Isaiah, starting at chapter 64
{64:1} Oh that you would tear the heavens, that you would come down,
that the mountains might quake at your presence, {64:2} as when fire
kindles the brushwood, [and] the fire causes the waters to boil; to
make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble
at your presence! {64:3} When you did terrible things which we didn't
look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. {64:4}
For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither
has the eye seen a God besides you, who works for him who waits for
him. {64:5} You meet him who rejoices and works righteousness, those
who remember you in your ways: behold, you were angry, and we sinned:
in them [have we been] of long time; and shall we be saved? {64:6} For
we have all become as one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is
as a polluted garment: and we all fade as a leaf; and our iniquities,
like the wind, take us away. {64:7} There is none who calls on your
name, who stirs up himself to take hold of you; for you have hid your
face from us, and have consumed us by means of our iniquities. {64:8}
But now, Yahweh, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you our
potter; and we all are the work of your hand. {64:9} Don't be furious,
Yahweh, neither remember iniquity forever: see, look, we beg you, we
are all your people. {64:10} Your holy cities are become a wilderness,
Zion is become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. {64:11} Our holy
and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, is burned with
fire; and all our pleasant places are laid waste. {64:12} Will you
refrain yourself for these things, Yahweh? will you hold your peace,
and afflict us very sore?
{65:1} I am inquired of by those who didn't ask; I am found by those
who didn't seek me: I said, See me, see me, to a nation that was not
called by my name. {65:2} I have spread out my hands all the day to a
rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own
thoughts; {65:3} a people who provoke me to my face continually,
sacrificing in gardens, and burning incense on bricks; {65:4} who sit
among the graves, and lodge in the secret places; who eat pig's flesh,
and broth of abominable things is in their vessels; {65:5} who say,
Stand by yourself, don't come near to me, for I am holier than you.
These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burns all the day. {65:6}
Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will
recompense, yes, I will recompense into their bosom, {65:7} your own
iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, says Yahweh,
who have burned incense on the mountains, and blasphemed me on the
hills; therefore will I first measure their work into their bosom.
{65:8} Thus says Yahweh, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and
one says, Don't destroy it, for a blessing is in it: so will I do for
my servants' sake, that I may not destroy them all. {65:9} I will
bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my
mountains; and my chosen shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell
there. {65:10} Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of
Achor a place for herds to lie down in, for my people who have sought
me. {65:11} But you who forsake Yahweh, who forget my holy mountain,
who prepare a table for Fortune, and who fill up mixed wine to
Destiny; {65:12} I will destine you to the sword, and you shall all
bow down to the slaughter; because when I called, you did not answer;
when I spoke, you did not hear; but you did that which was evil in my
eyes, and chose that in which I didn't delight. {65:13} Therefore thus
says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be
hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty;
behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be disappointed;
{65:14} behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall
cry for sorrow of heart, and shall wail for anguish of spirit. {65:15}
You shall leave your name for a curse to my chosen; and the Lord
Yahweh will kill you; and he will call his servants by another name:
{65:16} so that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless
himself in the God of truth; and he who swears in the earth shall
swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten,
and because they are hid from my eyes. {65:17} For, behold, I create
new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be
remembered, nor come into mind. {65:18} But be you glad and rejoice
forever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a
rejoicing, and her people a joy. {65:19} I will rejoice in Jerusalem,
and joy in my people; and there shall be heard in her no more the
voice of weeping and the voice of crying. {65:20} There shall be no
more there an infant of days, nor an old man who has not filled his
days; for the child shall die one hundred years old, and the sinner
being one hundred years old shall be accursed. {65:21} They shall
build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and
eat the fruit of them. {65:22} They shall not build, and another
inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a
tree shall be the days of my people, and my chosen shall long enjoy
the work of their hands. {65:23} They shall not labor in vain, nor
bring forth for calamity; for they are the seed of the blessed of
Yahweh, and their offspring with them. {65:24} It shall happen that,
before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I
will hear. {65:25} The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the
lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent's
food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, says
Yahweh.
{66:1} Thus says Yahweh, heaven is my throne, and the earth is my
footstool: what manner of house will you build to me? and what place
shall be my rest? {66:2} For all these things has my hand made, and
[so] all these things came to be, says Yahweh: but to this man will I
look, even to him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who
trembles at my word. {66:3} He who kills an ox is as he who kills a
man; he who sacrifices a lamb, as he who breaks a dog's neck; he who
offers an offering, [as he who offers] pig's blood; he who burns
frankincense, as he who blesses an idol. Yes, they have chosen their
own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations: {66:4} I also
will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears on them;
because when I called, none did answer; when I spoke, they did not
hear: but they did that which was evil in my eyes, and chose that in
which I didn't delight. {66:5} Hear the word of Yahweh, you who
tremble at his word: Your brothers who hate you, who cast you out for
my name's sake, have said, Let Yahweh be glorified, that we may see
your joy; but it is those who shall be disappointed. {66:6} A voice of
tumult from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of Yahweh that
renders recompense to his enemies. {66:7} Before she travailed, she
brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a boy.
{66:8} Who has heard such a thing? who has seen such things? Shall a
land be born in one day? shall a nation be brought forth at once? for
as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. {66:9}
Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? says Yahweh:
shall I who cause to bring forth shut [the womb]? says your God.
{66:10} Rejoice you with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who
love her: rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn over her;
{66:11} that you may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her
consolations; that you may milk out, and be delighted with the
abundance of her glory. {66:12} For thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will
extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an
overflowing stream: and you shall suck [of it]; you shall be borne on
the side, and shall be dandled on the knees. {66:13} As one whom his
mother comforts, so will I comfort you; and you shall be comforted in
Jerusalem. {66:14} You shall see [it], and your heart shall rejoice,
and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass: and the hand of
Yahweh shall be known toward his servants; and he will have
indignation against his enemies. {66:15} For, behold, Yahweh will come
with fire, and his chariots shall be like the whirlwind; to render his
anger with fierceness, and his rebuke with flames of fire. {66:16} For
by fire will Yahweh execute judgment, and by his sword, on all flesh;
and the slain of Yahweh shall be many. {66:17} Those who sanctify
themselves and purify themselves [to go] to the gardens, behind one in
the midst, eating pig's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse,
they shall come to an end together, says Yahweh. {66:18} For I [know]
their works and their thoughts: [the time] comes, that I will gather
all nations and languages; and they shall come, and shall see my
glory. {66:19} I will set a sign among them, and I will send such as
escape of them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the
bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the islands afar off, who have not heard
my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory
among the nations. {66:20} They shall bring all your brothers out of
all the nations for an offering to Yahweh, on horses, and in chariots,
and in litters, and on mules, and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain
Jerusalem, says Yahweh, as the children of Israel bring their offering
in a clean vessel into the house of Yahweh. {66:21} Of them also will
I take for priests [and] for Levites, says Yahweh. {66:22} For as the
new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before
me, says Yahweh, so your seed and your name shall remain. {66:23} It
shall happen, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath
to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, says Yahweh.
{66:24} They shall go forth, and look on the dead bodies of the men
who have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die,
neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring
to all flesh.
___
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