Isaiah 63–64

Chapter 63

¹Who is this that cometh from Edom, with deep-red garments from Bozrah, this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? —I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. ²—Wherefore is redness in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winevat? ³I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the peoples not a man was with me; and I have trodden them in mine anger, and trampled them in my fury; and their blood is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all mine apparel. ⁴For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redeemed had come. ⁵And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: and mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. ⁶And I have trodden down the peoples in mine anger, and made them drunk in my fury; and their blood have I brought down to the earth.

⁷I will record the loving-kindnesses of Jehovah, the praises of Jehovah, according to all that Jehovah hath bestowed upon us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel which he hath bestowed upon them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses. ⁸And he said, They are indeed my people, children that will not lie; and he became their Saviour. ⁹In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the Angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bore them and carried them all the days of old. ¹⁰But they rebelled and grieved his holy Spirit: and he turned to be their enemy; himself, he fought against them. ¹¹But he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people: Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he that put his holy Spirit within him, ¹²his glorious arm leading them by the right hand of Moses, dividing the waters before them, to make himself an everlasting name, ¹³—who led them through the depths, like a horse in the wilderness, and they stumbled not? ¹⁴As cattle go down into the valley, the Spirit of Jehovah gave them rest; so didst thou lead thy people, to make thyself a glorious name.

¹⁵Look down from the heavens, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory! Where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy tender mercies? Are they restrained toward me? ¹⁶For thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, Jehovah, art our Father; our Redeemer, from everlasting, is thy name. ¹⁷Why, O Jehovah, hast thou made us to err from thy ways, hast hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance. ¹⁸Thy holy people have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary. ¹⁹We have become like those over whom thou never barest rule, those not called by thy name.

Chapter 64

¹Oh, that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, —that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, ²—as fire kindleth brushwood, as the fire causeth water to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations might tremble at thy presence! ³When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, and the mountains flowed down at thy presence. ⁴Never have men heard, nor perceived by the ear, nor hath eye seen a God beside thee, who acteth for him that waiteth for him. ⁵Thou meetest him that rejoiceth to do righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: (behold, thou wast wroth, and we have sinned:) in those is perpetuity, and we shall be saved.

⁶And we are all become as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have carried us away; ⁷and there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee; for thou hast hidden thy face from us, and hast caused us to melt away through our iniquities. ⁸And now, Jehovah, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. ⁹Be not wroth very sore, O Jehovah, neither remember iniquity for ever. Behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people. ¹⁰Thy holy cities are become a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. ¹¹Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burnt up with fire, and all our precious things are laid waste. ¹²Wilt thou restrain thyself in presence of these things, Jehovah? Wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?