Isaiah 56–66

All Nations Will Obey the Lord

56This is what the Lord says:

“Give justice to all people,

and do what is right,

because my salvation will come to you soon.

Soon everyone will know that I do what is right.

²The person who obeys the law about the Sabbath

will be blessed,

and the person who does no evil

will be blessed.”

³Foreigners who have joined the Lord should not say,

“The Lord will not accept me with his people.”

The eunuch should not say,

“Because I cannot have children, the Lord will not accept me.”

⁴This is what the Lord says:

“The eunuchs should obey the law about the Sabbath

and do what I want

and keep my agreement.

⁵If they do, I will make their names remembered

within my Temple and its walls.

It will be better for them than children.

I will give them a name that will last forever,

that will never be forgotten.

⁶Foreigners will join the Lord

to worship him and love him,

to serve him,

to obey the law about the Sabbath,

and to keep my agreement.

⁷I will bring these people to my holy mountain

and give them joy in my house of prayer.

The offerings and sacrifices

they place on my altar will please me,

because my Temple will be called

a house for prayer for people from all nations.”

⁸The Lord God says—

he who gathers the Israelites that were forced to leave their country:

“I will bring together other people

to join those who are already gathered.”

Israel’s Leaders Are Evil

⁹All you animals of the field,

all you animals of the forest, come to eat.

¹⁰The leaders who are to guard the people are blind;

they don’t know what they are doing.

All of them are like quiet dogs

that don’t know how to bark.

They lie down and dream

and love to sleep.

¹¹They are like hungry dogs

that are never satisfied.

They are like shepherds

who don’t know what they are doing.

They all have gone their own way;

all they want to do is satisfy themselves.

¹²They say, “Come, let’s drink some wine;

let’s drink all the beer we want.

And tomorrow we will do this again,

or, maybe we will have an even better time.”

Israel Does Not Follow God

57Those who are right with God may die,

but no one pays attention.

Good people are taken away,

but no one understands.

Those who do right are being taken away from evil

²and are given peace.

Those who live as God wants

find rest in death.

³“Come here, you magicians!

Come here, you children of prostitutes and those who take part in adultery!

⁴Of whom are you making fun?

Whom are you insulting?

At whom do you stick out your tongue?

You turn against God,

and you are liars.

⁵You have sexual relations under every green tree

to worship your gods.

You kill children in the ravines

and sacrifice them in the rocky places.

⁶You take the smooth rocks from the ravines

as your portion.

You pour drink offerings on them to worship them,

and you give grain offerings to them.

Do you think this makes me want to show you mercy?

⁷You make your bed on every hill and mountain,

and there you offer sacrifices.

⁸You have hidden your idols

behind your doors and doorposts.

You have left me, and you have uncovered yourself.

You have pulled back the covers and climbed into bed.

You have made an agreement with those whose beds you love,

and you have looked at their nakedness.

⁹You use your oils and perfumes

to look nice for Molech.

You have sent your messengers to faraway lands;

you even tried to send them to the place of the dead.

¹⁰You were tired from doing these things,

but you never gave up.

You found new strength,

so you did not quit.

¹¹“Whom were you so afraid of

that you lied to me?

You have not remembered me

or even thought about me.

I have been quiet for a long time.

Is that why you are not afraid of me?

¹²I will tell about your ‘goodness’ and what you do,

and those things will do you no good.

¹³When you cry out for help,

let the gods you have gathered help you.

The wind will blow them all away;

just a puff of wind will take them away.

But the person who depends on me will receive the land

and own my holy mountain.”

The Lord Will Save His People

¹⁴Someone will say, “Build a road! Build a road! Prepare the way!

Make the way clear for my people.”

¹⁵And this is the reason: God lives forever and is holy.

He is high and lifted up.

He says, “I live in a high and holy place,

but I also live with people who are sad and humble.

I give new life to those who are humble

and to those whose hearts are broken.

¹⁶I will not accuse forever,

nor will I always be angry,

because then human life would grow weak.

Human beings, whom I created, would die.

¹⁷I was angry because they were dishonest in order to make money.

I punished them and turned away from them in anger,

but they continued to do evil.

¹⁸I have seen what they have done, but I will heal them.

I will guide them and comfort them and those who felt sad for them.

They will all praise me.

¹⁹I will give peace, real peace, to those far and near,

and I will heal them,” says the Lord.

²⁰But evil people are like the angry sea,

which cannot rest,

whose waves toss up waste and mud.

²¹“There is no peace for evil people,” says my God.

