Beginning
The Lord takes care of his people
54 ‘Sing with joy,
you woman who could not give birth to any children.
You have never known the pain of a child's birth,
but now shout loudly with joy.
Be happy, because the woman who is alone
will have many children.
She will have more children than the woman who has a husband.’[a]
That is what the Lord says.
2 Make your tent bigger!
You need more room to live in.
Yes, do it!
Make the tent's ropes longer!
Make the pegs that hold it stronger!
3 The borders of your land will be wider in all directions.
Your descendants will take land from other nations.
They will live in the cities that had become empty.
4 Do not be afraid.
You will not be ashamed again.
Do not be frightened of shame.
Nobody will make you ashamed.
You will forget the shame
which you had when you were young.
You will forget that you were ashamed to be alone,
like a widow.
5 Now your Maker is your husband.
His name is the Lord Almighty.
Israel's Holy God is your Redeemer.
He is called, ‘The God who rules the whole earth’.
6 ‘The Lord will now call you to come back to him.
You have been like a wife who was very upset,
because her husband has left her.
You have been like a wife who married when she was young,
and her husband sent her away.’
That is what your God says.
7 ‘For a short time I went away from you.
But now I will bring you back to myself,
because I feel very sorry for you.
8 For a moment I became very angry with you,
and I turned away from you.
But now I will be kind to you,
because my love for you continues for ever.’
That is what the Lord, your Redeemer, says.
9 ‘This is like what I did in Noah's time.[b]
At that time, I promised that a flood of water would never again destroy the earth.
Now, at this time, I have promised that I will not be angry with you again.
I will not speak against you again.
10 The mountains may shake to pieces,
and the hills may disappear.
But I will never take my love away from you.
My covenant that brings peace between us will never finish.’
That is what the Lord who is very kind to you says.
11 ‘My city, enemies attacked you,
like a strong storm.
Nobody was there to help you.
Look! Now I will use beautiful jewels to build you again.
I will build your foundation with blue sapphires.
12 I will build your strong towers with rubies.
I will build your gates with valuable jewels,
and I will build your walls with beautiful stones.[c]
13 I, the Lord, will teach your children,
and peace will fill their lives.
14 You will have a strong foundation of righteousness.
Your cruel enemies will be far away.
You will have nothing to be afraid of.
No trouble will come near to frighten you.
15 If anyone comes to attack you,
I will not have sent them.
You will win against anyone who tries to attack you.
16 Look! I myself created the worker
who knows how to use iron to make things.
He makes his fire very hot,
and he makes weapons from the iron.
He makes weapons that are strong to fight with.
I also created the armies
who use their weapons to destroy people.
17 But nobody can make a weapon that will beat you,
when your enemies attack you.
If people accuse you of bad things,
you will show that they are wrong.
That is what the Lord will do
as a gift for his servants.
Yes, I will show that they are right.’
That is what the Lord says.
Come to the Lord!
55 ‘Listen! All of you who are thirsty,
come here for water to drink!
You may have no money,
but come here and buy food to eat!
Come and buy wine and milk!
You do not need to pay any money. It is free![d]
2 Do not spend money on anything that is not real food.
You work hard for your money,
so do not spend it on things which do not help you.
Listen carefully to me.
Eat something that will make you strong!
Enjoy the best food!
3 Come to me and listen carefully.
If you accept my teaching,
you will have real life!
Then I will make a covenant with you,
to be my people.
My promise will continue for ever,
like the promise that I made to King David.
4 So look! I chose David
to show my power to other people.
I made him a leader to rule the people of the nations.
5 Now you will call other nations to come to you.
They will be nations that you did not know before.
Nations that did not know you before
will now run quickly to you.
They will come to you,
because they see that you are great.
The Lord your God, Israel's Holy God,
will make people honour you.’
6 Come to serve the Lord now,
while he lets you find him.
Call out to him for help,
while he is near you.
7 Wicked people need to change the way that they live.
Evil people must stop thinking their evil thoughts.
They must turn back to the Lord our God,
because he will be kind to them.
Yes, God will completely forgive them,
if they turn back to him.
8 The Lord says,
‘Remember! My thoughts are not the same as your thoughts.
The way that you do things is not the same as the way that I do things.
9 The sky is far higher than the earth.
In the same way, I do things in a much better way than you do.
Also, my thoughts are much higher than your thoughts.
10 The rain and the snow come down from the sky,
and they do not immediately return there.
