Isaiah 60 – Isaiah 66

60 “Arise, shine; for your light has come,
and Yahweh’s glory has risen on you!
2 For behold, darkness will cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but Yahweh will arise on you,
and his glory shall be seen on you.
3 Nations will come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your rising.

4 “Lift up your eyes all around, and see:
they all gather themselves together.
They come to you.
Your sons will come from far away,
and your daughters will be carried in arms.
5 Then you shall see and be radiant,
and your heart will thrill and be enlarged;
because the abundance of the sea will be turned to you.
The wealth of the nations will come to you.
6 A multitude of camels will cover you,
the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah.
All from Sheba will come.
They will bring gold and frankincense,
and will proclaim the praises of Yahweh.
7 All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered together to you.
The rams of Nebaioth will serve you.
They will be accepted as offerings on my altar;
and I will beautify my glorious house.

8 “Who are these who fly as a cloud,
and as the doves to their windows?
9 Surely the islands will wait for me,
and the ships of Tarshish first,
to bring your sons from far away,
their silver and their gold with them,
for the name of Yahweh your God,
and for the Holy One of Israel,
because he has glorified you.

10 “Foreigners will build up your walls,
and their kings will serve you;
for in my wrath I struck you,
but in my favor I have had mercy on you.
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.
12 For that nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; yes, those nations shall be utterly wasted.

13 “The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress 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.
14 The sons of those who afflicted you will come bowing to you;
and all those who despised you will bow themselves down at the soles of your feet.
They will call you Yahweh’s City,
the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

15 “Whereas you have been forsaken and hated,
so that no one passed through you,
I will make you an eternal excellency,
a joy of many generations.
16 You will also drink the milk of the nations,
and will nurse from royal breasts.
Then you will know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior,
your Redeemer,
the Mighty One of Jacob.
17 For bronze I will bring gold;
for iron I will bring silver;
for wood, bronze,
and for stones, iron.
I will also make peace your governor,
and righteousness your ruler.
18 Violence shall no more be heard in your land,
nor desolation or destruction within your borders;
but you will call your walls Salvation,
and your gates Praise.
19 The sun will be no more your light by day,
nor will the brightness of the moon give light to you,
but Yahweh will be your everlasting light,
and your God will be your glory.
20 Your sun will not go down any more,
nor will your moon withdraw itself;
for Yahweh will be your everlasting light,
and the days of your mourning will end.
21 Then your people will all be righteous.
They will inherit the land forever,
the branch of my planting,
the work of my hands,
that I may be glorified.
22 The little one will become a thousand,
and the small one a strong nation.
I, Yahweh, will do this quickly in its time.”

61 The Lord Yahweh’s Spirit is on me,
because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble.
He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives
and release to those who are bound,[d]
2 to proclaim the year of Yahweh’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
3 to provide for those who mourn in Zion,
to give to them a garland for ashes,
the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,
that they may be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of Yahweh,
that he may be glorified.

4 They will rebuild the old ruins.
They will raise up the former devastated places.
They will repair the ruined cities
that have been devastated for many generations.
5 Strangers will stand and feed your flocks.
Foreigners will work your fields and your vineyards.
6 But you will be called Yahweh’s priests.
Men will call you the servants of our God.
You will eat the wealth of the nations.
You will boast in their glory.
7 Instead of your shame you will have double.
Instead of dishonor, they will rejoice in their portion.
Therefore in their land they will possess double.
Everlasting joy will be to them.
8 “For I, Yahweh, love justice.
I hate robbery and iniquity.
I will give them their reward in truth
and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
9 Their offspring will be known among the nations,
and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them will acknowledge them,
that they are the offspring which Yahweh has blessed.”

10 I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh!
My soul will be joyful in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation.
He has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the earth produces its bud,
and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring up,
so the Lord Yahweh will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.

62 For Zion’s sake I will not hold my peace,
and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest,
until her righteousness shines out like the dawn,
and her salvation like a burning lamp.
2 The nations will see your righteousness,
and all kings your glory.
You will be called by a new name,
which Yahweh’s mouth will name.
3 You will also be a crown of beauty in Yahweh’s hand,
and a royal diadem in your God’s hand.
4 You will not be called Forsaken any more,
nor will your land be called Desolate any more;
but you will be called Hephzibah,[e]
and your land Beulah;[f]
for Yahweh delights in you,
and your land will be married.
5 For as a young man marries a virgin,
so your sons will marry you.
As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,
so your God will rejoice over you.

6 I have set watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem.
They will never be silent day nor night.
You who call on Yahweh, take no rest,
7 and give him no rest until he establishes,
and until he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

8 Yahweh has sworn by his right hand,
and by the arm of his strength,
“Surely I will no more give your grain to be food for your enemies,
and foreigners will not drink your new wine, for which you have labored,
9 but those who have harvested it will eat it, and praise Yahweh.
Those who have gathered it will drink it in the courts of my sanctuary.”

