Isaiah, starting at chapter 55
{55:1} Ho, everyone who thirsts, come you to the waters, and he who
has no money; come you, buy, and eat; yes, come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price. {55:2} Why do you spend money for
that which is not bread? and your labor for that which doesn't
satisfy? listen diligently to me, and eat you that which is good, and
let your soul delight itself in fatness. {55:3} Turn your ear, and
come to me; hear, and your soul shall live: and I will make an
everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. {55:4}
Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples, a leader and
commander to the peoples. {55:5} Behold, you shall call a nation that
you don't know; and a nation that didn't know you shall run to you,
because of Yahweh your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he has
glorified you. {55:6} Seek you Yahweh while he may be found; call you
on him while he is near: {55:7} let the wicked forsake his way, and
the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to Yahweh, and he
will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
{55:8} For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my
ways, says Yahweh. {55:9} For as the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your
thoughts. {55:10} For as the rain comes down and the snow from the
sky, and doesn't return there, but waters the earth, and makes it
bring forth and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the
eater; {55:11} so shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it
shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I
please, and it shall prosper in the thing I sent it to do. {55:12} For
you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains
and the hills shall break forth before you into singing; and all the
trees of the fields shall clap their hands. {55:13} Instead of the
thorn shall come up the fir tree; and instead of the brier shall come
up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to Yahweh for a name, for an
everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
{56:1} Thus says Yahweh, Keep you justice, and do righteousness; for
my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.
{56:2} Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds
it fast; who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it, and keeps his hand
from doing any evil. {56:3} Neither let the foreigner, who has joined
himself to Yahweh, speak, saying, Yahweh will surely separate me from
his people; neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.
{56:4} For thus says Yahweh of the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and
choose the things that please me, and hold fast my covenant: {56:5} To
them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name
better than of sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting
name, that shall not be cut off. {56:6} Also the foreigners who join
themselves to Yahweh, to minister to him, and to love the name of
Yahweh, to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath from
profaning it, and holds fast my covenant; {56:7} even them will I
bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer:
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted on my
altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
{56:8} The Lord Yahweh, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, Yet
will I gather [others] to him, besides his own who are gathered.
{56:9} All you animals of the field, come to devour, [yes], all you
animals in the forest. {56:10} His watchmen are blind, they are all
without knowledge; they are all mute dogs, they can't bark; dreaming,
lying down, loving to slumber. {56:11} Yes, the dogs are greedy, they
can never have enough; and these are shepherds who can't understand:
they have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from
every quarter. {56:12} Come you, [say they], I will get wine, and we
will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as this
day, [a day] great beyond measure.
{57:1} The righteous perishes, and no man lays it to heart; and
merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is
taken away from the evil [to come]. {57:2} He enters into peace; they
rest in their beds, each one who walks in his uprightness. {57:3} But
draw near here, you sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer
and the prostitute. {57:4} Against whom do you sport yourselves?
against whom make you a wide mouth, and put out the tongue? Aren't you
children of disobedience, a seed of falsehood, {57:5} you who inflame
yourselves among the oaks, under every green tree; who kill the
children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks? {57:6} Among
the smooth [stones] of the valley is your portion; they, they are your
lot; even to them have you poured a drink offering, you have offered
an offering. Shall I be appeased for these things? {57:7} On a high
and lofty mountain have you set your bed; there also you went up to
offer sacrifice. {57:8} Behind the doors and the posts have you set up
your memorial: for you have uncovered [yourself] to another than me,
and are gone up; you have enlarged your bed, and made you a covenant
with them: you loved their bed where you saw it. {57:9} You went to
the king with oil, and did increase your perfumes, and did send your
ambassadors far off, and did debase yourself even to Sheol. {57:10}
You were wearied with the length of your way; yet you didn't say, It
is in vain: you found a reviving of your strength; therefore you
weren't faint. {57:11} Of whom have you been afraid and in fear, that
you lie, and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart?
Haven't I held my peace even of long time, and you don't fear me?
{57:12} I will declare your righteousness; and as for your works, they
shall not profit you. {57:13} When you cry, let those who you have
gathered deliver you; but the wind shall take them, a breath shall
carry them all away: but he who takes refuge in me shall possess the
land, and shall inherit my holy mountain. {57:14} He will say, Cast
up, cast up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling-block out of the
way of my people. {57:15} For thus says the high and lofty One who
inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy
place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive
the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
{57:16} For I will not contend forever, neither will I be always
angry; for the spirit would faint before me, and the souls who I have
made. {57:17} For the iniquity of his covetousness was I angry, and
struck him; I hid [my face] and was angry; and he went on backsliding
in the way of his heart. {57:18} I have seen his ways, and will heal
him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts to him and to his
mourners. {57:19} I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to him
who is far off and to him who is near, says Yahweh; and I will heal
him. {57:20} But the wicked are like the troubled sea; for it can't
rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt. {57:21} There is no peace,
says my God, to the wicked.
___
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