Instead, they give water to the earth,
so that crops will grow there.
Then the farmer has seeds to plant,
and people have food to eat.
11 It is the same when I give my word to people.
It will not return to me without any result.
No! My word does what I want it to do.
What I promise to do will certainly happen.’
12 You will leave that foreign land with joy!
You will travel home with peace in your minds.
The mountains and the hills will sing with joy
as you travel past.
The trees in the fields will clap their hands together!
13 Where thorn bushes have been growing,
pine trees will grow instead.
Myrtle bushes will grow where there are weeds now.
Those things will show everyone that the Lord is great.
It will be a sign to people for ever.
God promises to bless all the nations
56 This is what the Lord says:
‘Always be fair and do what is right.
Soon I will come to rescue you.
I will do what is right for my people.
2 God will bless the people who do what is right.
They must be careful to obey my laws.
They must respect the rules for the Sabbath day
and keep it special.
They must refuse to do anything that is evil.
3 When a foreigner decides to serve the Lord, he should not say, “The Lord will keep me separate from his own people.” A eunuch should not say, “I am no better than a dead tree.” ’
4 The Lord says this:
‘I will bless eunuchs who obey my laws.
They must respect the rules for Sabbath days.
They must choose to do what pleases me.
They must always obey my covenant with my people.
5 If they do that, I will give them a special place in my temple.
It will cause people to remember them.
Their name will continue in a better way
than through sons and daughters.
People will always honour their name.
Nobody will cut it off.[e]
6 I will also bless foreigners who decide to serve me.
They must be faithful to me as my servants.
They must respect the rules for the Sabbath day and keep it special.
They must always obey my covenant.
7 Then I will bring them to my holy mountain.[f]
I will make them happy in my house, where people pray to me.
I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifices,
when they offer them to me on my altar.
People will call my temple,
“A house where people from all nations may pray.” ’[g]
8 The Almighty Lord is the one who brings together all the Israelite people who are in exile. He says, ‘I will continue to bring more people to join with them.’
God warns Israel's leaders
9 ‘Come here, you wild animals!
Come, you wild animals that live in the forest!
Come and eat my people![h]
10 Israel's guards are blind!
They do not see what is happening.
They are all like dogs that cannot make a noise.
They cannot warn people about danger.
They love to lie on the ground
and they dream while they sleep.
11 They are like dogs who are always hungry.
They eat a lot but they never have enough.
They are like shepherds
who do not understand what to do.
They do whatever they want to do,
so that it will help them get what they want.
12 They say to each other,
“Come! We must go and find more wine to drink!
We can drink as much beer as we want!
Tomorrow we can do it all again!
It might be even better than today!” ’
57 When somebody who worships God dies,
nobody else may think much about it.
An honest person may suddenly die.
Nobody really understands what is happening.
God takes away his servants,
so that evil things will not hurt them any more.
2 When somebody who has lived in a good way dies,
he goes to a place where there is peace.
In death, people like that rest on their beds.
3 The Lord says,
‘But you magicians, come here!
You use magic to learn about future times.
You are the family of an adulteress and a prostitute.
4 Who do you think you are laughing at?
Who are you insulting?
Who are you pointing at with your tongue?
You are people who have turned against God.
You love to tell lies.
5 You worship your idols among the big trees,
and you have sex at the same time.[i]
You kill your children as sacrifices to your false gods.
You do that beside streams
and in caves among the rocks.
6 You take big stones from the streams,
and they become your idols.
They are the gods that you love to worship.
You pour drink offerings over them.
You offer grain to them.
Because of what you do,
should I not punish you?
7 You go up to the tops of high hills,
and you lie down there to have sex.
You go there to offer sacrifices to your gods.
8 You put your images behind the doors of your rooms.
Then you turn your backs to me,
and you get into bed with your false gods.
You have made an agreement with them.
You pay money to have sex with your lovers.
You love to see their bare bodies.
9 You take olive oil as a gift to your king,
and also many perfumes.[j]
You send your people far away
to get news of other gods.
You even talk to the spirits of dead people.
10 You become very tired,
because you travel so far.
But you would never say,
“This is useless!”
Instead, you find new strength,
and you do not stop.
11 What idol are you so afraid of,
that you choose to deceive me?
You seem to have forgotten about me.
You do not think about me at all.
Have I been silent for too long?
Is that why you no longer respect me?
12 Now I will speak against the things that you do.
You think that they are good and right,
but those things will not help you.
