Beginning
64
Oh, that you would rip open the heavens and come down.
Mountains then would quake because of your presence.[a]
2 As fire ignites stubble and as fire makes water boil,
make your name known to your adversaries.
Then nations would quake in your presence.
3 You did amazing things that we did not expect.
You came down. Mountains quaked because of your presence.
4 From ancient times no one has heard.
No ear has understood.
No eye has seen any god except you,
who goes into action for the one who waits for him.
5 You meet anyone who joyfully practices righteousness,
who remembers you by walking in your ways!
But you were angry because we sinned.
We have remained in our sins for a long time.
Can we still be saved?
6 All of us have become like something unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like a filthy cloth.[b]
All of us have withered like a leaf,
and our guilt carries us away like the wind.
7 There is no one who calls on your name,
who rouses himself to take hold of you.
So you hid your face from us.
You made us melt by the power of our guilt.
8 But now, Lord, you are our father.
We are the clay, and you are our potter.
All of us are the work of your hand.
9 Do not be angry, Lord, without limit.
Do not remember our guilt forever.
Please look closely.
All of us are your people.
Isaiah’s Lament
10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness.
Zion has become a wilderness.
Jerusalem is a desolation.
11 Our holy and glorious house, where our fathers praised you,
has been burned by fire,
and everything we desired has become a ruin.
12 Since this is so, how can you hold back, O Lord?
How can you remain silent and afflict us without limit?
The Lord’s Response
65
I was available to those who did not ask.
I let myself be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, “Here I am, here I am,” to a nation that did not call on my name.
2 I reached out my hands all day to a stubborn people,
who are walking in a way that is not good,
who follow their own ideas.
3 This people continually provokes me to anger, right to my face,
by sacrificing in the groves,
by burning incense on the bricks.
4 They sit in tombs
and keep their vigils all night.
They eat the flesh of pigs,
and broth made from unclean meat is in their pots.
5 They say, “Keep to yourself.
Do not touch me because I am too holy for you.”
These people are smoke in my nostrils,
like a fire burning all day.
6 Look, I have put it in writing.
I will not be silent until I repay them.
I will repay into their lap
7 both their[c] guilt and the guilt of their fathers,
says the Lord.
Because they burned incense upon the mountains,
and upon the hills they ridiculed me,
so I will measure out their full pay into their lap.
8 This is what the Lord says.
Just as sweet wine is found in the grape cluster,
so that someone says, “Do not destroy it
because there is a blessing in it,”
so I will act in the same way for the sake of my servants,
in order not to destroy the whole people.
9 I will bring forth offspring from Jacob,
and from Judah those who will inherit my mountains,
so that my chosen ones will possess the land,
and my servants will dwell there.
10 Sharon will become a pasture for flocks,
and the Valley of Achor a resting place for herds,
for my people who seek me.
11 But you who are abandoning the Lord,
you who have forgotten my holy mountain,
who are setting a table for Fortune,
who are pouring out mixed wine for Destiny,
12 I will destine you for the sword.
All of you will bow down to be slaughtered,
because I called, but you did not answer.
I spoke, but you did not listen.
You committed evil in my eyes,
and you chose that which does not please me.
13 Therefore, this is what the Lord God says.
Watch! My servants will eat,
but you will go hungry.
Watch! My servants will drink,
but you will be thirsty.
Watch! My servants will rejoice,
but you will be ashamed.
14 Watch! My servants will shout because of the joy in their heart,
but you will cry out because of the pain in your heart,
and because of a broken spirit you will wail.
15 You will leave your name for my chosen ones to use as a curse,
and the Lord God will put you to death,
but he will call his servants by another name,
16 so that anyone on earth who blesses himself
will bless himself by the God of Amen,[d]
and anyone on the earth who swears
will swear by the God of Amen!
For the past troubles will be forgotten.
Yes, they are certainly hidden from my eyes.
The Lord’s New Creation
17 Watch this! I am about to create new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered.
They will not come to mind.
18 Instead, rejoice and celebrate forever, because of what I am creating.
Watch this! I am about to create Jerusalem to be a source of gladness,
and her people will be a source of joy.
19 I also will be glad because of Jerusalem,
and I will rejoice over my people.
The sound of weeping will not be heard in her again,
nor will the sound of crying.
20 There will never again be an infant there who lives for only a few days,
or an elderly man who does not fill out all his days,
for one who dies at a hundred will be considered a young man,
and one who fails to attain the age of one hundred will be regarded
as cursed.
