Isaiah 64:5-65:7

English Standard Version

⁵You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
    those who remember you in your ways.
Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
    in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?^[a]
⁶^(A)We have all become like one who is unclean,
    and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
^(B)We all fade like a leaf,
    and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
⁷^(C)There is no one who calls upon your name,
    who rouses himself to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
    and have made us melt in^[b] the hand of our iniquities.

⁸^(D)But now, O Lord, you are our Father;
    ^(E)we are the clay, and you are our potter;
    ^(F)we are all the work of your hand.
⁹^(G)Be not so terribly angry, O Lord,
    ^(H)and remember not iniquity forever.
    Behold, please look, we are all your people.
¹⁰^(I)Your holy cities have become a wilderness;
    Zion has become a wilderness,
    Jerusalem a desolation.
¹¹^(J)Our holy and beautiful^[c] house,
    where our fathers praised you,
has been burned by fire,
    and all our pleasant places have become ruins.
¹²^(K)Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord?
    Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?

Judgment and Salvation

65 ^(L)I was ready to be sought by ^(M)those who did not ask for me;
    I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, “Here I am, here I am,”
    to a nation that was not called by^[d] my name.
²^(N)I spread out my hands all the day
    to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
    following their own devices;
³a people who provoke me
    to my face continually,
^(O)sacrificing in gardens
    and making offerings on bricks;
⁴who sit in tombs,
    and spend the night in secret places;
^(P)who eat pig's flesh,
    and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels;
⁵who say, “Keep to yourself,
    do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.”
^(Q)These are a smoke in my nostrils,
    a fire that burns all the day.
⁶Behold, ^(R)it is written before me:
    ^(S)“I will not keep silent, but I will repay;
^(T)I will indeed repay into their lap
⁷    both your iniquities ^(U)and your fathers' iniquities together,
says the Lord;
^(V)because they made offerings on the mountains
    ^(W)and insulted me on the hills,
I will measure into their lap
    payment for their former deeds.”^[e]