Isaiah 59–61

Chapter 59

¹Behold, Jehovah’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear; ²but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he doth not hear. ³For your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips speak lies, your tongue muttereth unrighteousness: ⁴none calleth for justice, none pleadeth in truthfulness. They trust in vanity, and speak falsehood; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. ⁵They hatch serpents’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper. ⁶Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works; their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. ⁷Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths; ⁸the way of peace they know not, and there is no judgment in their goings; they have made their paths crooked: whoso goeth therein knoweth not peace.

⁹Therefore is justice far from us, and righteousness overtaketh us not: we wait for light, and behold darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity. ¹⁰We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at midday as in the twilight; amongst the flourishing we are as the dead. ¹¹We roar all like bears, and mourn grievously like doves: we look for judgment, and there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. ¹²For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us; and our iniquities, we know them: ¹³in transgressing and lying against Jehovah, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. ¹⁴And judgment is turned away backward, and righteousness standeth afar off; for truth stumbleth in the street, and uprightness cannot enter. ¹⁵And truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey. And Jehovah saw it, and it was evil in his sight that there was no judgment.

¹⁶And he saw that there was no man, and he wondered that there was no intercessor; and his arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness, it sustained him. ¹⁷And he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak. ¹⁸According to deeds, so will he repay: fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence. ¹⁹And they shall fear the name of Jehovah from the west, and from the rising of the sun, his glory. When the adversary shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of Jehovah will lift up a banner against him. ²⁰And the Redeemer will come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith Jehovah. ²¹And as for me, this is my covenant with them, saith Jehovah: My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith Jehovah, from henceforth and for ever.

Chapter 60

¹Arise, shine! for thy light is come, and the glory of Jehovah is risen upon thee. ²For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but Jehovah will arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen on thee. ³And the nations shall walk by thy light, and kings by the brightness of thy rising. ⁴Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons come from afar, and thy daughters are carried upon the side. ⁵Then thou shalt see, and shalt be brightened, and thy heart shall throb, and be enlarged; for the abundance of the sea shall be turned unto thee, the wealth of the nations shall come unto thee. ⁶A multitude of camels shall cover thee, young camels of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall publish the praises of Jehovah. ⁷All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall serve thee: they shall come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will beautify the house of my magnificence. ⁸Who are these that come flying as a cloud, and as doves to their dove-cotes?

⁹For the isles shall await me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from afar, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of Jehovah thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified thee. ¹⁰And the sons of the alien shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee. For in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee. ¹¹And thy gates shall stand open continually: (they shall not be shut day nor night,) that the wealth of the nations may be brought unto thee, and that their kings may be led to thee. ¹²For the nation and the kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; and those nations shall be utterly wasted. ¹³The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the cypress, pine, and box-tree together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious. ¹⁴And the children of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee The city of Jehovah, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵Instead of thy being forsaken and hated, so that no one went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy from generation to generation. ¹⁶And thou shalt suck the milk of the nations, and shalt suck the breast of kings; and thou shalt know that I, Jehovah, am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. ¹⁷For bronze I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood bronze, and for stones iron; and I will make thine officers peace, and thy rulers righteousness. ¹⁸Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. ¹⁹The sun shall be no more thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee; but Jehovah shall be thine everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. ²⁰Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for Jehovah shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. ²¹Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall possess the land for ever—the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. ²²The little one shall become a thousand, and the smallest a mighty nation: I, Jehovah, will hasten it in its time.

Chapter 61

¹The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me, because Jehovah hath anointed me to announce glad tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and opening of the prison to them that are bound; ²to proclaim the acceptable year of Jehovah, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; ³to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, that beauty should be given unto them instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of the spirit of heaviness: that they might be called terebinths of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah, that he may be glorified.

⁴And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the places desolate from generation to generation. ⁵And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your ploughmen and your vinedressers. ⁶But as for you, ye shall be called priests of Jehovah; it shall be said of you: Ministers of our God. Ye shall eat the wealth of the nations, and into their glory shall ye enter. ⁷Instead of your shame ye shall have double; instead of confusion they shall celebrate with joy their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double; everlasting joy shall be unto them. ⁸For I, Jehovah, love judgment, I hate robbery with wrong; and I will give their recompence in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. ⁹And their seed shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are a seed that Jehovah hath blessed.

¹⁰I will greatly rejoice in Jehovah, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with the priestly turban, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. ¹¹For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as a garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord Jehovah will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.