Isaiah 62:7-65:25

New King James Version

⁷And give Him no rest till He establishes
And till He makes Jerusalem ^(A)a praise in the earth.

⁸The Lord has sworn by His right hand
And by the arm of His strength:
“Surely I will no longer ^(B)give your grain
As food for your enemies;
And the sons of the foreigner shall not drink your new wine,
For which you have labored.
⁹But those who have gathered it shall eat it,
And praise the Lord;
Those who have brought it together shall drink it ^(C)in My holy courts.”

¹⁰Go through,
Go through the gates!
^(D)Prepare the way for the people;
Build up,
Build up the highway!
Take out the stones,
^(E)Lift up a banner for the peoples!

¹¹Indeed the Lord has proclaimed
To the end of the world:
^(F)“Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Surely your salvation is coming;
Behold, His ^(G)reward is with Him,
And His ^[a]work before Him.’ ”
¹²And they shall call them The Holy People,
The Redeemed of the Lord;
And you shall be called Sought Out,
A City Not Forsaken.

The Lord in Judgment and Salvation

63 Who is this who comes from Edom,
With dyed garments from Bozrah,
This One who is ^[b]glorious in His apparel,
Traveling in the greatness of His strength?—

“I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”

²Why ^(H)is Your apparel red,
And Your garments like one who treads in the winepress?

³“I have ^(I)trodden the winepress alone,
And from the peoples no one was with Me.
For I have trodden them in My anger,
And trampled them in My fury;
Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments,
And I have stained all My robes.
⁴For the ^(J)day of vengeance is in My heart,
And the year of My redeemed has come.
⁵^(K)I looked, but ^(L)there was no one to help,
And I wondered
That there was no one to uphold;
Therefore My own ^(M)arm brought salvation for Me;
And My own fury, it sustained Me.
⁶I have trodden down the peoples in My anger,
Made them drunk in My fury,
And brought down their strength to the earth.”

God’s Mercy Remembered

⁷I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord
And the praises of the Lord,
According to all that the Lord has bestowed on us,
And the great goodness toward the house of Israel,
Which He has bestowed on them according to His mercies,
According to the multitude of His lovingkindnesses.
⁸For He said, “Surely they are My people,
Children who will not lie.”
So He became their Savior.
⁹^(N)In all their affliction He was ^[c]afflicted,
^(O)And the Angel of His Presence saved them;
^(P)In His love and in His pity He redeemed them;
And ^(Q)He bore them and carried them
All the days of old.
¹⁰But they ^(R)rebelled and ^(S)grieved His Holy Spirit;
^(T)So He turned Himself against them as an enemy,
And He fought against them.

¹¹Then he ^(U)remembered the days of old,
Moses and his people, saying:
“Where is He who ^(V)brought them up out of the sea
With the ^[d]shepherd of His flock?
^(W)Where is He who put His Holy Spirit within them,
¹²Who led them by the right hand of Moses,
^(X)With His glorious arm,
^(Y)Dividing the water before them
To make for Himself an everlasting name,
¹³^(Z)Who led them through the deep,
As a horse in the wilderness,
That they might not stumble?”

¹⁴As a beast goes down into the valley,
And the Spirit of the Lord causes him to rest,
So You lead Your people,
^(AA)To make Yourself a glorious name.

A Prayer of Penitence

¹⁵^(AB)Look down from heaven,
And see ^(AC)from Your habitation, holy and glorious.
Where are Your zeal and Your strength,
The yearning ^(AD)of Your heart and Your mercies toward me?
Are they restrained?
¹⁶^(AE)Doubtless You are our Father,
Though Abraham ^(AF)was ignorant of us,
And Israel does not acknowledge us.
You, O Lord, are our Father;
Our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name.
¹⁷O Lord, why have You ^(AG)made us stray from Your ways,
And hardened our heart from Your fear?
Return for Your servants’ sake,
The tribes of Your inheritance.
¹⁸^(AH)Your holy people have possessed it but a little while;
^(AI)Our adversaries have trodden down Your sanctuary.
¹⁹We have become like those of old, over whom You never ruled,
Those who were never called by Your name.

A Prayer for Help

64 Oh, that You would ^[e]rend the heavens!
That You would come down!
That the mountains might shake at Your ^(AJ)presence—
²As fire burns brushwood,
As fire causes water to boil—
To make Your name known to Your adversaries,
That the nations may tremble at Your presence!
³When ^(AK)You did awesome things for which we did not look,
You came down,
The mountains shook at Your presence.
⁴For since the beginning of the world
^(AL)Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear,
Nor has the eye seen any God besides You,
Who acts for the one who waits for Him.
⁵You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness,
Who remembers You in Your ways.
You are indeed angry, for we have sinned—
^(AM)In these ways we continue;
And we need to be saved.

