Isaiah 65:1-7

New International Reader's Version

The Lord Judges and Saves

65 The Lord says, “I made myself known to those who were not asking for me.
    I was found by those who were not trying to find me.
I spoke to a nation that did not pray to me.
    ‘Here I am,’ I said. ‘Here I am.’
²All day long I have held out my hands
    to welcome a stubborn nation.
They lead sinful lives.
    They go where their evil thoughts take them.
³They are always making me very angry.
    They do it right in front of me.
They offer sacrifices in the gardens of other gods.
    They burn incense on altars that are made out of bricks.
⁴They sit among the graves.
    They spend their nights talking to the spirits of the dead.
They eat the meat of pigs.
    Their cooking pots hold soup that has ‘unclean’ meat in it.
⁵They say, ‘Keep away! Don’t come near us!
    We are too sacred for you!’
Those people are like smoke in my nose.
    They are like a fire that keeps burning all day.

⁶“I will judge them. I have even written it down.
    I will not keep silent.
    Instead, I will pay them back for all their sins.
⁷I will punish them for their sins.
    I will also punish them for the sins of their people before them.”
    This is what the Lord says.
“They burned sacrifices on the mountains.
    They disobeyed me by worshiping other gods on the hills.
So I will make sure they are fully punished
    for all the sins they have committed.”