10 Go through, go through the gates!
Prepare the way of the people!
Build up, build up the highway!
Gather out the stones!
Lift up a banner for the peoples.
11 Behold, Yahweh has proclaimed to the end of the earth:
“Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your salvation comes!
Behold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him!’”
12 They will call them “The Holy People,
Yahweh’s Redeemed”.
You will be called “Sought Out,
A City Not Forsaken”.

63 Who is this who comes from Edom,
with dyed garments from Bozrah?
Who is this who is glorious in his clothing,
marching in the greatness of his strength?
“It is I who speak in righteousness,
mighty to save.”
2 Why is your clothing red,
and your garments like him who treads in the wine vat?

3 “I have trodden the wine press alone.
Of the peoples, no one was with me.
Yes, I trod them in my anger
and trampled them in my wrath.
Their lifeblood is sprinkled on my garments,
and I have stained all my clothing.
4 For the day of vengeance was in my heart,
and the year of my redeemed has come.
5 I looked, and there was no one to help;
and I wondered that there was no one to uphold.
Therefore my own arm brought salvation to me.
My own wrath upheld me.
6 I trod down the peoples in my anger
and made them drunk in my wrath.
I poured their lifeblood out on the earth.”

7 I will tell of the loving kindnesses of Yahweh
and the praises of Yahweh,
according to all that Yahweh has given to us,
and the great goodness toward the house of Israel,
which he has given to them according to his mercies,
and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
8 For he said, “Surely, they are my people,
children who will not deal falsely;”
so he became their Savior.
9 In all their affliction he was afflicted,
and the angel of his presence saved them.
In his love and in his pity he redeemed them.
He bore them,
and carried them all the days of old.

10 But they rebelled
and grieved his Holy Spirit.
Therefore he turned and became their enemy,
and he himself fought against them.

11 Then he remembered the days of old,
Moses and his people, saying,
“Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock?
Where is he who put his Holy Spirit among them?”
12 Who caused his glorious arm to be at Moses’ right hand?
Who divided the waters before them, to make himself an everlasting name?
13 Who led them through the depths,
like a horse in the wilderness,
so that they didn’t stumble?
14 As the livestock that go down into the valley,
Yahweh’s Spirit caused them to rest.
So you led your people to make yourself a glorious name.

15 Look down from heaven,
and see from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory.
Where are your zeal and your mighty acts?
The yearning of your heart and your compassion is restrained toward me.
16 For you are our Father,
though Abraham doesn’t know us,
and Israel does not acknowledge us.
You, Yahweh, are our Father.
Our Redeemer from everlasting is your name.
17 O Yahweh, why do you make us wander from your ways,
and harden our heart from your fear?
Return for your servants’ sake,
the tribes of your inheritance.
18 Your holy people possessed it but a little while.
Our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.
19 We have become like those over whom you never ruled,
like those who were not called by your name.

64 Oh that you would tear the heavens,
that you would come down,
that the mountains might quake at your presence—
2 as when fire kindles the brushwood,
and the fire causes the water to boil.
Make your name known to your adversaries,
that the nations may tremble at your presence!
3 When you did awesome things which we didn’t look for,
you came down, and the mountains quaked at your presence.
4 For from of old men have not heard,
nor perceived by the ear,
nor has the eye seen a God besides you,
who works for him who waits for him.
5 You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness,
those who remember you in your ways.
Behold, you were angry, and we sinned.
We have been in sin for a long time.
Shall we be saved?
6 For we have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteousness is like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf;
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
7 There is no one who calls on your name,
who stirs himself up to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have consumed us by means of our iniquities.

8 But now, Yahweh, you are our Father.
We are the clay and you our potter.
We all are the work of your hand.
9 Don’t be furious, Yahweh.
Don’t remember iniquity forever.
Look and see, we beg you,
we are all your people.
10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness.
Zion has become a wilderness,
Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our holy and our beautiful house where our fathers praised you
is burned with fire.
All our pleasant places are laid waste.
12 Will you hold yourself back for these things, Yahweh?
Will you keep silent and punish us very severely?

65 “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.
2 I have spread out my hands all day to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
after their own thoughts;
3 a people who provoke me to my face continually,
sacrificing in gardens,
and burning incense on bricks;
4 who sit among the graves,
and spend nights in secret places;
who eat pig’s meat,
and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;
5 who say, ‘Stay by yourself,
don’t come near to me,
for I am holier than you.’
These are smoke in my nose,
a fire that burns all day.