13 Shout for help, if you like.
See if your group of idols can help you!
The wind will blow them all away.
Even a breath will carry them away.
But if people trust me to help them,
this land will belong to them.
They will worship me on my holy mountain.’[k]
The Lord promises to help his people
14 The Lord says,
‘Build a road! Make it ready for my people to travel on!
Remove everything that would cause them to fall.’
15 The Mighty God is far higher than all others. He rules from above and he lives for ever. His name is holy. He says,
‘I live in a high and holy place.
But I am also with anyone who is humble
and who is sorry when he does wrong things.
I will comfort people who are like that,
and I will give them hope.
16 I will not always speak against my people.
I will not be angry with them for ever.
I do not want them to lose hope completely.
I myself gave life to them.
17 I was angry with them because they were greedy,
which was a sin.
So I punished them.
I was angry and I turned away from them.
But they still refused to obey me.
They continued to do what they wanted to do.
18 I have seen what they are doing.
But I will make them well again.
I will be a guide for them,
and I will comfort them again.
Then people who are sad and they are weeping
19 will sing songs to praise me!
I will give them a reason to do that.
I will bring peace to all my people,
those who are far away,
and those who are near.
Yes, I will make them completely well again.’
That is what the Lord says.
20 ‘But wicked people are like a rough sea
with dangerous waves.
It cannot stay still.
Its waves throw up mud and dirt.
21 There will never be peace for wicked people.’
That is what my God says.
Worship God truly
58 The Lord says,
‘Shout out! Shout as loudly as you can!
Make as much noise as a trumpet makes!
Tell my people that they have not obeyed me.
Tell the family of Jacob about their sins.[l]
2 Every day my people come to worship me.
It seems that they want to know my ways.
They seem like a nation of people
who are doing the right things.
They seem to be obeying the law of their God.
They ask me to decide things fairly.
Yes, they seem to want to be near to me.
3 They say to me, “We have fasted to please you,
but you do not see it.
We make ourselves humble
and you do not even look.”
Listen to me! Yes you fast,
but you do it to please yourselves.
At the same time as you are fasting,
you are being cruel to the people who work for you.
4 Yes! While you are fasting,
you are also quarrelling and you are fighting.
You hit each other with your fists.
If you want your prayers to reach me in heaven,
you cannot continue to fast in the way that you do today.
5 The way that you fast does not please me at all:
You make yourselves humble for a day.
You bend down your head,
like a piece of weak grass.
You lie down on sackcloth and ashes.
Do you think that you are really fasting when you do that?
Do you think that it pleases me, the Lord?
6 This is the way that I want you to fast:
You must remove the chains
from prisoners who should not be in prison.
You must stop being cruel
to the people who work for you.
You must let people who are in pain go free.
You must break the yoke
of work that is too hard for weak people.[m]
7 Instead, share your food with hungry people.
Give a place in your home
to poor people who have no home.
Give clothes to people who have nothing to wear.
If people in your own family need help,
do not refuse to help them.
8 Then God's light will shine on you,
like the sun's light at dawn.
Very soon, your troubles will go away.
The good things that you do to help others
will be clear for everyone to see.
And the Lord will use his great power
to keep you safe.
9 Then you will ask the Lord for help
and he will answer you.
When you call out to him,
he will say, “Here I am.”
But you must stop being cruel to other people.
Do not accuse people,
and do not say bad things about them.
10 If people are hungry,
share your own food with them.
Help those people who are in pain.
Then your help to them will be like a light
that shines in a dark place.
You will no longer live in darkness,
but you will have light as bright as the sun at noon.
11 The Lord will always be your guide.
He will give you plenty to eat,
even when the ground is dry.
He will make your bodies strong.
You will be like a garden that has plenty of water.
You will be like a spring of water
that never becomes dry.
12 You will build again the cities
which became heaps of stones a long time ago.
You will build your houses on the old foundations.
People will call you, “Builders who mend the walls and the streets with their houses.”
13 So remember to obey the rules for the Sabbath day.
That is my holy day,
so do not just try to please yourselves.
Enjoy the Sabbath day,
and respect it as the Lord's holy day.
Do not do your usual work on that day.
Do not do things or speak about things,
only to make yourself happy.
14 If you do those things, you will be happy
as you serve me, the Lord.
I will give you all the things that you need.
I will cause crops to grow
on the land that I gave to your ancestor Jacob.’
That is the Lord's message.
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