Isaiah 47
1“Come down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon.
Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans.
For you will no longer be called tender and delicate.
2Take the millstones and grind flour.
Remove your veil, lift up your skirt, uncover your legs,
and wade through the rivers.
3Your nakedness will be uncovered.
Yes, your shame will be seen.
I will take vengeance,
and will spare no one.”
Our Redeemer, the LORD of Armies is his name,
is the Holy One of Israel.
“Sit in silence, and go into darkness,
daughter of the Chaldeans.
For you shall no longer be called
the mistress of kingdoms.
6I was angry with my people.
I profaned my inheritance
and gave them into your hand.
You showed them no mercy.
You laid a very heavy yoke on the aged.
7You said, ‘I will be a princess forever,’
so that you didn’t lay these things to your heart,
nor did you remember the results.
“Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures,
who sit securely,
who say in your heart,
‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.
I won’t sit as a widow,
neither will I know the loss of children.’
9But these two things will come to you in a moment in one day:
the loss of children and widowhood.
They will come on you in their full measure,
in the multitude of your sorceries,
and the great abundance of your enchantments.
10For you have trusted in your wickedness.
You have said, ‘No one sees me.’
Your wisdom and your knowledge has perverted you.
You have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’
11Therefore disaster will come on you.
You won’t know when it dawns.
Mischief will fall on you.
You won’t be able to put it away.
Desolation will come on you suddenly,
which you don’t understand.
“Stand now with your enchantments
and with the multitude of your sorceries,
in which you have labored from your youth,
as if you might profit,
as if you might prevail.
13You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels.
Now let the astrologers, the stargazers, and the monthly prognosticators stand up and save you from the things that will happen to you.
14Behold, they are like stubble.
The fire will burn them.
They won’t deliver themselves from the power of the flame.
It won’t be a coal to warm at
or a fire to sit by.
15The things that you labored in will be like this:
those who have trafficked with you from your youth will each wander in his own way.
There will be no one to save you.
Isaiah 48
1“Hear this, house of Jacob,
you who are called by the name of Israel,
and have come out of the waters of Judah.
You swear by the LORD’s name,
and make mention of the God of Israel,
but not in truth, nor in righteousness—
2for they call themselves citizens of the holy city,
and rely on the God of Israel;
the LORD of Armies is his name.
3I have declared the former things from of old.
Yes, they went out of my mouth, and I revealed them.
I did them suddenly, and they happened.
4Because I knew that you are obstinate,
and your neck is an iron sinew,
and your brow bronze;
5therefore I have declared it to you from of old;
before it came to pass I showed it to you;
lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them.
My engraved image and my molten image has commanded them.’
6You have heard it.
Now see all this.
And you, won’t you declare it?
“I have shown you new things from this time,
even hidden things, which you have not known.
7They are created now, and not from of old.
Before today, you didn’t hear them,
lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’
8Yes, you didn’t hear.
Yes, you didn’t know.
Yes, from of old your ear was not opened,
for I knew that you dealt very treacherously,
and were called a transgressor from the womb.
9For my name’s sake, I will defer my anger,
and for my praise, I hold it back for you
so that I don’t cut you off.
10Behold, I have refined you,
but not as silver.
I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.
11For my own sake,
for my own sake, I will do it;
for how would my name be profaned?
I will not give my glory to another.
“Listen to me, O Jacob,
and Israel my called:
I am he.
I am the first.
I am also the last.
13Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth,
and my right hand has spread out the heavens.
when I call to them, they stand up together.
“Assemble yourselves, all of you, and hear!
Who among them has declared these things?
He whom the LORD loves will do what he likes to Babylon,
and his arm will be against the Chaldeans.
15I, even I, have spoken.
Yes, I have called him.
I have brought him
and he shall make his way prosperous.
16“Come near to me and hear this:
“From the beginning I have not spoken in secret;
from the time that it happened, I was there.”
Now the Lord GOD has sent me
with his Spirit.
The LORD,
your Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel, says:
“I am the LORD your God,
who teaches you to profit,
who leads you by the way that you should go.
18Oh that you had listened to my commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river
and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
19Your offspring also would have been as the sand
and the descendants of your body like its grains.
His name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.”
Leave Babylon!
Flee from the Chaldeans!
With the sound of joyful shouting announce this,
tell it even to the end of the earth;
say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
21They didn’t thirst when he led them through the deserts.
He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them.
He also split the rock and the waters gushed out.
“There is no peace”, says the LORD, “for the wicked.”
Isaiah 49
1Listen, islands, to me.
