Isaiah 65:17–23

New Heavens and a New Earth

^17–25“Pay close attention now:

I’m creating new heavens and a new earth.

All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain

are things of the past, to be forgotten.

Look ahead with joy.

Anticipate what I’m creating:

I’ll create Jerusalem as sheer joy,

create my people as pure delight.

I’ll take joy in Jerusalem,

take delight in my people:

No more sounds of weeping in the city,

no cries of anguish;

No more babies dying in the cradle,

or old people who don’t enjoy a full lifetime;

One-hundredth birthdays will be considered normal—

anything less will seem like a cheat.

They’ll build houses

and move in.

They’ll plant fields

and eat what they grow.

No more building a house

that some outsider takes over,

No more planting fields

that some enemy confiscates,

For my people will be as long-lived as trees,

my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work.

They won’t work and have nothing come of it,

they won’t have children snatched out from under them.

For they themselves are plantings blessed by God,

with their children and grandchildren likewise God-blessed.