Isaiah, starting at chapter 58
{58:1} Cry aloud, don't spare, lift up your voice like a
[1>]shofar[<1], and declare to my people their disobedience, and to
the house of Jacob their sins. {58:2} Yet they seek me daily, and
delight to know my ways: as a nation that did righteousness, and
didn't forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous
judgments; they delight to draw near to God. {58:3} Why have we
fasted, [say they], and you don't see? [why] have we afflicted our
soul, and you take no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast you
find [your own] pleasure, and exact all your labors. {58:4} Behold,
you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of
wickedness: you don't fast this day so as to make your voice to be
heard on high. {58:5} Is such the fast that I have chosen? the day for
a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a rush, and
to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? will you call this a fast,
and an acceptable day to the LORD? {58:6} Isn't this the fast that I
have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of
the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every
yoke? {58:7} Isn't it to deal your bread to the hungry, and that you
bring the poor who are cast out to your house? when you see the naked,
that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own
flesh? {58:8} Then your light shall break forth as the morning, and
your healing shall spring forth speedily; and your righteousness shall
go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. {58:9}
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he
will say, Here I am. If you take away from the midst of you the yoke,
the putting forth of the finger, and speaking wickedly; {58:10} and if
you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul:
then your light shall rise in darkness, and your obscurity be as the
noonday; {58:11} and the LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy
your soul in dry places, and make strong your bones; and you shall be
like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters don't
fail. {58:12} Those who shall be of you shall build the old waste
places; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and
you shall be called The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths
to dwell in. {58:13} If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from
doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight,
[and] the holy of the LORD honorable; and shall honor it, not doing
your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking [your own]
words: {58:14} then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; and I will
make you to ride on the high places of the earth; and I will feed you
with the heritage of Jacob your father: for the mouth of the LORD has
spoken it.
{59:1} Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it can't save;
neither his ear heavy, that it can't hear: {59:2} but your iniquities
have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his
face from you, so that he will not hear. {59:3} For your hands are
defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have
spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness. {59:4} None sues in
righteousness, and none pleads in truth: they trust in vanity, and
speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. {59:5}
They hatch adders' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he who eats of
their eggs dies; and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.
{59:6} Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover
themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and
the act of violence is in their hands. {59:7} Their feet run to evil,
and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are
thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their paths.
{59:8} The way of peace they don't know; and there is no justice in
their goings: they have made them crooked paths; whoever goes therein
does not know peace. {59:9} Therefore is justice far from us, neither
does righteousness overtake us: we look for light, but, behold,
darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity. {59:10} We grope
for the wall like the blind; yes, we grope as those who have no eyes:
we stumble at noonday as in the twilight; among those who are lusty we
are as dead men. {59:11} We roar all like bears, and moan sore like
doves: we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it
is far off from us. {59:12} For our transgressions are multiplied
before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions
are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them: {59:13}
transgressing and denying the LORD, and turning away from following
our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from
the heart words of falsehood. {59:14} Justice is turned away backward,
and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street,
and uprightness can't enter. {59:15} Yes, truth is lacking; and he who
departs from evil makes himself a prey. The LORD saw it, and it
displeased him that there was no justice. {59:16} He saw that there
was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his
own arm brought salvation to him; and his righteousness, it upheld
him. {59:17} He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of
salvation on his head; and he put on garments of vengeance for
clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle. {59:18} According to
their deeds, accordingly he will repay, wrath to his adversaries,
recompense to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompense.
{59:19} So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his
glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing
stream, which the breath of the LORD drives. {59:20} A Redeemer will
come to Zion, and to those who turn from disobedience in Jacob, says
the LORD. {59:21} As for me, this is my covenant with them, says the
LORD: my Spirit who is on you, and my words which I have put in your
mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of
your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed's seed, says the LORD,
from henceforth and forever.
{60:1} Arise, shine; for your light is come, and the glory of the
LORD is risen on you. {60:2} For, behold, darkness shall cover the
earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise on you,
and his glory shall be seen on you. {60:3} Nations shall come to your
light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. {60:4} Lift up your
eyes all around, and see: they all gather themselves together, they
come to you; your sons shall come from far, and your daughters shall
be carried in the arms. {60:5} Then you shall see and be radiant, and
your heart shall thrill and be enlarged; because the abundance of the
sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to
you. {60:6} The multitude of camels shall cover you, the dromedaries
of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come; they shall bring
gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praises of the LORD.
{60:7} All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together to you, the
rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you; they shall come up with
acceptance on my altar; and I will glorify the house of my glory.
{60:8} Who are these who fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their
windows? {60:9} Surely the islands shall wait for me, and the ships of
Tarshish first, to bring your sons from far, their silver and their
gold with them, for the name of the LORD your God, and for the Holy
One of Israel, because he has glorified you. {60:10} Foreigners shall
build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you: for in my
wrath I struck you, but in my favor have I had mercy on you. {60:11}
Your gates also shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day
nor night; that men may bring to you the wealth of the nations, and
their kings led captive. {60:12} For that nation and kingdom that will
not serve you shall perish; yes, those nations shall be utterly
wasted. {60:13} The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the fir tree,
the pine, and the box tree together, to beautify the place of my
sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious. {60:14} The
sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending to you; and all
those who despised you shall bow themselves down at the soles of your
feet; and they shall call you The city of the LORD, The Zion of the
Holy One of Israel. {60:15} Whereas you have been forsaken and hated,
so that no man passed through you, I will make you an eternal
excellency, a joy of many generations. {60:16} You shall also suck the
milk of the nations, and shall suck the breast of kings; and you shall
know that I, the LORD, am your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty
One of Jacob. {60:17} For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will
bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron. I will also
make your officers peace, and righteousness your ruler. {60:18}
Violence shall no more be heard in your land, desolation nor
destruction within your borders; but you shall call your walls
Salvation, and your gates Praise. {60:19} The sun shall be no more
your light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light to
you: but the LORD will be to you an everlasting light, and your God
your glory. {60:20} Your sun shall no more go down, neither shall your
moon withdraw itself; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and
the days of your mourning shall be ended. {60:21} Your people also
shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land forever, the
branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.
{60:22} The little one shall become a thousand, and the small one a
strong nation; I, the LORD, will hasten it in its time.
________________________________________________________________________
Footnotes:
[1] {58:1} or, trumpet
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