Listen, you peoples, from afar:
the LORD has called me from the womb;
from the inside of my mother, he has mentioned my name.
2He has made my mouth like a sharp sword.
He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand.
He has made me a polished shaft.
He has kept me close in his quiver.
3He said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
4But I said, “I have labored in vain.
I have spent my strength in vain for nothing;
yet surely the justice due to me is with the LORD,
and my reward with my God.”
Now the LORD, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
says to bring Jacob again to him,
and to gather Israel to him,
for I am honorable in the LORD’s eyes,
and my God has become my strength.
6Indeed, he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and to restore the preserved of Israel.
I will also give you as a light to the nations,
that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.”
7The LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One,
says to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers:
“Kings shall see and rise up,
princes, and they shall worship,
because of the LORD who is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
The LORD says, “I have answered you in an acceptable time.
I have helped you in a day of salvation.
I will preserve you and give you for a covenant of the people,
to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritage,
9saying to those who are bound, ‘Come out!’;
to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves!’
“They shall feed along the paths,
and their pasture shall be on all treeless heights.
10They shall not hunger nor thirst;
neither shall the heat nor sun strike them,
for he who has mercy on them will lead them.
He will guide them by springs of water.
11I will make all my mountains a road,
and my highways shall be exalted.
12Behold, these shall come from afar,
and behold, these from the north and from the west,
and these from the land of Sinim.”
13Sing, heavens, and be joyful, earth!
Break out into singing, mountains!
For the LORD has comforted his people,
and will have compassion on his afflicted.
But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me,
and the Lord has forgotten me.”
15“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Yes, these may forget,
yet I will not forget you!
16Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.
Your walls are continually before me.
17Your children hurry.
Your destroyers and those who devastated you will leave you.
18Lift up your eyes all around, and see:
all these gather themselves together, and come to you.
As I live,” says the LORD, “you shall surely clothe yourself with them all as with an ornament,
and dress yourself with them, like a bride.
19“For, as for your waste and your desolate places,
and your land that has been destroyed,
surely now that land will be too small for the inhabitants,
and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
20The children of your bereavement will say in your ears,
‘This place is too small for me.
Give me a place to live in.’
21Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has conceived these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children
and am alone, an exile, and wandering back and forth?
Who has brought these up?
Behold, I was left alone. Where were these?’”
The Lord GOD says, “Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations,
and lift up my banner to the peoples.
They shall bring your sons in their bosom,
and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
23Kings shall be your foster fathers,
and their queens your nursing mothers.
They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth,
and lick the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the LORD;
and those who wait for me won’t be disappointed.”
Shall the plunder be taken from the mighty,
or the lawful captives be delivered?
25But the LORD says, “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away,
and the plunder retrieved from the fierce,
for I will contend with him who contends with you
and I will save your children.
26I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh;
and they will be drunk on their own blood, as with sweet wine.
Then all flesh shall know that I, the LORD, am your Savior
and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
Isaiah 50
1The LORD says, “Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, with which I have put her away?
Or to which of my creditors have I sold you?
Behold, you were sold for your iniquities,
and your mother was put away for your transgressions.
2Why, when I came, was there no one?
When I called, why was there no one to answer?
Is my hand shortened at all, that it can’t redeem?
Or have I no power to deliver?
Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea.
I make the rivers a wilderness.
Their fish stink because there is no water, and die of thirst.
3I clothe the heavens with blackness.
I make sackcloth their covering.”
The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught,
that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary.
He awakens morning by morning,
he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.
5The Lord GOD has opened my ear.
I was not rebellious.
I have not turned back.
6I gave my back to those who beat me,
and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair.
I didn’t hide my face from shame and spitting.
7For the Lord GOD will help me.
Therefore I have not been confounded.
Therefore I have set my face like a flint,
and I know that I won’t be disappointed.
8He who justifies me is near.
Who will bring charges against me?
Let us stand up together.
Who is my adversary?
Let him come near to me.
9Behold, the Lord GOD will help me!
Who is he who will condemn me?
Behold, they will all grow old like a garment.
The moths will eat them up.
Who among you fears the LORD
and obeys the voice of his servant?
He who walks in darkness
and has no light,
let him trust in the LORD’s name,
and rely on his God.
11Behold, all you who kindle a fire,
who adorn yourselves with torches around yourselves,
walk in the flame of your fire,
and among the torches that you have kindled.
You will have this from my hand:
you will lie down in sorrow.
Isaiah 51
1“Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness,
you who seek the LORD.
