Isaiah 63:17–65:12

17 Why, Lord, do you make us wandert from your ways

and harden our heartsu so we do not reverev you?

Returnw for the sake of your servants,

the tribes that are your inheritance.x

18 For a little whiley your people possessed your holy place,

but now our enemies have trampledz down your sanctuary.a

19 We are yours from of old;

but you have not ruled over them,

they have not been calledc by your name.b

64 a Oh, that you would rend the heavensc and come down,d

that the mountainse would tremble before you!

2 As when fire sets twigs ablaze

and causes water to boil,

come down to make your namef known to your enemies

and cause the nations to quakeg before you!

3 For when you did awesomeh things that we did not expect,

you came down, and the mountains trembledi before you.

4 Since ancient times no one has heard,

no ear has perceived,

no eye has seen any God besides you,j

who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.k

5 You come to the help of those who gladly do right,l

who remember your ways.

But when we continued to sin against them,

you were angry.m

How then can we be saved?

6 All of us have become like one who is unclean,n

and all our righteouso acts are like filthy rags;

we all shrivel up like a leaf,p

and like the wind our sins sweep us away.q

7 No oner calls on your names

or strives to lay hold of you;

for you have hiddent your face from us

and have given us overu tob our sins.

8 Yet you, Lord, are our Father.v

We are the clay, you are the potter;w

we are all the work of your hand.x

9 Do not be angryy beyond measure, Lord;

do not remember our sinsz forever.

Oh, look on us, we pray,

for we are all your people.a

10 Your sacred citiesb have become a wasteland;

even Zion is a wasteland, Jerusalem a desolation.c

11 Our holy and glorious temple,d where our ancestors praised you,

has been burned with fire,

and all that we treasurede lies in ruins.

12 After all this, Lord, will you hold yourself back?f

Will you keep silentg and punish us beyond measure?

Judgment and Salvation

65 “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me;

I was found by those who did not seek me.h

To a nationi that did not call on my name,j

I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’

2 All day long I have held out my hands

to an obstinate people,k

who walk in ways not good,

pursuing their own imaginationsl—

3 a people who continually provoke me

to my very face,m

offering sacrifices in gardensn

and burning incenseo on altars of brick;

4 who sit among the gravesp

and spend their nights keeping secret vigil;

who eat the flesh of pigs,q

and whose pots hold broth of impure meat;

5 who say, ‘Keep away; don’t come near me,

for I am too sacredr for you!’

Such people are smokes in my nostrils,

a fire that keeps burning all day.

6 “See, it stands written before me:

I will not keep silentt but will pay backu in full;

I will pay it back into their lapsv—

7 both your sinsw and the sins of your ancestors,”x

says the Lord.

“Because they burned sacrifices on the mountains

and defied me on the hills,y

I will measure into their laps

the full paymentz for their former deeds.”

8 This is what the Lord says:

“As when juice is still found in a cluster of grapesa

and people say, ‘Don’t destroy it,

there is still a blessing in it,’

so will I do in behalf of my servants;b

I will not destroy them all.

9 I will bring forth descendantsc from Jacob,

and from Judah those who will possessd my mountains;

my chosene people will inherit them,

and there will my servants live.f

10 Sharong will become a pasture for flocks,h

and the Valley of Achori a resting place for herds,

for my people who seekj me.

11 “But as for you who forsakek the Lord

and forget my holy mountain,l

who spread a table for Fortune

and fill bowls of mixed winem for Destiny,

12 I will destine you for the sword,n

and all of you will fall in the slaughter;o

for I called but you did not answer,p

I spoke but you did not listen.q

You did evil in my sight

and chose what displeases me.”r