Isaiah
65
- "I revealed myself to those who did
not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that
did not call on my name, I said, 'Here am I, here am I.'
- All day long I have held out my hands to
an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations
--
- a people who continually provoke me to my
very face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of
brick;
- who sit among the graves and spend their
nights keeping secret vigil; who eat the flesh of pigs, and whose pots hold
broth of unclean meat;
- who say, 'Keep away; don't come near me,
for I am too sacred for you!' Such people are smoke in my nostrils, a fire
that keeps burning all day.
- "See, it stands written before me:
I will not keep silent but will pay back in full; I will pay it back into
their laps --
- both your sins and the sins of your fathers,"
says the LORD. "Because they burned sacrifices on the mountains and defied
me on the hills, I will measure into their laps the full payment for their
former deeds."
- This is what the LORD says: "As when
juice is still found in a cluster of grapes and men say, 'Don't destroy it,
there is yet some good in it,' so will I do in behalf of my servants; I will
not destroy them all.
- I will bring forth descendants from Jacob,
and from Judah those who will possess my mountains; my chosen people will
inherit them, and there will my servants live.
- Sharon will become a pasture for flocks,
and the Valley of Achor a resting place for herds, for my people who seek
me.
- "But as for you who forsake the LORD
and forget my holy mountain, who spread a table for Fortune and fill bowls
of mixed wine for Destiny,
- I will destine you for the sword, and you
will all bend down for the slaughter; for I called but you did not answer,
I spoke but you did not listen. You did evil in my sight and chose what displeases
me."
- Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD
says: "My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; my servants will
drink, but you will go thirsty; my servants will rejoice, but you will be
put to shame.
- My servants will sing out of the joy of
their hearts, but you will cry out from anguish of heart and wail in brokenness
of spirit.
- You will leave your name to my chosen ones
as a curse; the Sovereign LORD will put you to death, but to his servants
he will give another name.
- Whoever invokes a blessing in the land will
do so by the God of truth; he who takes an oath in the land will swear by
the God of truth. For the past troubles will be forgotten and hidden from
my eyes.
- "Behold, I will create new heavens
and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come
to mind.
- But be glad and rejoice forever in what
I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people
a joy.
- I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight
in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.
- "Never again will there be in it an
infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years;
he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach
a hundred will be considered accursed.
- They will build houses and dwell in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
- No longer will they build houses and others
live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will
be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their
hands.
- They will not toil in vain or bear children
doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD, they
and their descendants with them.
- Before they call I will answer; while they
are still speaking I will hear.
- The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food.
They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain," says the
LORD.
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