Look to the rock you were cut from,
and to the quarry you were dug from.
2Look to Abraham your father,
and to Sarah who bore you;
for when he was but one I called him,
I blessed him,
and made him many.
3For the LORD has comforted Zion.
He has comforted all her waste places,
and has made her wilderness like Eden,
and her desert like the garden of the LORD.
Joy and gladness will be found in them,
thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
“Listen to me, my people;
and hear me, my nation,
for a law will go out from me,
and I will establish my justice for a light to the peoples.
5My righteousness is near.
My salvation has gone out,
and my arms will judge the peoples.
The islands will wait for me,
and they will trust my arm.
6Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and look at the earth beneath;
for the heavens will vanish away like smoke,
and the earth will wear out like a garment.
Its inhabitants will die in the same way,
but my salvation will be forever,
and my righteousness will not be abolished.
“Listen to me, you who know righteousness,
the people in whose heart is my law.
Don’t fear the reproach of men,
and don’t be dismayed at their insults.
8For the moth will eat them up like a garment,
and the worm will eat them like wool;
but my righteousness will be forever,
and my salvation to all generations.”
Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of the LORD!
Awake, as in the days of old,
the generations of ancient times.
Isn’t it you who cut Rahab in pieces,
who pierced the monster?
10Isn’t it you who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep;
who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?
11Those ransomed by the LORD will return,
and come with singing to Zion.
Everlasting joy shall be on their heads.
They will obtain gladness and joy.
Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
“I, even I, am he who comforts you.
Who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die,
and of the son of man who will be made as grass?
13Have you forgotten the LORD your Maker,
who stretched out the heavens,
and laid the foundations of the earth?
Do you live in fear continually all day because of the fury of the oppressor,
when he prepares to destroy?
Where is the fury of the oppressor?
14The captive exile will speedily be freed.
He will not die and go down into the pit.
His bread won’t fail.
15For I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea
so that its waves roar.
the LORD of Armies is his name.
16I have put my words in your mouth
and have covered you in the shadow of my hand,
that I may plant the heavens,
and lay the foundations of the earth,
and tell Zion, ‘You are my people.’”
Awake, awake!
Stand up, Jerusalem,
you who have drunk from the LORD’s hand the cup of his wrath.
You have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering,
and drained it.
18There is no one to guide her among all the sons to whom she has given birth;
and there is no one who takes her by the hand among all the sons whom she has brought up.
19These two things have happened to you—
who will grieve with you?—
desolation and destruction,
and famine and the sword.
How can I comfort you?
20Your sons have fainted.
They lie at the head of all the streets,
like an antelope in a net.
They are full of the LORD’s wrath,
the rebuke of your God.
Therefore now hear this, you afflicted,
and drunken, but not with wine:
22Your Lord GOD,
your God who pleads the cause of his people, says,
“Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering,
even the bowl of the cup of my wrath.
You will not drink it any more.
23I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you,
who have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’
and you have laid your back as the ground,
like a street to those who walk over.”
Isaiah 52
1Awake, awake! Put on your strength, Zion.
Put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city,
for from now on the uncircumcised and the unclean will no more come into you.
2Shake yourself from the dust!
Arise, sit up, Jerusalem!
Release yourself from the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Zion!
For the LORD says, “You were sold for nothing;
and you will be redeemed without money.”
For the Lord GOD says:
“My people went down at the first into Egypt to live there;
and the Assyrian has oppressed them without cause.
“Now therefore, what do I do here,” says the LORD,
“seeing that my people are taken away for nothing?
Those who rule over them mock,” says the LORD,
“and my name is blasphemed continually all day long.
6Therefore my people shall know my name.
Therefore they shall know in that day that I am he who speaks.
Behold, it is I.”
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace,
who brings good news,
who proclaims salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
8Your watchmen lift up their voice.
Together they sing;
for they shall see eye to eye when the LORD returns to Zion.
9Break out into joy!
Sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem;
for the LORD has comforted his people.
He has redeemed Jerusalem.
10The LORD has made his holy arm bare in the eyes of all the nations.
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Depart! Depart! Go out from there! Touch no unclean thing!
Go out from among her!
Cleanse yourselves, you who carry the LORD’s vessels.
12For you shall not go out in haste,
neither shall you go by flight;
for the LORD will go before you,
and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
Behold, my servant will deal wisely.
He will be exalted and lifted up,
and will be very high.
14Just as many were astonished at you—
his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men—
15so he will cleanse many nations.
Kings will shut their mouths at him;
for they will see that which had not been told them,
and they will understand that which they had not heard.