21 Then they will build houses and live in them.
They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 They will not build a house and have another person live in it.
They will not plant and have another person eat the crop,
for the days of my people will be like the days of a tree,
and my chosen ones will enjoy all the work of their hands.
23 They will not labor only to receive nothing,
and they will not give birth to children doomed to disaster,
for they will be offspring who are blessed by the Lord,
and their descendants will be with them.
24 Then even before they call, I will answer.
While they are still speaking, I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb will graze together,
and lions will eat straw like cattle,
but the serpent will eat dust as its food.
They will not harm or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain,
says the Lord.
66 This is what the Lord says.
The heavens are my throne,
and the earth is a footstool under my feet.
Where, then, is the house that you could build for me?
Where, then, is a place that could serve as my resting place?
2 For my hand made all these things,
so all these things came into existence,
declares the Lord.
Those Who Tremble at the Lord’s Word
Yet this is the person I will watch over:
the one who is afflicted and whose spirit is crushed,
the one who trembles at my word.
3 One who slaughters an ox, also smites a person.
One who sacrifices a lamb, also breaks the neck of a dog.
One who offers a grain offering, also offers the blood of pigs.
One who offers memorial incense, also blesses a useless idol.
Yes, they have chosen their own ways,
and their soul delights in their detestable things.
4 So I myself will choose their punishments,
and the things that terrify them I will bring to them,
because I called, and there was no one who answered.
I spoke, and they did not listen.
They did what is evil in my eyes,
and they chose things that do not please me.
5 Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word.
Your brothers, who hate you
and exclude you for the sake of my name, say:
“Let the Lord be glorified so that we may see your joy.”
But they themselves will be put to shame.
6 Listen! An uproar in the city,
the sound of an uproar from the temple,
the sound of the Lord repaying his enemies in full!
Lady Zion’s Final Blessing
7 Before she suffers labor pains, she gives birth.
Before birth pain comes upon her, she delivers a male child.
8 Who has ever heard of something like this?
Who has ever seen such a thing?
Is a land brought forth in one day?
Is a nation born all at once?
But as soon as Zion experiences labor pains, she gives birth
to her children.
9 Would I bring a baby to the point of birth and not let it be born?
says the Lord.
Or would I let a baby be conceived but shut the womb to prevent
its birth?
says your God.
10 Rejoice with Jerusalem and celebrate with her, all you who love her.
Share her joy with her, all you who have been mourning over her,
11 so that you may nurse and be satisfied from her comforting breast,
so that you may suck and find delight from her milk-filled breasts.[e]
12 Yes, this is what the Lord says.
I am ready to extend peace to her like a river,
and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream.
You will be nursed. You will be carried on her side,
and you will be bounced on her knees.
13 Just like a man[f] whom his mother comforts,
in the same way I myself will comfort you,
and you will be comforted concerning Jerusalem.
14 Then you will see, and your heart will be glad.
Like grass you will receive new strength, right down to your bones.
Then the Lord’s hand will be known to his servants,
but his fury to his enemies.
15 Look, the Lord will come like fire,
and his chariots like a whirlwind,
to pour out his furious anger
and his rebuke like flames of fire.
16 For the Lord will bring judgment on all flesh
by fire and by his sword,
and those slain by the Lord will be many.
17 Those who try to sanctify themselves
and those who try to purify themselves
in order to follow others into the groves,
in order to eat the meat of pigs and other disgusting things like mice—
together they will be swept away, declares the Lord.
18 As for me, because of their works and their thoughts,
the time is coming for me to gather people from all nations
and all languages.
They will come, and they will see my glory.
19 Then I will set up a sign among them,
and I will send out survivors from among them to the nations,
to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud,[g] to those who are archers,
to Tubal and Javan,[h] to the distant coastlands,
who have not heard my message and have not seen my glory.
Then they will declare my glory among the nations.
20 Then they will bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the Lord. They will bring them on horses and chariots and wagons and mules and dromedaries[i] to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, in the same way that the people of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel to the Lord’s house. 21 Even from among these people I will take priests and Levites, says the Lord.
22 For just as the new heavens and the new earth that I am making will remain standing before me, declares the Lord, in the same way your offspring and your name will stand. 23 As often as one new moon follows another and one Sabbath follows another, all flesh will come to worship before me, says the Lord.
24 They will go out, and they will see the corpses of the ones who were rebelling against me, for their worm will not die, and their fire will not be quenched, and all flesh will be horrified by them.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.