⁶But we are all like an unclean thing,
And all ^(AN)our righteousnesses are like ^[f]filthy rags;
We all ^(AO)fade as a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind,
Have taken us away.
⁷And there is no one who calls on Your name,
Who stirs himself up to take hold of You;
For You have hidden Your face from us,
And have ^[g]consumed us because of our iniquities.

⁸But now, O Lord,
You are our Father;
We are the clay, and You our ^(AP)potter;
And all we are the work of Your hand.
⁹Do not be furious, O Lord,
Nor remember iniquity forever;
Indeed, please look—we all are Your people!
¹⁰Your holy cities are a wilderness,
Zion is a wilderness,
Jerusalem a desolation.
¹¹Our holy and beautiful ^[h]temple,
Where our fathers praised You,
Is burned up with fire;
And all ^(AQ)our pleasant things ^[i]are laid waste.
¹²^(AR)Will You restrain Yourself because of these things, O Lord?
^(AS)Will You ^[j]hold Your peace, and afflict us very severely?

The Righteousness of God’s Judgment

65 “I was ^(AT)sought by those who did not ask for Me;
I was found by those who did not seek Me.
I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’
To a nation that ^(AU)was not called by My name.
²^(AV)I have stretched out My hands all day long to a ^(AW)rebellious people,
Who ^(AX)walk in a way that is not good,
According to their own thoughts;
³A people ^(AY)who provoke Me to anger continually to My face;
^(AZ)Who sacrifice in gardens,
And burn incense on altars of brick;
⁴^(BA)Who sit among the graves,
And spend the night in the tombs;
^(BB)Who eat swine’s flesh,
And the broth of ^[k]abominable things is in their vessels;
⁵^(BC)Who say, ‘Keep to yourself,
Do not come near me,
For I am holier than you!’
These ^[l]are smoke in My nostrils,
A fire that burns all the day.

⁶“Behold, ^(BD)it is written before Me:
^(BE)I will not keep silence, ^(BF)but will repay—
Even repay into their bosom—
⁷Your iniquities and ^(BG)the iniquities of your fathers together,”
Says the Lord,
^(BH)“Who have burned incense on the mountains
^(BI)And blasphemed Me on the hills;
Therefore I will measure their former work into their bosom.”

⁸Thus says the Lord:

“As the new wine is found in the cluster,
And one says, ‘Do not destroy it,
For ^(BJ)a blessing is in it,’
So will I do for My servants’ sake,
That I may not destroy them ^(BK)all.
⁹I will bring forth descendants from Jacob,
And from Judah an heir of My mountains;
My ^(BL)elect shall inherit it,
And My servants shall dwell there.
¹⁰^(BM)Sharon shall be a fold of flocks,
And ^(BN)the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down,
For My people who have ^(BO)sought Me.

¹¹“But you are those who forsake the Lord,
Who forget ^(BP)My holy mountain,
Who prepare ^(BQ)a table for ^[m]Gad,
And who furnish a drink offering for ^[n]Meni.
¹²Therefore I will number you for the sword,
And you shall all bow down to the slaughter;
^(BR)Because, when I called, you did not answer;
When I spoke, you did not hear,
But did evil before My eyes,
And chose that in which I do not delight.”

¹³Therefore thus says the Lord God:

“Behold, My servants shall eat,
But you shall be hungry;
Behold, My servants shall drink,
But you shall be thirsty;
Behold, My servants shall rejoice,
But you shall be ashamed;
¹⁴Behold, My servants shall sing for joy of heart,
But you shall cry for sorrow of heart,
And ^(BS)wail for ^[o]grief of spirit.
¹⁵You shall leave your name ^(BT)as a curse to ^(BU)My chosen;
For the Lord God will slay you,
And ^(BV)call His servants by another name;
¹⁶^(BW)So that he who blesses himself in the earth
Shall bless himself in the God of truth;
And ^(BX)he who swears in the earth
Shall swear by the God of truth;
Because the former troubles are forgotten,
And because they are hidden from My eyes.

The Glorious New Creation

¹⁷“For behold, I create ^(BY)new heavens and a new earth;
And the former shall not be remembered or ^[p]come to mind.
¹⁸But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create;
For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing,
And her people a joy.
¹⁹^(BZ)I will rejoice in Jerusalem,
And joy in My people;
The ^(CA)voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her,
Nor the voice of crying.

²⁰“No more shall an infant from there live but a few days,
Nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days;
For the child shall die one hundred years old,
^(CB)But the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed.
²¹^(CC)They shall build houses and inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
²²They shall not build and another inhabit;
They shall not plant and ^(CD)another eat;
For ^(CE)as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My people,
And ^(CF)My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
²³They shall not labor in vain,
^(CG)Nor bring forth children for trouble;
For ^(CH)they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the Lord,
And their offspring with them.

²⁴“It shall come to pass
That ^(CI)before they call, I will answer;
And while they are still speaking, I will ^(CJ)hear.
²⁵The ^(CK)wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
The lion shall eat straw like the ox,
^(CL)And dust shall be the serpent’s food.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,”
Says the Lord.