Isaiah 65:1–9

All People Will Learn About God

65The Lord says, “I made myself known to people who were not looking for me.

I was found by those who were not asking me for help.

I said, ‘Here I am. Here I am,’

to a nation that was not praying to me.

²All day long I stood ready to accept

people who turned against me,

but the way they continue to live is not good;

they do anything they want to do.

³Right in front of me

they continue to do things that make me angry.

They offer sacrifices to their gods in their gardens,

and they burn incense on altars of brick.

⁴They sit among the graves

and spend their nights waiting to get messages from the dead.

They eat the meat of pigs,

and their pots are full of soup made from meat that is wrong to eat.

⁵But they tell others, ‘Stay away, and don’t come near me.

I am too holy for you.’

These people are like smoke in my nose.

Like a fire that burns all the time, they continue to make me angry.

⁶“Look, it is written here before me.

I will not be quiet; instead, I will repay you in full.

I will punish you for what you have done.

⁷I will punish you for your sins and your ancestors’ sins,”

says the Lord.

“They burned incense to gods on the mountains

and shamed me on those hills.

So I will punish them as they should be punished

for what they did.”

⁸This is what the Lord says:

“When there is juice left in the grapes,

people do not destroy them,

because they know there is good left in them.

So I will do the same thing to my servants—

I will not completely destroy them.

⁹I will leave some of the children of Jacob,

and some of the people of Judah will receive my mountain.

I will choose the people who will live there;

my servants will live there.