Isaiah 60-63

English Standard Version

The Future Glory of Israel

60 ^(A)Arise, shine, for your light has come,
    and ^(B)the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
²For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
    and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
    and his glory will be seen upon you.
³^(C)And nations shall come to your light,
    and kings to the brightness of your rising.

⁴^(D)Lift up your eyes all around, and see;
    they all gather together, they come to you;
^(E)your sons shall come from afar,
    and your daughters shall be carried on the hip.
⁵Then you shall see and ^(F)be radiant;
    your heart shall thrill and exult,^[a]
because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you,
    ^(G)the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
⁶A multitude of camels shall cover you,
    the young camels of ^(H)Midian and ^(I)Ephah;
    all those from ^(J)Sheba shall come.
^(K)They shall bring gold and frankincense,
    and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord.
⁷All the flocks of ^(L)Kedar shall be gathered to you;
    the rams of ^(M)Nebaioth shall minister to you;
^(N)they shall come up with acceptance on my altar,
    ^(O)and I will beautify my beautiful house.

⁸Who are these that fly like a cloud,
    and ^(P)like doves to their windows?
⁹For ^(Q)the coastlands shall hope for me,
    ^(R)the ships of Tarshish first,
^(S)to bring your children from afar,
    their silver and gold with them,
for the name of the Lord your God,
    and for the Holy One of Israel,
    because ^(T)he has made you beautiful.

¹⁰^(U)Foreigners shall build up your walls,
    and ^(V)their kings shall minister to you;
for in my wrath I struck you,
    but in my favor I have had mercy on you.
¹¹^(W)Your gates shall be open continually;
    day and night they shall not be shut,
^(X)that people may bring to you the wealth of the nations,
    with their kings led in procession.
¹²^(Y)For the nation and kingdom
    that will not serve you shall perish;
    those nations shall be utterly laid waste.
¹³^(Z)The glory of Lebanon shall come to you,
    the cypress, the plane, and ^(AA)the pine,
to beautify the place of my sanctuary,
    and I will make the place of my feet glorious.
¹⁴^(AB)The sons of those who afflicted you
    shall come bending low to you,
^(AC)and all who despised you
    shall bow down at your feet;
^(AD)they shall call you the City of the Lord,
    the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵^(AE)Whereas you have been forsaken and hated,
    with no one passing through,
^(AF)I will make you majestic forever,
    a joy from age to age.
¹⁶^(AG)You shall suck the milk of nations;
    you shall nurse at the breast of kings;
and you shall know that ^(AH)I, the Lord, am your Savior
    and your Redeemer, ^(AI)the Mighty One of Jacob.

¹⁷Instead of bronze I will bring gold,
    and instead of iron I will bring silver;
instead of wood, bronze,
    instead of stones, iron.
I will make your overseers peace
    ^(AJ)and your taskmasters righteousness.
¹⁸^(AK)Violence shall no more be heard in your land,
    devastation or destruction within your borders;
^(AL)you shall call your walls Salvation,
    and your gates Praise.

¹⁹^(AM)The sun shall be no more
    your light by day,
nor for brightness shall the moon
    give you light;^[b]
but the Lord will be your everlasting light,
    and your God will be your glory.^[c]
²⁰Your sun shall no more go down,
    nor your moon withdraw itself;
for the Lord will be your everlasting light,
    and ^(AN)your days of mourning shall be ended.
²¹^(AO)Your people shall all be righteous;
    ^(AP)they shall possess the land forever,
^(AQ)the branch of my planting, the work of my hands,
    that I might be glorified.^[d]
²²^(AR)The least one shall become a clan,
    and the smallest one a mighty nation;
^(AS)I am the Lord;
    in its time I will hasten it.

The Year of the Lord's Favor

61 ^(AT)The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
    because the Lord has ^(AU)anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;^[e]
    he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
    and ^(AV)the opening of the prison to those who are bound;^[f]
²^(AW)to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,
    ^(AX)and the day of vengeance of our God;
    to comfort all who mourn;
³to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
    ^(AY)to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
^(AZ)the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
    the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
^(BA)that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
    the planting of the Lord, ^(BB)that he may be glorified.^[g]
⁴^(BC)They shall build up the ancient ruins;
    they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
    the devastations of many generations.

⁵^(BD)Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks;
    foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers;
⁶^(BE)but you shall be called the priests of the Lord;
    they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God;
^(BF)you shall eat the wealth of the nations,
    and in their glory you shall boast.
⁷^(BG)Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion;
    instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot;
therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion;
    they shall have everlasting joy.

⁸^(BH)For I the Lord love justice;
    I hate robbery and wrong;^[h]
^(BI)I will faithfully give them their recompense,
    ^(BJ)and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
⁹Their offspring shall be known among the nations,
    and their descendants in the midst of the peoples;
all who see them shall acknowledge them,
    that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed.

¹⁰^(BK)I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
    my soul shall exult in my God,
^(BL)for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
    he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself ^(BM)like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
    ^(BN)and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
¹¹For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,
    and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up,
so the Lord God will cause ^(BO)righteousness and praise
    to sprout up before all the nations.

Zion's Coming Salvation

62 ^(BP)For Zion's sake I will not keep silent,
    and for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet,
^(BQ)until her righteousness goes forth as brightness,
    and her salvation as a burning torch.
²^(BR)The nations shall see your righteousness,
    and all the kings your glory,
^(BS)and you shall be called by a new name
    that the mouth of the Lord will give.
³You shall be ^(BT)a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord,
    and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
⁴^(BU)You shall no more be termed ^(BV)Forsaken,^[i]
    and your land shall no more be termed Desolate,^[j]
^(BW)but you shall be called ^(BX)My Delight Is in Her,^[k]
    and your land Married;^[l]
for the Lord delights in you,
    and your land shall be married.
⁵For as a young man marries a young woman,
    so ^(BY)shall your sons marry you,
and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
    so ^(BZ)shall your God rejoice over you.