Isaiah 53
1Who has believed our message?
To whom has the LORD’s arm been revealed?
2For he grew up before him as a tender plant,
and as a root out of dry ground.
He has no good looks or majesty.
When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3He was despised
and rejected by men,
a man of suffering
and acquainted with disease.
He was despised as one from whom men hide their face;
and we didn’t respect him.
Surely he has borne our sickness
and carried our suffering;
yet we considered him plagued,
struck by God, and afflicted.
5But he was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought our peace was on him;
and by his wounds we are healed.
6All we like sheep have gone astray.
Everyone has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed,
yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth.
As a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he didn’t open his mouth.
8He was taken away by oppression and judgment.
As for his generation,
who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living
and stricken for the disobedience of my people?
9They made his grave with the wicked,
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him.
He has caused him to suffer.
When you make his soul an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring.
He will prolong his days
and the LORD’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.
11After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light and be satisfied.
My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself;
and he will bear their iniquities.
12Therefore I will give him a portion with the great.
He will divide the plunder with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was counted with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sins of many
and made intercession for the transgressors.
Isaiah 54
1“Sing, barren, you who didn’t give birth!
Break out into singing, and cry aloud, you who didn’t travail with child!
For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife,” says the LORD.
2“Enlarge the place of your tent,
and let them stretch out the curtains of your habitations;
don’t spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.
3For you will spread out on the right hand and on the left;
and your offspring will possess the nations
and settle in desolate cities.
“Don’t be afraid, for you will not be ashamed.
Don’t be confounded, for you will not be disappointed.
For you will forget the shame of your youth.
You will remember the reproach of your widowhood no more.
5For your Maker is your husband; the LORD of Armies is his name.
The Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer.
He will be called the God of the whole earth.
6For the LORD has called you as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit,
even a wife of youth, when she is cast off,” says your God.
“For a small moment I have forsaken you,
but I will gather you with great mercies.
8In overflowing wrath I hid my face from you for a moment,
but with everlasting loving kindness I will have mercy on you,” says the LORD your Redeemer.
“For this is like the waters of Noah to me;
for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah will no more go over the earth,
so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.
10For the mountains may depart,
and the hills be removed,
but my loving kindness will not depart from you,
and my covenant of peace will not be removed,”
says the LORD who has mercy on you.
“You afflicted, tossed with storms, and not comforted,
behold, I will set your stones in beautiful colors,
and lay your foundations with sapphires.
12I will make your pinnacles of rubies,
your gates of sparkling jewels,
and all your walls of precious stones.
13All your children will be taught by the LORD,
and your children’s peace will be great.
14You will be established in righteousness.
You will be far from oppression,
for you will not be afraid,
and far from terror,
for it shall not come near you.
15Behold, they may gather together, but not by me.
Whoever gathers together against you will fall because of you.
“Behold, I have created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame,
and forges a weapon for his work;
and I have created the destroyer to destroy.
17No weapon that is formed against you will prevail;
and you will condemn every tongue that rises against you in judgment.
This is the heritage of the LORD’s servants,
and their righteousness is of me,” says the LORD.
Isaiah 55
1“Hey! 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.
2Why 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 that which is good,
and let your soul delight itself in richness.
3Turn your ear, and come to me.
Hear, and your soul will live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
4Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander to the peoples.
5Behold, 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 Israel;
for he has glorified you.”
Seek the LORD while he may be found.
Call on him while he is near.
7Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts.
Let him return to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him,
to our God, for he will freely pardon.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
and your ways are not my ways,” says the LORD.
9“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky,
and doesn’t return there, but waters the earth,
and makes it grow and bud,
and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
11so is my word that goes out of my mouth:
it will not return to me void,
but it will accomplish that which I please,
and it will prosper in the thing I sent it to do.
12For you shall go out with joy,
and be led out with peace.
The mountains and the hills will break out before you into singing;
and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands.
13Instead of the thorn the cypress tree will come up;
and instead of the brier the myrtle tree will come up.
It will make a name for the LORD,
for an everlasting sign that will not be cut off.”
Isaiah 56
1The LORD says:
“Maintain justice
and do what is right,
for my salvation is near
and my righteousness will soon be revealed.
2Blessed is the man who does this,
and the son of man who holds it fast;
who keeps the Sabbath without profaning it
and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD speak, saying,
“The LORD will surely separate me from his people.”
Do not let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”
For the LORD says, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
choose the things that please me,
and hold fast to my covenant,
5I will give them 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 will not be cut off.
