Isaiah 62:6-65:25

English Standard Version

⁶On your walls, O Jerusalem,
    I have set ^(A)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 ^(B)a praise in the earth.
⁸The Lord has sworn ^(C)by his right hand
    and by his mighty arm:
“I will not again give ^(D)your grain
    to be food for your enemies,
^(E)and foreigners shall not drink your wine
    for which you have labored;
⁹but ^(F)those who garner it shall eat it
    and praise the Lord,
and ^(G)those who gather it shall drink it
    in the courts of my sanctuary.”^[a]

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

The Lord's Day of Vengeance

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

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

³^(T)“I have trodden the winepress alone,
    ^(U)and from the peoples no one was with me;
I trod them in my anger
    and trampled them in my wrath;
their lifeblood^[b] spattered on my garments,
    and stained all my apparel.
⁴^(V)For the day of vengeance was in my heart,
    and my year of redemption^[c] had come.
⁵I looked, but ^(W)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;
    ^(X)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,
    ^(Y)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^(Z)In all their affliction he was afflicted,^[d]
    and the angel of his presence saved them;
^(AA)in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
    ^(AB)he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

¹⁰^(AC)But they rebelled
    ^(AD)and grieved his Holy Spirit;
therefore he turned to be their enemy,
    and himself fought against them.
¹¹Then he remembered ^(AE)the days of old,
    of Moses and his people.^[e]
^(AF)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,
^(AG)who divided the waters before them
    ^(AH)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,
    ^(AI)the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest.
So you led your people,
    ^(AJ)to make for yourself a glorious name.

Prayer for Mercy

¹⁵^(AK)Look down from heaven and see,
    ^(AL)from your holy and beautiful^[f] habitation.
Where are ^(AM)your zeal and your might?
    The stirring of your inner parts and your compassion
    are held back from me.
¹⁶For ^(AN)you are our Father,
    though Abraham does not know us,
    and Israel does not acknowledge us;
you, O Lord, are our Father,
    ^(AO)our Redeemer from of old is your name.
¹⁷O Lord, why do you make us wander from your ways
    and ^(AP)harden our heart, so that we fear you not?
^(AQ)Return for the sake of your servants,
    the tribes of your heritage.
¹⁸^(AR)Your holy people held possession for a little while;^[g]
    ^(AS)our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary.
¹⁹^(AT)We have become like those over whom you have never ruled,
    like those who are not called by your name.

64 ^(AU)Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,
    ^(AV)that the mountains might quake at your presence—
²^[h] as when fire kindles brushwood
    and the fire causes water to boil—
^(AW)to make your name known to your adversaries,
    and that the nations might tremble at your presence!
³^(AX)When you did awesome things that we did not look for,
    you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
⁴^(AY)From of old no one has heard
    or perceived by the ear,
^(AZ)no eye has seen a God besides you,
    who acts for those who wait for him.
⁵You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
    those who remember you in your ways.
Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
    in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?^[i]
⁶^(BA)We have all become like one who is unclean,
    and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
^(BB)We all fade like a leaf,
    and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
⁷^(BC)There is no one who calls upon your name,
    who rouses himself to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
    and have made us melt in^[j] the hand of our iniquities.

⁸^(BD)But now, O Lord, you are our Father;
    ^(BE)we are the clay, and you are our potter;
    ^(BF)we are all the work of your hand.
⁹^(BG)Be not so terribly angry, O Lord,
    ^(BH)and remember not iniquity forever.
    Behold, please look, we are all your people.
¹⁰^(BI)Your holy cities have become a wilderness;
    Zion has become a wilderness,
    Jerusalem a desolation.
¹¹^(BJ)Our holy and beautiful^[k] house,
    where our fathers praised you,
has been burned by fire,
    and all our pleasant places have become ruins.
¹²^(BK)Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord?
    Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?

