Isaiah, starting at chapter 55
{55:1} "Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no
money, 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 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 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, "To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and
choose the things that please me, and hold fast my covenant:
{56:5} to them I will 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," [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 do you make a wide mouth, and stick
out your 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; you
have even poured a drink offering to them. You have offered an
offering. Shall I be appeased for these things? {57:7} On a
high and lofty mountain you have set your bed; there also you
went up to offer sacrifice. {57:8} Behind the doors and the
posts you have set up your memorial:
for you have uncovered to someone besides me,
and have 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 debased yourself
even to [1>]Sheol[<1]. {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 them."
{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, "for the wicked."
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Footnotes:
[1] {57:9} Sheol is the place of the dead.
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