally “put”
  10. Isaiah 60:17 Literally “they who force you to work”
  11. Isaiah 60:18 Or “and”
  12. Isaiah 60:19 Or “and”
  13. Isaiah 60:20 Literally “be taken away”
  14. Isaiah 60:21 The reading tradition (Qere) has “my”
  15. Isaiah 61:1 Literally “those broken of heart”
  16. Isaiah 61:1 Literally “call”
  17. Isaiah 61:2 Literally “call”
  18. Isaiah 61:3 Literally “place”
  19. Isaiah 61:3 Literally “it will be called to them”
  20. Isaiah 61:4 Literally “cities of devastation”
  21. Isaiah 61:4 Literally “generation and generation”
  22. Isaiah 61:5 Hebrew “flock”
  23. Isaiah 61:5 Literally “sons of a foreign country”
  24. Isaiah 61:6 Or “And”
  25. Isaiah 61:6 Literally “it shall be said of you”
  26. Isaiah 61:7 Literally “possession of joy everlasting shall be for them”
  27. Isaiah 61:8 Or “in”
  28. Isaiah 61:8 Literally “in the faithfulness”
  29. Isaiah 61:8 Literally “cut”
  30. Isaiah 61:8 Literally “to”
  31. Isaiah 61:9 Hebrew “descendant”
  32. Isaiah 61:9 Hebrew “descendant”
  33. Isaiah 61:11 Literally “brings out”
  34. Isaiah 62:2 Literally “it shall be called to you”
  35. Isaiah 62:4 Literally “to you it shall”
  36. Isaiah 62:7 Literally “places”
  37. Isaiah 62:7 Literally “a praise”
  38. Isaiah 62:8 Literally “the arm of his might”
  39. Isaiah 62:8 Literally “those who are hostile to you”
  40. Isaiah 62:8 Literally “sons of a foreign country”
  41. Isaiah 62:9 Literally “the courts of my holiness”
  42. Isaiah 62:10 Literally “of”
  43. Isaiah 62:10 Hebrew “stone”
  44. Isaiah 62:12 Literally “People of the Holiness”
  45. Isaiah 62:12 Literally “to you it”