⁶On your walls, O Jerusalem,
    I have set ^(CA)watchmen;
all the day and all the night
    they shall never be silent.
You who put the Lord in remembrance,
    take no rest,
⁷and give him no rest
    until he establishes Jerusalem
    and makes it ^(CB)a praise in the earth.
⁸The Lord has sworn ^(CC)by his right hand
    and by his mighty arm:
“I will not again give ^(CD)your grain
    to be food for your enemies,
^(CE)and foreigners shall not drink your wine
    for which you have labored;
⁹but ^(CF)those who garner it shall eat it
    and praise the Lord,
and ^(CG)those who gather it shall drink it
    in the courts of my sanctuary.”^[m]

¹⁰Go through, go through the gates;
    ^(CH)prepare the way for the people;
^(CI)build up, build up the highway;
    clear it of stones;
    ^(CJ)lift up a signal over the peoples.
¹¹Behold, the Lord has proclaimed
    to the end of the earth:
^(CK)Say to the daughter of Zion,
    ^(CL)“Behold, your salvation comes;
behold, his reward is with him,
    and his recompense before him.”
¹²^(CM)And they shall be called The Holy People,
    The Redeemed of the Lord;
^(CN)and you shall be called Sought Out,
    A City Not Forsaken.

The Lord's Day of Vengeance

63 Who is this who comes from ^(CO)Edom,
    in crimsoned garments from ^(CP)Bozrah,
he who is splendid in his apparel,
    ^(CQ)marching in the greatness of his strength?
“It is I, speaking in righteousness,
    mighty to save.”

²Why is your ^(CR)apparel red,
and your garments like his ^(CS)who treads in the winepress?

³^(CT)“I have trodden the winepress alone,
    ^(CU)and from the peoples no one was with me;
I trod them in my anger
    and trampled them in my wrath;
their lifeblood^[n] spattered on my garments,
    and stained all my apparel.
⁴^(CV)For the day of vengeance was in my heart,
    and my year of redemption^[o] had come.
⁵I looked, but ^(CW)there was no one to help;
    I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold;
so my own arm brought me salvation,
    and my wrath upheld me.
⁶I trampled down the peoples in my anger;
    ^(CX)I made them drunk in my wrath,
    and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”

The Lord's Mercy Remembered

⁷I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord,
    the praises of the Lord,
according to all that the Lord has granted us,
    ^(CY)and the great goodness to the house of Israel
that he has granted them according to his compassion,
    according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
⁸For he said, “Surely they are my people,
    children who will not deal falsely.”
    And he became their Savior.
⁹^(CZ)In all their affliction he was afflicted,^[p]
    and the angel of his presence saved them;
^(DA)in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
    ^(DB)he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

¹⁰^(DC)But they rebelled
    ^(DD)and grieved his Holy Spirit;
therefore he turned to be their enemy,
    and himself fought against them.
¹¹Then he remembered ^(DE)the days of old,
    of Moses and his people.^[q]
^(DF)Where is he who brought them up out of the sea
    with the shepherds of his flock?
Where is he who put in the midst of them
    his Holy Spirit,
¹²who caused his glorious arm
    to go at the right hand of Moses,
^(DG)who divided the waters before them
    ^(DH)to make for himself an everlasting name,
¹³    who led them through the depths?
Like a horse in the desert,
    they did not stumble.
¹⁴Like livestock that go down into the valley,
    ^(DI)the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest.
So you led your people,
    ^(DJ)to make for yourself a glorious name.

Prayer for Mercy

¹⁵^(DK)Look down from heaven and see,
    ^(DL)from your holy and beautiful^[r] habitation.
Where are ^(DM)your zeal and your might?
    The stirring of your inner parts and your compassion
    are held back from me.
¹⁶For ^(DN)you are our Father,
    though Abraham does not know us,
    and Israel does not acknowledge us;
you, O Lord, are our Father,
    ^(DO)our Redeemer from of old is your name.
¹⁷O Lord, why do you make us wander from your ways
    and ^(DP)harden our heart, so that we fear you not?
^(DQ)Return for the sake of your servants,
    the tribes of your heritage.
¹⁸^(DR)Your holy people held possession for a little while;^[s]
    ^(DS)our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary.
¹⁹^(DT)We have become like those over whom you have never ruled,
    like those who are not called by your name.

Footnotes

Isaiah 60:5 Hebrew your heart shall tremble and grow wide
Isaiah 60:19 Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint, Targum add by night
Isaiah 60:19 Or your beauty
Isaiah 60:21 Or that I might display my beauty
Isaiah 61:1 Or afflicted
Isaiah 61:1 Or the opening [of the eyes] to those who are blind; Septuagint and recovery of sight to the blind
Isaiah 61:3 Or that he may display his beauty
Isaiah 61:8 Or robbery with a burnt offering
Isaiah 62:4 Hebrew Azubah
Isaiah 62:4 Hebrew Shemamah
Isaiah 62:4 Hebrew Hephzibah
Isaiah 62:4 Hebrew Beulah
Isaiah 62:9 Or in my holy courts
Isaiah 63:3 Or their juice; also verse 6
Isaiah 63:4 Or the year of my redeemed
Isaiah 63:9 Or he did not afflict
Isaiah 63:11 Or Then his people remembered the days of old, of Moses
Isaiah 63:15 Or holy and glorious
Isaiah 63:18 Or They have dispossessed your holy people for a little while