Isaiah 54-58
Easy-to-Read Version
God Brings His People Home
54 “Woman, be happy!
You have not had any children,
but you should be very happy.
“Yes, the woman who is alone[a]
will have more children than the woman with a husband.”
This is what the Lord says.
2 “Make your tent bigger.
Open your doors wide.
Don’t think small!
Make your tent large and strong,
3 because you will grow in all directions.
Your children will take over many nations
and live in the cities that were destroyed.
4 Don’t be afraid!
You will not be disappointed.
People will not say bad things against you.
You will not be embarrassed.
When you were young, you felt shame.
But you will forget that shame now.
You will not remember the shame you felt
when you lost your husband.[b]
5 Your real husband is the one who made you.
His name is the Lord All-Powerful.
The Holy One of Israel is your Protector,[c]
and he is the God of all the earth!
6 “Like a woman whose husband has left her,
you were very sad.
You were like a young wife left all alone.
But the Lord has called you back to him.”
This is what your God says.
7 “For a short time I turned away from you,
but with all my love I will welcome you again.
8 I was so angry that for a while I did not want to see you.
But now I want to comfort you with kindness forever.”
The Lord your Savior said this.
9 “Remember, in Noah’s time I punished the world with the flood.
But I made a promise to Noah that I would never again destroy the world with water.
In the same way, I promise that I will never again be angry with you
and say bad things to you.
10 “The mountains may disappear,
and the hills may become dust,
but my faithful love will never leave you.
I will make peace with you,
and it will never end.”
The Lord who loves you said this.
11 “You poor city!
Enemies came against you like storms,
and no one comforted you.
But I will rebuild you.
I will use a beautiful mortar to lay the stones of your walls.
I will use sapphire stones when I lay the foundation.
12 The stones on top of the wall will be made from rubies.
I will use shiny jewels for the gates.
I will use precious stones to build the walls around you.
13 I, the Lord, will teach your children,
and they will have real peace.
14 You will be built on goodness.
You will be safe from cruelty and fear.
So you will have nothing to fear.
Nothing will come to hurt you.
15 I will never send anyone to attack you.
And if any army tries to attack you, you will defeat them.
16 “Look, I made the blacksmith. He blows on the fire to make it hotter. Then he takes the hot iron and makes the kind of tool he wants to make. In the same way, I made the ‘Destroyer’ to destroy things.
17 “People will make weapons to fight against you, but their weapons will not defeat you. Some people will say things against you, but anyone who speaks against you will be proved wrong.”
The Lord says, “That is what my servants get! They get the good things[d] that come from me, their Lord.
God Gives “Food” That Really Satisfies
55 “All you people who are thirsty, come!
Here is water for you to drink.
Don’t worry if you have no money.
Come, eat and drink until you are full!
You don’t need money.
The milk and wine are free.
2 Why waste your money on something that is not real food?
Why should you work for something that does not really satisfy you?
Listen closely to me and you will eat what is good.
You will enjoy the food that satisfies your soul.
3 Listen closely to what I say.
Listen to me so that you will live.
I will make an agreement with you that will last forever.
It will be an agreement you can trust, like the one I made with David—
a promise to love him and be loyal to him forever.
4 I made David a witness of my power for all nations.
I promised him that he would become a ruler and commander of many nations.”
5 There are nations in places you don’t know,
but you will call for them to come.
They don’t know you,
but they will run to you.
This will happen because the Lord, your God, wants it.
It will happen because the Holy One of Israel honors you.
6 So you should look for the Lord
before it is too late.
You should call to him now,
while he is near.
7 Evil people should stop living evil lives.
They should stop thinking bad thoughts.
They should come to the Lord again,
and he will comfort them.
They should come to our God
because he will freely forgive them.
People Cannot Understand God
8 The Lord says, “My thoughts are not like yours.
Your ways are not like mine.
9 Just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways,
and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.
10 “Rain and snow fall from the sky
and don’t return until they have watered the ground.
Then the ground causes the plants to sprout and grow,
and they produce seeds for the farmer and food for people to eat.
11 In the same way, my words leave my mouth,
and they don’t come back without results.
My words make the things happen that I want to happen.
They succeed in doing what I send them to do.
12 “So you will go out from there with joy.
You will be led out in peace.
When you come to the mountains and hills, they will begin singing.
All the trees in the fields will clap their hands.
13 Large cypress trees will grow where there were thornbushes.
Myrtle trees will grow where there were weeds.
All this will happen to make the Lord known,
to be a permanent reminder of his goodness and power.”
