Beginning

54 “Rejoice, O barren who did not bear! Break forth into joy and rejoice, you who did not labor with child! For the desolate has more children than the married wife,” says the LORD.

² “Enlarge the place of your tents. And let them spread out the curtains of your habitations. Do not spare. Stretch out your cords and strengthen your stakes.

³ “For you shall increase on the right hand and on the left. And your seed shall possess the Gentiles and dwell in the desolate cities.

⁴ “Do not fear. For you shall not be ashamed. Nor shall you be confounded. For you shall not be put to shame. Indeed, you shall forget the shame of your youth and shalt not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore.

⁵ “For He Who made you is your husband (Whose Name is the LORD of Hosts). And your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, shall be called the God of the whole world.

⁶ “For the LORD has called you, being like a woman forsaken and afflicted in spirit, and like a young wife when you were refused,” says your God.

⁷ “For a little while I have forsaken you. But with great compassion I will gather you.

⁸ “For a moment, in anger, I hid My Face from you for a little season. But with everlasting mercy, I have had compassion on you,” says the LORD, your Redeemer.

⁹ “For this is to Me as the waters of Noah. For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should go over the Earth no more, so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you or rebuke you.

¹⁰ “For the mountains shall depart. And the hills shall fall down. But My mercy shall not depart from you. Nor shall the Covenant of My Peace fall away,” says the LORD, Who has compassion on you.

¹¹ “O you afflicted and tossed with storms, who has no comfort, behold, I will lay your stones with antimony, and lay your foundation with sapphires.

¹² “And I will make your windows of emeralds and your gates of shining, your borders of pleasant stones.

¹³ “And all your children shall be taught about the LORD. And much peace shall be to your children.

¹⁴ “In righteousness you shall be established, be far from oppression (for you shall not fear it) and from terror (for it shall not come near you).

¹⁵ “Behold, enemies shall gather themselves, but apart from Me. Whoever shall gather himself against you, shall fall by you.

¹⁶ “Behold, I have created the blacksmith, who blows the coals in the fire. And he who brings forth an instrument for his work. And I have created the destroyer to destroy.

¹⁷ “But none of the weapons that are formed against you shall prosper. And every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the LORD’s servants. And their righteousness is from Me,” says the LORD.

55 Ho, everyone who thirsts! Come to the waters! And you who have no silver, come, buy and eat! Come, I say! Buy wine and milk without silver and without money!

² “Why do you lay out silver that is not for bread, and your labor without being satisfied? Listen diligently to Me and eat that which is good. And let your soul delight in fatness.

³ “Incline your ears and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live. And I will make an everlasting Covenant with you, the enduring mercies of David.

⁴ “Behold, I gave him as a witness to the people, for a prince and a master to the people.

⁵ “Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know. And a nation that did not know you shall run to you because of the LORD your God, and the Holy One of Israel. For He has glorified you.

⁶ “Seek the LORD while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near.

⁷ “Let the wicked forsake His ways, and the unrighteous his own imaginations, and return to the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him; and return to our God, for He is very ready to forgive.

⁸ “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.

⁹ “For as the heavens are higher than the Earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts.

¹⁰ “Surely as the rain comes down, and the snow from the heavens, and does not return there, but waters the earth and makes it bring forth and bud, so that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

¹¹ “so shall My Word be that goes out of My Mouth. It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I will, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

¹² “Therefore, you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into joy. And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

¹³ “There shall grow fir trees instead of thorns, the myrtle tree shall grow instead of nettles, and it shall be to the LORD for a Name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be taken away.”

56 Thus says the LORD: “Keep judgment and do justice. For My salvation is about to come, and My righteousness to be revealed.

² “Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold on it, he who keeps the Sabbath and does not pollute it and keeps his hand from doing any evil.

³ “And do not let the son of the strangers, who is joined to the LORD, speak and say, ‘The LORD has surely separated me from His people.’ Nor let the eunuch say, ‘Behold, I am a dry tree.’”

⁴ For thus says the LORD: “To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose the thing that pleases Me, and take hold of My Covenant,

⁵ “to them will I give in My House and within My walls, a place and a name better than that of the sons and of the daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be put out.”

⁶ “Also, the strangers who cling to the LORD, to serve Him, and to love the Name of the LORD, and to be His servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not pollute it and embraces My Covenant,

⁷ “them I will also bring to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My House of Prayer. Their Burnt Offerings and their Sacrifices shall be accepted upon My Altar. For My House shall be called a House of Prayer, for all people.”

⁸ The LORD God, Who gathers the scattered of Israel, says: “I will still gather to them those who are to be gathered to them.”

⁹ “All you beasts of the field, come to devour, all you beasts of the forest.

¹⁰ “Their watchmen are all blind. They have no knowledge. They are all dumb dogs. They cannot bark. They lie and sleep and delight in sleeping.

