Yesha`yahu, 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 the LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Yisra'el; for he
has glorified you. {55:6} Seek you the LORD 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 the
LORD, 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 the LORD. {55:9} For as the
heavens are higher than the [1>]eretz[<1], 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 [2>]eretz[<2], 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 whereto I sent it. {55:12} For you shall go out with joy, and be
led forth with shalom: 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 the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be
cut off.
{56:1} Thus says the LORD, Keep you justice, and do righteousness;
for my [1>]yeshu`ah[<1] 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 Shabbat from profaning it, and keeps
his hand from doing any evil. {56:3} Neither let the foreigner, who
has joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, the LORD will surely
separate me from his people; neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am
a dry tree. {56:4} For thus says the LORD of the eunuchs who keep my
Shabbatot, 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 the LORD, to minister to him, and to
love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, everyone who keeps the
Shabbat 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 GOD, who gathers the outcasts of
Yisra'el, 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 shalom; 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 She'ol. {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 shalom 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: Shalom, shalom, to
him who is far off and to him who is near, says the LORD; 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
shalom, says my God, to the wicked.
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Footnotes:
[1] {55:9} earth
[2] {55:10} earth
[1] {56:1} salvation
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