6 “Behold, it is written before me:
I will not keep silence,
but will repay,
yes, I will repay into their bosom
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 I will first measure their work into their bosom.”

8 Yahweh says,

“As the new wine is found in the cluster,
and one says, ‘Don’t destroy it, for a blessing is in it:’
so I will do for my servants’ sake,
that I may not destroy them all.
9 I will bring offspring out of Jacob,
and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains.
My chosen will inherit it,
and my servants will dwell there.
10 Sharon will 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.

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;
12 I will destine you to the sword,
and you will all bow down to the slaughter;
because when I called, you didn’t answer.
When I spoke, you didn’t listen;
but you did that which was evil in my eyes,
and chose that in which I didn’t delight.”

13 Therefore the Lord Yahweh says,

“Behold, my servants will eat,
but you will be hungry;
behold, my servants will drink,
but you will be thirsty.
Behold, my servants will rejoice,
but you will be disappointed.
14 Behold, my servants will sing for joy of heart,
but you will cry for sorrow of heart,
and will wail for anguish of spirit.
15 You will leave your name for a curse to my chosen,
and the Lord Yahweh will kill you.
He will call his servants by another name,
16 so that he who blesses himself in the earth will bless himself in the God of truth;
and he who swears in the earth will swear by the God of truth;
because the former troubles are forgotten,
and because they are hidden from my eyes.

17 “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth;
and the former things will not be remembered,
nor come into mind.
18 But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create;
for, behold, I create Jerusalem to be a delight,
and her people a joy.
19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem,
and delight in my people;
and the voice of weeping and the voice of crying
will be heard in her no more.

20 “No more will there be an infant who only lives a few days,
nor an old man who has not filled his days;
for the child will die one hundred years old,
and the sinner being one hundred years old will be accursed.
21 They will build houses and inhabit them.
They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 They will not build and another inhabit.
They will not plant and another eat;
for the days of my people will be like the days of a tree,
and my chosen will long enjoy the work of their hands.
23 They will not labor in vain
nor give birth for calamity;
for they are the offspring of Yahweh’s blessed
and their descendants with them.
24 It will happen that before they call, I will answer;
and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together.
The lion will eat straw like the ox.
Dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain,”
says Yahweh.

66 Yahweh says:

“Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build to me?
Where will I rest?
2 For my hand has made all these things,
and so all these things came to be,” says Yahweh:
“but I will look to this man,
even to he who is poor and of a contrite spirit,
and who trembles at my word.
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.
4 I also will choose their delusions,
and will bring their fears on them,
because when I called, no one answered;
when I spoke, they didn’t listen,
but they did that which was evil in my eyes,
and chose that in which I didn’t delight.”

5 Hear Yahweh’s word,
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.
6 A voice of tumult from the city,
a voice from the temple,
a voice of Yahweh that repays his enemies what they deserve.

7 “Before she travailed, she gave birth.
Before her pain came, she delivered a son.
8 Who has heard of such a thing?
Who has seen such things?
Shall a land be born in one day?
Shall a nation be born at once?
For as soon as Zion travailed,
she gave birth to her children.
9 Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to be delivered?” says Yahweh.
“Shall I who cause to give birth shut the womb?” says your God.

10 “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her.
Rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn over her;
11 that you may nurse and be satisfied at the comforting breasts;
that you may drink deeply,
and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.”

12 For Yahweh says, “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river,
and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream,
and you will nurse.
You will be carried on her side,
and will be dandled on her knees.
13 As one whom his mother comforts,
so I will comfort you.
You will be comforted in Jerusalem.”

14 You will see it, and your heart shall rejoice,
and your bones will flourish like the tender grass.
Yahweh’s hand will be known among his servants;
and he will have indignation against his enemies.

15 For, behold, Yahweh will come with fire,
and his chariots will be like the whirlwind;
to render his anger with fierceness,
and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For Yahweh will execute judgment by fire and by his sword on all flesh;
and those slain by Yahweh will be many.

17 “Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves to go to the gardens, following one in the middle, eating pig’s meat, abominable things, and the mouse, they shall come to an end together,” says Yahweh.

18 “For I know their works and their thoughts. The time comes that I will gather all nations and languages, and they will come, and will see my glory.

19 “I will set a sign among them, and I will send those who escape of them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to far-away islands, who have not heard my fame, nor have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the nations. 20 They shall bring all your brothers out of all the nations for an offering to Yahweh, on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules, and on camels, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says Yahweh, as the children of Israel bring their offering in a clean vessel into Yahweh’s house. 21 Of them I will also select priests and Levites,” says Yahweh.

22 “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me,” says Yahweh, “so your offspring and your name shall remain. 23 It shall happen that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh will come to worship before me,” says Yahweh. 24 “They will go out, and look at the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me; for their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”