¹¹ “And these greedy dogs can never have enough. And these shepherds cannot understand. They all look to their own way, everyone for his advantage, for his own purpose, saying,

¹² ‘Come, I will bring wine! And we will fill ourselves with strong drink! And tomorrow shall be as today, only much more abundant!’”

57 The righteous perishes, and no man considers it in his heart. And merciful men are taken away, and no man understands that the righteous is taken away from evil.

² Peace shall come. They shall rest in their beds whose path is straight.

³ “But you, witches’ children, come here, the seed of the adulterer and of the whore.

⁴ “Of whom do you make sport? Upon whom have you gaped and thrust out your tongue? Are not you rebellious children, a false seed,

⁵ “inflamed with idols under every green tree and sacrificing the children in the valleys under the tops of the rocks?

⁶ “Your portion is in the smooth stones of the river. They, they are your lot. To them have you poured a drink offering. You have offered a sacrifice. Should I delight in these?

⁷ “You have made your bed upon a very high mountain. You went up there, even there, to offer sacrifice.

⁸ “You have also set up your remembrance behind the doors and posts. For you have uncovered yourself to one other than Me, and gone up, enlarged your bed, and made a covenant between yourself and them, and loved their bed in every place where you saw it.

⁹ “You went to the kings with oil and increased your ointments, sent your messengers far off, and humbled yourself into Hell.

¹⁰ “You wearied yourself in your manifold journeys. You did not say, ‘There is no hope.’ You have found life by your hand. Therefore you were not grieved.

¹¹ “And whom did you reverence or fear, seeing you have lied to Me, and have not remembered Me, or set your mind thereon? Is it not because I hold My peace, and for a long time, that you do not fear Me?

¹² “I will declare your righteousness and your works, and they shall not profit you.

¹³ “When you cry, let those whom you have gathered together deliver you. But the wind shall take them all away. Vanity shall pull them away. But he who trusts in Me shall inherit the land and shall possess My Holy Mountain.

¹⁴ “And He shall say, ‘Cast up! Cast up! Prepare the way! Take the stumbling blocks out of the way of My people!’”

¹⁵ For thus says He Who is high and excellent, He Who inhabits the eternity, Whose Name is the Holy One, “I dwell in the High and Holy Place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to give life to those who are of a contrite heart.

¹⁶ “For I will not contend forever. Nor will I always be angry. For the spirit should fail before me. And I have made the breath.

¹⁷ “I am angry with him for his wicked covetousness and have stricken him. I hid Myself and was angry. Yet he went away and turned after the way of his own heart.

¹⁸ “I have seen his ways and will heal him. I will also lead him and restore comfort to him, and to those who lament him.

¹⁹ “I create the fruit of the lips: peace—peace to those who are far off and to those who are near,” says the LORD, “—for I will heal him.

²⁰ “But the wicked are like the raging sea that cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

²¹ “There is no peace,” says my God, “to the wicked.”

58 “Cry aloud! Do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet and show My people their transgression, and to the House of Jacob their sins.

² “Still, they seek Me daily, and would know My ways, even as a nation that did righteously, and had not forsaken the Statutes of their God. They ask of Me the Ordinances of Justice. They will draw near to God, saying,

³ “‘Why do we fast and You do not see it? We punish ourselves and You do not regard it?’ Behold, on the day of your fast you will seek your will and require all your debts.

⁴ “Behold, you fast for strife and debate and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You shall not fast as you do today, to make your voice to be heard above.

⁵ “Is it such a fast that I have chosen, that a man should afflict his soul for a day, and to bow down his head, as a bull rush, and to lie down in sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, or an acceptable day to the LORD?

⁶ “Is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loosen the bands of wickedness, to take off the heavy burdens and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?

⁷ “Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring the poor, who wander, into your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him and do not hide yourself from your own flesh?

⁸ “Then shall your light break forth as the morning and your health shall grow speedily. Your righteousness shall go before you. The Glory of the LORD shall embrace you.

⁹ “Then shall you call, and the LORD shall answer. You shall cry, and He shall say, ‘Here I am.’ If you take away the yoke from the midst of you, the putting forth of the finger and wicked speaking,

¹⁰ “if you pour out your soul to the hungry and refresh the troubled soul, then shall your light spring out in the darkness. And your darkness shall be as the noon day.

¹¹ “And the LORD shall guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and make your bones fat. And you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

¹² “And those who shall build the old waste places shall be from you. You shall raise up the foundations for many generations. And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of the Paths to dwell in.

¹³ “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your will on My Holy Day, and call the Sabbath a delight to consecrate it, glorious to the LORD, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways or seeking your own will or speaking a vain word,

¹⁴ “then shall you delight in the LORD. And I will cause you to mount upon the high places of the Earth, and feed yourselves with the heritage of Jacob, your father. For the Mouth of the LORD has spoken it.”