Judgment and Salvation

65 ^(BL)I was ready to be sought by ^(BM)those who did not ask for me;
    I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, “Here I am, here I am,”
    to a nation that was not called by^[l] my name.
²^(BN)I spread out my hands all the day
    to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
    following their own devices;
³a people who provoke me
    to my face continually,
^(BO)sacrificing in gardens
    and making offerings on bricks;
⁴who sit in tombs,
    and spend the night in secret places;
^(BP)who eat pig's flesh,
    and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels;
⁵who say, “Keep to yourself,
    do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.”
^(BQ)These are a smoke in my nostrils,
    a fire that burns all the day.
⁶Behold, ^(BR)it is written before me:
    ^(BS)“I will not keep silent, but I will repay;
^(BT)I will indeed repay into their lap
⁷    both your iniquities ^(BU)and your fathers' iniquities together,
says the Lord;
^(BV)because they made offerings on the mountains
    ^(BW)and insulted me on the hills,
I will measure into their lap
    payment for their former deeds.”^[m]

⁸Thus says the Lord:
^(BX)“As the new wine is found in the cluster,
    and they say, ‘Do not destroy it,
    for there is a blessing in it,’
so I will do for my servants' sake,
    ^(BY)and not destroy them all.
⁹^(BZ)I will bring forth offspring from Jacob,
    and from Judah possessors of my mountains;
my chosen shall possess it,
    and my servants shall dwell there.
¹⁰^(CA)Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks,
    and ^(CB)the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down,
    for my people ^(CC)who have sought me.
¹¹But ^(CD)you who forsake the Lord,
    who forget ^(CE)my holy mountain,
who ^(CF)set a table for Fortune
    and ^(CG)fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny,
¹²I will destine you to the sword,
    and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter,
^(CH)because, when I called, you did not answer;
    when I spoke, you did not listen,
^(CI)but you did what was evil in my eyes
    and chose what I did not delight in.”

¹³Therefore thus says the Lord God:
“Behold, ^(CJ)my servants shall eat,
    but you shall be hungry;
behold, my servants shall drink,
    but you shall be thirsty;
behold, my servants shall rejoice,
    but you shall be put to shame;
¹⁴behold, ^(CK)my servants shall sing for gladness of heart,
    but you shall cry out for pain of heart
    and shall wail for breaking of spirit.
¹⁵You shall leave your name to ^(CL)my chosen ^(CM)for a curse,
    and the Lord God will put you to death,
    but his servants ^(CN)he will call by another name,
¹⁶so that he who ^(CO)blesses himself in the land
    shall bless himself by ^(CP)the God of truth,
and he who takes an oath in the land
    shall swear by ^(CQ)the God of truth;
^(CR)because the former troubles are forgotten
    and are hidden from my eyes.

New Heavens and a New Earth

¹⁷“For behold, ^(CS)I create new heavens
    and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered
    or come into mind.
¹⁸But be glad and rejoice forever
    in that which I create;
for behold, ^(CT)I create Jerusalem to be a joy,
    and her people to be a gladness.
¹⁹^(CU)I will rejoice in Jerusalem
    and be glad in my people;
^(CV)no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping
    and the cry of distress.
²⁰No more shall there be in it
    an infant who lives but a few days,
    or an old man who does not fill out his days,
for ^(CW)the young man shall die a hundred years old,
    and ^(CX)the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.
²¹^(CY)They shall build houses and inhabit them;
    they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
²²^(CZ)They shall not build and another inhabit;
    they shall not plant and another eat;
^(DA)for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
    and my chosen shall long enjoy^[n] the work of their hands.
²³^(DB)They shall not labor in vain
    ^(DC)or bear children for calamity,^[o]
for ^(DD)they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord,
    and their descendants with them.
²⁴^(DE)Before they call I will answer;
    ^(DF)while they are yet speaking I will hear.
²⁵^(DG)The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;
    the lion shall eat straw like the ox,
    and ^(DH)dust shall be the serpent's food.
^(DI)They shall not hurt or destroy
    in all my holy mountain,”
says the Lord.