Also the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD
to serve him,
and to love the LORD’s name,
to be his servants,
everyone who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it,
and holds fast my covenant,
7I will bring these to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
8The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says,
“I will yet gather others to him,
in addition to his own who are gathered.”
All you animals of the field,
come to devour,
all you animals in the forest.
10His watchmen are blind.
They are all without knowledge.
They are all mute dogs.
They can’t bark—
dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.
11Yes, the dogs are greedy.
They can never have enough.
They are shepherds who can’t understand.
They have all turned to their own way,
each one to his gain, from every quarter.
12“Come,” they say, “I will get wine,
and we will fill ourselves with strong drink;
and tomorrow will be as today,
great beyond measure.”
Isaiah 57
1The righteous perish,
and no one lays it to heart.
Merciful men are taken away,
and no one considers that the righteous is taken away from the evil.
2He enters into peace.
They rest in their beds,
each one who walks in his uprightness.
“But draw near here, you sons of a sorceress,
you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes.
4Whom do you mock?
Against whom do you make a wide mouth
and stick out your tongue?
Aren’t you children of disobedience
and offspring of falsehood,
5you who inflame yourselves among the oaks,
under every green tree;
who kill the children in the valleys,
under the clefts of the rocks?
6Among 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?
7On a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed.
You also went up there to offer sacrifice.
8You have set up your memorial behind the doors and the posts,
for you have exposed yourself to someone besides me,
and have gone up.
You have enlarged your bed
and made a covenant for yourself with them.
You loved what you saw on their bed.
9You went to the king with oil,
increased your perfumes,
sent your ambassadors far off,
and degraded yourself even to Sheol.
10You were wearied with the length of your ways;
yet you didn’t say, ‘It is in vain.’
You found a reviving of your strength;
therefore you weren’t faint.
“Whom have you dreaded and feared,
so that you lie,
and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart?
Haven’t I held my peace for a long time,
and you don’t fear me?
12I will declare your righteousness;
and as for your works, they will not benefit you.
13When you cry,
let those whom you have gathered deliver you,
but the wind will take them.
A breath will carry them all away,
but he who takes refuge in me will possess the land,
and will inherit my holy mountain.”
He will say, “Build up, build up, prepare the way!
Remove the stumbling-block out of the way of my people.”
15For the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity,
whose name is Holy, says:
“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.
16For I will not contend forever, neither will I always be angry;
for the spirit would faint before me,
and the souls whom I have made.
17I was angry because of the iniquity of his covetousness and struck him.
I hid myself and was angry;
and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart.
18I have seen his ways, and will heal him.
I will lead him also,
and restore comforts to him and to his mourners.
19I create the fruit of the lips:
Peace, peace, to him who is far off and to him who is near,”
says the LORD; “and I will heal them.”
20But the wicked are like the troubled sea;
for it can’t rest and its waters cast up mire and mud.
21“There is no peace”, says my God,
“for the wicked.”
Isaiah 58
1“Cry aloud! Don’t spare!
Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Declare to my people their disobedience,
and to the house of Jacob their sins.
2Yet 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.
3‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you don’t see?
Why have we afflicted our soul, and you don’t notice?’
“Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure,
and oppress all your laborers.
4Behold, you fast for strife and contention,
and to strike with the fist of wickedness.
You don’t fast today so as to make your voice to be heard on high.
5Is this the fast that I have chosen?
A day for a man to humble his soul?
Is it to bow down his head like a reed,
and to spread sackcloth and ashes under himself?
Will you call this a fast,
and an acceptable day to the LORD?
“Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen:
to release the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and that you break every yoke?
7Isn’t it to distribute 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?
8Then your light will break out as the morning,
and your healing will appear quickly;
then your righteousness shall go before you,
and the LORD’s glory will be your rear guard.
9Then you will call, and the LORD will answer.
You will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’
“If you take away from among you the yoke,
finger pointing,
and speaking wickedly;
10and if you pour out your soul to the hungry,
and satisfy the afflicted soul,
then your light will rise in darkness,
and your obscurity will be as the noonday;
11and the LORD will guide you continually,
satisfy your soul in dry places,
and make your bones strong.
You will be like a watered garden,
and like a spring of water
whose waters don’t fail.
12Those who will be of you will build the old waste places.
You will raise up the foundations of many generations.
You will be called Repairer of the Breach,
Restorer of Paths with Dwellings.
“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 honor it,
not doing your own ways,
nor finding your own pleasure,
nor speaking your own words,
14then you will 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 LORD’s mouth has spoken it.