How to Honor God

58The Lord says, “Shout out loud. Don’t hold back.

Shout out loud like a trumpet.

Tell my people what they have done against their God;

tell the family of Jacob about their sins.

²They still come every day looking for me

and want to learn my ways.

They act just like a nation that does what is right,

that obeys the commands of its God.

They ask me to judge them fairly.

They want God to be near them.

³They say, ‘To honor you we had special days when we fasted,

but you didn’t see.

We humbled ourselves to honor you,

but you didn’t notice.’ ”

But the Lord says, “You do what pleases yourselves on these special days,

and you are unfair to your workers.

⁴On these special days when you fast, you argue and fight

and hit each other with your fists.

You cannot do these things as you do now

and believe your prayers are heard in heaven.

⁵This kind of special day is not what I want.

This is not the way I want people to be sorry for what they have done.

I don’t want people just to bow their heads like a plant

and wear rough cloth and lie in ashes to show their sadness.

This is what you do on your special days when you fast,

but do you think this is what the Lord wants?

⁶“I will tell you the kind of fast I want:

Free the people you have put in prison unfairly

and undo their chains.

Free those to whom you are unfair

and stop their hard labor.

⁷Share your food with the hungry

and bring poor, homeless people into your own homes.

When you see someone who has no clothes, give him yours,

and don’t refuse to help your own relatives.

⁸Then your light will shine like the dawn,

and your wounds will quickly heal.

Your God will walk before you,

and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.

⁹Then you will call out, and the Lord will answer.

You will cry out, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’

“If you stop making trouble for others,

if you stop using cruel words and pointing your finger at others,

¹⁰if you feed those who are hungry

and take care of the needs of those who are troubled,

then your light will shine in the darkness,

and you will be bright like sunshine at noon.

¹¹The Lord will always lead you.

He will satisfy your needs in dry lands

and give strength to your bones.

You will be like a garden that has much water,

like a spring that never runs dry.

¹²Your people will rebuild the old cities that are now in ruins;

you will rebuild their foundations.

You will be known for repairing the broken places

and for rebuilding the roads and houses.

¹³“You must obey God’s law about the Sabbath

and not do what pleases yourselves on that holy day.

You should call the Sabbath a joyful day

and honor it as the Lord’s holy day.

You should honor it by not doing whatever you please

nor saying whatever you please on that day.

¹⁴Then you will find joy in the Lord,

and I will carry you to the high places above the earth.

I will let you eat the crops of the land your ancestor Jacob had.”

The Lord has said these things.

The Evil That People Do

59Surely the Lord’s power is enough to save you.

He can hear you when you ask him for help.

²It is your evil that has separated

you from your God.

Your sins cause him to turn away from you,

so he does not hear you.

³With your hands you have killed others,

and with your fingers you have done wrong.

With your lips you have lied,

and with your tongue you say evil things.

⁴People take each other to court unfairly,

and no one tells the truth in arguing his case.

They accuse each other falsely and tell lies.

They cause trouble and create more evil.

⁵They hatch evil like eggs from poisonous snakes.

If you eat one of those eggs, you will die,

and if you break one open, a poisonous snake comes out.

People tell lies as they would spin a spider’s web.

⁶The webs they make cannot be used for clothes;

you can’t cover yourself with those webs.

The things they do are evil,

and they use their hands to hurt others.

⁷They eagerly run to do evil,

and they are always ready to kill innocent people.

They think evil thoughts.

Everywhere they go they cause ruin and destruction.

⁸They don’t know how to live in peace,

and there is no fairness in their lives.

They are dishonest.

Anyone who lives as they live will never have peace.

Israel’s Sin Brings Trouble

⁹Fairness has gone far away;

goodness is nowhere to be found.

We wait for the light, but there is only darkness now.

We hope for a bright light, but all we have is darkness.

¹⁰We are like the blind feeling our way along a wall.

We feel our way as if we had no eyes.

In the brightness of day we trip as if it were night.

We are like dead men among the strong.

¹¹All of us growl like the bears.

We call out sadly like the doves.

We look for justice, but there isn’t any.

We want to be saved, but salvation is far away.

¹²We have done many wrong things against our God;

our sins show we are wrong.

We know we have turned against God;

we know the evil things we have done:

¹³sinning and rejecting the Lord,

turning away from our God,

planning to hurt others and to disobey God,

planning and speaking lies.

¹⁴So we have driven away justice,

and we have kept away from what is right.

Truth is not spoken in the streets;

what is honest is not…