Isaiah 65:3–8

³They are always making me very angry.

They do it right in front of me.

They offer sacrifices in the gardens of other gods.

They burn incense on altars that are made out of bricks.

⁴They sit among the graves.

They spend their nights talking to the spirits of the dead.

They eat the meat of pigs.

Their cooking pots hold soup that has ‘unclean’ meat in it.

⁵They say, ‘Keep away! Don’t come near us!

We are too sacred for you!’

Those people are like smoke in my nose.

They are like a fire that keeps burning all day.

⁶“I will judge them. I have even written it down.

I will not keep silent.

Instead, I will pay them back for all of their sins.

⁷I will punish them for their sins

and the sins of their people before them,”

says the Lord.

“They burned sacrifices on the mountains.

They disobeyed me by worshiping other gods on the hills.

So I will really punish them

for all of the sins they have committed.”

⁸The Lord says,

“Sometimes juice is still left in grapes that have been crushed.

So people say, ‘Don’t destroy them.

Some good juice is still left in them.’

That is what I will do for the good of those who serve me.

I will not destroy all of my people.