Isaiah 66

Proper Worship

66Thus says Yahweh:

“Heaven is my throne,

and the earth is the footstool for my feet.

Where is this house that you would build for me?

And where is this resting place for me?

²And my hand has made all these things,

and all these came to be,”^a

declares^b Yahweh, “but^c I look to this one:

to the humble and the contrite of spirit

and the one frightened at my word.

³The one who slaughters a bull strikes a man;

the one who slaughters a lamb for sacrifice breaks the neck of a dog.

The one who offers an offering, the blood of swine;

the one who offers frankincense blesses an idol.

Indeed, they themselves have chosen their ways,

and their soul delights in their abhorrence.

⁴Indeed, I myself I will choose their ill treatment,

and I will bring them objects of their dread,

because I called, and no one answered;^d

I spoke and they did not listen,

but^e they did the evil in my eyes,

and they chose that in which I do not delight.”

⁵Hear the word of Yahweh, you who are frightened at his word:

Your brothers who hate you,

who exclude you for my name’s sake have said,

“Let Yahweh be honored so that^f we may see your joy!”

But^g they themselves shall be ashamed.

⁶A voice, an uproar from the city!

A voice from the temple!

The voice of Yahweh paying back^h his enemies!

Zion’s Delivery

⁷Before she was in labor she gave birth;

before labor painsⁱ came to her, she gave birth to a son.

⁸Who has heard anything like this?

Who has seen anything like these things?

Can a land be born in one day?

Or can a nation be born in a moment?

Yet when she was in labor, Zion indeed gave birth to her children.

⁹Shall I myself break open and not deliver?”^j says Yahweh,

“or I who delivers^k lock up the womb?” says your God.

¹⁰“Rejoice with Jerusalem

and shout in exultation with her, all those who love her!

Rejoice with her in joy, all those who mourn over her,

¹¹so that you may suck and be satisfied from her consoling breast,^l

so that you may drink deeply and refresh yourselves from her heavy breast.”^m

¹²For thus says Yahweh:

“Look! I am about to spread prosperity out to her like a river,

and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing stream,

and you shall suck and be carried on the hip;

and you shall be played with on the knees.

¹³As a man whose mother comforts him, so I myself will comfort you,

and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

Yahweh’s Final Judgment

¹⁴And you shall see and your heart shall rejoice,

and your bones shall flourishⁿ like the grass,

and the hand of Yahweh shall make itself known to^o his servants,

and he shall curse his enemies.

¹⁵For look! Yahweh will come in fire,

and his chariots like the storm wind,

to give back^p his anger in wrath,

and his rebuke in flames of fire.

¹⁶For Yahweh enters into judgment on all flesh with fire and his sword,

and those slain by^q Yahweh shall be many.

¹⁷Those who sanctify themselves

and those who cleanse themselves to go into^r the gardens after the one in the middle,

eating the flesh of swine

and detestable things^s and rodents^t together

shall come to an end!” declares^u Yahweh.

¹⁸“And I—their works and thoughts!—am about to come to gather all nations and tongues,

and they shall come and see my glory.

¹⁹And I will set a sign among them,

and I will send survivors from them to the nations:

Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow;

Tubal and Javan, the faraway coastlands

that have not heard of my fame,

and have not seen my glory.

And they shall declare my glory among the nations, ²⁰and bring all your countrymen^v from all the nations as an offering to Yahweh on horses and chariots^w and in litters and on mules and camels, to^x my holy mountain,^y Jerusalem,” says Yahweh, “just as the sons of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel to the house of Yahweh. ²¹And indeed, I will take some of them as priests and the Levites,” says Yahweh. ²²“For just as the new heavens and earth that I am about to make shall stand before me,” declares^z Yahweh, “so shall your descendants^a and your name stand.

²³And this shall happen: From new moon to new moon^b and from Sabbath to Sabbath^c all flesh shall come to bow in worship before me,” says Yahweh. ²⁴“And they shall go out and look at the corpses of the people^d who have rebelled^e against me,

for their worm shall not die,

and their fire shall not be quenched,

and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”