All Nations Will Follow the Lord
56 The Lord said these things, “Be fair to all people. Do what is right, because soon my salvation will come to you. My goodness will soon be shown to the whole world. 2 I will bless those who refuse to do wrong and who obey the law about the Sabbath.”
3 Some foreigners will choose to follow the Lord. They should not say, “The Lord will not really accept me like the rest of his people.” A eunuch should not say, “I am only a dry piece of wood. I cannot have any children.”
4 They should not say that because the Lord says, “Some eunuchs obey the laws about the Sabbath. They choose to do what I want, and they follow my agreement.[e] 5 So I will put a memorial stone in my Temple for them. Their name will be remembered in my city! Yes, I will give those eunuchs something better than sons and daughters. I will give them a name that will last forever! They will not be cut off[f] from my people.
6 “Some foreigners have chosen to follow the Lord. They do this so that they can serve him and love his name and be his servants. They keep the Sabbath as a special day of worship, and they will continue to follow closely my agreement. 7 So I will bring them to my holy mountain and make them happy in my house of prayer. The offerings and sacrifices they give me will please me, because my Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” 8 The Lord God said these things.
The Israelites were forced to leave their country, but the Lord will gather them together again. He says, “I will bring them back together again!”
9 Wild animals in the forest,
come and eat.
10 The watchmen[g] are all blind.
They don’t know what they are doing.
They are like dogs that will not bark.
They lie on the ground and sleep.
Oh, they love to sleep.
11 They are like hungry dogs.
They are never satisfied.
The shepherds don’t know what they are doing.
Like their sheep, they have all wandered away.
They are greedy.
All they want is to satisfy themselves.
12 They come and say,
“I will drink some wine.
I will drink some beer.
I will do the same thing tomorrow,
but I will drink even more.”
Israel Does Not Follow God
57 All the good people are gone,
and no one even noticed.
The loyal followers were gathered up,
but no one knows why.
The reason they were gathered up
is that trouble is coming.
2 But peace will come too,
and those who trust him will get to rest in their own beds.
3 “Come here, you children of witches.
Your father committed adultery,
and your mother was unfaithful.
4 You are children out of control, full of lies.
You make fun of me.
You make faces
and stick out your tongue at me.[h]
5 All you want is to worship false gods
under every green tree.
You kill children by every stream
and sacrifice them in the rocky places.
6 You love to worship the smooth rocks in the rivers.
You pour wine on them to worship them.
You give sacrifices to them, but those rocks are all you get.
Do you think this makes me happy?
7 You make your bed on every hill
and high mountain.[i]
You go up to those places
and offer sacrifices.
8 You hide the things that help you remember me
behind the doors and doorframes.[j]
You were with me,
but you got up to go to them.
You spread out your bed
and gave yourself to them.[k]
You love their beds
and enjoy looking at their naked bodies.[l]
9 You use your oils and perfumes
to look nice for Molech.
You sent your messengers to faraway lands,
and this will bring you down to the place of death.[m]
10 All of them made you tired,
but you never gave up.
You found new strength,
because you enjoyed them.
11 You did not remember me.
You did not even notice me!
So who were you worrying about?
Who were you afraid of?
Why did you lie?
Look, I have been quiet for a long time.
Is that why you didn’t honor me?
12 I could tell about your ‘good works’ and all the ‘religious’ things you do,
but that will not help you.
13 When you need help,
you cry to those false gods that you have gathered around you.
Let them help you!
But I tell you, the wind will blow them all away.
A puff of wind will blow them all away.
But the one who depends on me
will get the land I promised
and enjoy my holy mountain.[n]”
The Lord Will Save His People
14 Clear the road! Clear the road!
Make the way clear for my people!
15 God is high and lifted up.
He lives forever.
His name is holy.
He says, “I live in a high and holy place,
but I also live with people who are humble and sorry for their sins.
I will give new life to those who are humble in spirit.
I will give new life to those who are sorry for their sins.
16 I will not accuse my people forever.
I will not always be angry.
If I continued to show my anger,
then the human spirit, the life I gave them, would die before me.
17 Israel’s evil greed made me angry,
so I punished them.
I turned away from them
because I was angry.
But they continued to do wrong.
They did whatever they wanted.
18 I have seen their way of life, but I will heal them.
I will guide and comfort them and those who mourn for them.
19 I will teach them a new word: peace.
I will give peace to those who are near and to those who are far away.
I will heal them.”
The Lord himself said this.
20 But evil people are like the angry ocean.
They cannot be quiet and peaceful.
