Isaiah 65

¹“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. ²I have spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts; ³a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens, and burning incense on bricks; ⁴who sit among the graves, and lodge in the secret places; who eat pig’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels; ⁵who say, Stand by yourself, don’t come near to me, for I am holier than you. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burns all the day.

⁶“Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, yes, I will recompense into their bosom, ⁷your 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 will I first measure their work into their bosom.”

“As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, ‘Don’t destroy it, for a blessing is in it:’ so will I do for my servants’ sake, that I may not destroy them all. ⁹I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains; and my chosen shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there. ¹⁰Sharon shall 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; ¹²I will destine you to the sword, and you shall 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.”

¹³Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Behold, 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 disappointed; ¹⁴behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall wail for anguish of spirit.

¹⁵You shall leave your name for a curse to my chosen; and the Lord Yahweh will kill you; and he will call his servants by another name: ¹⁶so that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he who swears in the earth shall 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 shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. ¹⁸But be you glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. ¹⁹I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people; and there shall be heard in her no more the voice of weeping and the voice of crying.

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