They are angry, and like the ocean,
they stir up mud.
21 My God says,
“There is no peace for evil people.”
People Must Be Told to Follow God
58 Shout as loud as you can and don’t stop.
Shout like a trumpet!
Tell the people what they did wrong.
Tell the family of Jacob about their sins.
2 They still come every day to worship me,
acting as if they want to learn my ways.
They pretend to be a nation that lives right
and obeys the commands of their God.
They ask me to judge them fairly.
They want their God to be near them.
3 They say, “We fast to show honor to you. Why don’t you see us? We starve our bodies to show honor to you. Why don’t you notice us?”
But God says, “You do things to please yourselves on those special days of fasting. And you punish your servants, not your own bodies. 4 You are hungry, but not for food. You are hungry for arguing and fighting, not for bread. You are hungry to hit people with your evil hands. This is not the way to fast if you want your prayers to be heard in heaven! 5 Do you think I want to see people punish their bodies on those days of fasting? Do you think I want people to look sad and bow their heads like dead plants? Do you think I want people to wear mourning clothes and sit in ashes to show their sadness? That is what you do on your days of fasting. Do you think that is what the Lord wants?
6 “I will tell you the kind of day I want—a day to set people free. I want a day that you take the burdens off others. I want a day when you set troubled people free and you take the burdens from their shoulders. 7 I want you to share your food with the hungry. I want you to find the poor who don’t have homes and bring them into your own homes. When you see people who have no clothes, give them your clothes! Don’t hide from your relatives when they need help.”
8 If you do these things, your light will begin to shine like the light of dawn. Then your wounds will heal. Your “Goodness” will walk in front of you, and the Glory of the Lord will come following behind you. 9 Then you will call to the Lord, and he will answer you. You will cry out to him, and he will say, “Here I am.”
Stop causing trouble and putting burdens on people. Stop saying things to hurt people or accusing them of things they didn’t do. 10 Feel sorry for hungry people and give them food. Help those who are troubled and satisfy their needs. Then your light will shine in the darkness. You will be like the bright sunshine at noon.
11 The Lord will always lead you and satisfy your needs in dry lands. He will give strength to your bones. You will be like a garden that has plenty of water, like a spring that never goes dry.
12 Your cities have been destroyed for many years, but you will rebuild them and their foundations will last for a long time. You will be called “Fence Fixer” and “Builder of Roads and Houses.”
13 That will happen when you stop sinning against God’s law about the Sabbath and when you stop doing things to please yourself on that special day. You should call the Sabbath a happy day. You should honor the Lord’s special day by not saying and doing things that you do every other day of the week. 14 Then you could enjoy the Lord. As the Lord himself says, “I could carry you up to the highest mountain and let you enjoy the land that I gave to your father Jacob.”
Footnotes
- Isaiah 54:1 Yes, the woman … alone This Hebrew word is like the word “destroyed.” This probably means “Jerusalem, the city that is destroyed.”
- Isaiah 54:4 husband In Hebrew this word is like the name Baal. This means that the Lord is Jerusalem’s true God, not the false god Baal.
- Isaiah 54:5 Protector Or “Redeemer,” someone who cared for and protected the family of a dead relative. Often this person bought back (redeemed) the poor relatives from slavery, making them free again.
- Isaiah 54:17 good things Or “victory.”
- Isaiah 56:4 agreement This usually means the agreement God made with Israel through Moses. (See “agreement” in the Word List.) Here, it might mean the agreement of Isa. 55:3.
- Isaiah 56:5 cut off To be removed from the list of the people of Israel. This included a person’s being forced to leave family, land, and the people of Israel.
- Isaiah 56:10 The watchmen Literally, “The seers,” an ancient title for prophets.
- Isaiah 57:4 make faces … at me This probably refers to the god Bel, which is usually shown making a face and sticking out his tongue.
- Isaiah 57:7 every hill and high mountain The people worshiped false gods in these places. The people thought these false gods would give them good crops and more children.
- Isaiah 57:8 doorframes The Israelites were supposed to put special things on their doorframes to help them remember God. See Deut. 6:9.
- Isaiah 57:8 gave yourself to them Or “and made agreements with them.”
- Isaiah 57:8 naked bodies This is a wordplay. The Hebrew word also means “memorial,” as in Isa. 56:5.
- Isaiah 57:9 this will … death Or “You even send them down to Sheol.”
- Isaiah 57:13 holy mountain Mount Zion, one of the mountains Jerusalem was built on.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International
