Isaiah 56–66

Chapter 56

Blessings for All Nations

This is what the Lord says:

“Be just and fair to all.

Do what is right and good,

for I am coming soon to rescue you

and to display my righteousness among you.

²Blessed are all those

who are careful to do this.

Blessed are those who honor my Sabbath days of rest

and keep themselves from doing wrong.

³“Don’t let foreigners who commit themselves to the Lord say,

‘The Lord will never let me be part of his people.’

And don’t let the eunuchs say,

‘I’m a dried-up tree with no children and no future.’

⁴For this is what the Lord says:

I will bless those eunuchs

who keep my Sabbath days holy

and who choose to do what pleases me

and commit their lives to me.

⁵I will give them—within the walls of my house—

a memorial and a name

far greater than sons and daughters could give.

For the name I give them is an everlasting one.

It will never disappear!

⁶“I will also bless the foreigners who commit themselves to the Lord,

who serve him and love his name,

who worship him and do not desecrate the Sabbath day of rest,

and who hold fast to my covenant.

⁷I will bring them to my holy mountain of Jerusalem

and will fill them with joy in my house of prayer.

I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifices,

because my Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations.

⁸For the Sovereign Lord,

who brings back the outcasts of Israel, says:

I will bring others, too,

besides my people Israel.”

Sinful Leaders Condemned

⁹Come, wild animals of the field!

Come, wild animals of the forest!

Come and devour my people!

¹⁰For the leaders of my people—

the Lord’s watchmen, his shepherds—

are blind and ignorant.

They are like silent watchdogs

that give no warning when danger comes.

They love to lie around, sleeping and dreaming.

¹¹Like greedy dogs, they are never satisfied.

They are ignorant shepherds,

all following their own path

and intent on personal gain.

¹²“Come,” they say, “let’s get some wine and have a party.

Let’s all get drunk.

Then tomorrow we’ll do it again

and have an even bigger party!”

Chapter 57

¹Good people pass away;

the godly often die before their time.

But no one seems to care or wonder why.

No one seems to understand

that God is protecting them from the evil to come.

²For those who follow godly paths

will rest in peace when they die.

Idolatrous Worship Condemned

³“But you—come here, you witches’ children,

you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes!

⁴Whom do you mock,

making faces and sticking out your tongues?

You children of sinners and liars!

⁵You worship your idols with great passion

beneath the oaks and under every green tree.

You sacrifice your children down in the valleys,

among the jagged rocks in the cliffs.

⁶Your gods are the smooth stones in the valleys.

You worship them with liquid offerings and grain offerings.

They, not I, are your inheritance.

Do you think all this makes me happy?

⁷You have committed adultery on every high mountain.

There you have worshiped idols

and have been unfaithful to me.

⁸You have put pagan symbols

on your doorposts and behind your doors.

You have left me

and climbed into bed with these detestable gods.

You have committed yourselves to them.

You love to look at their naked bodies.

⁹You have gone to Molech

with olive oil and many perfumes,

sending your agents far and wide,

even to the world of the dead,

¹⁰You grew weary in your search,

but you never gave up.

Desire gave you renewed strength,

and you did not grow weary.

¹¹“Are you afraid of these idols?

Do they terrify you?

Is that why you have lied to me

and forgotten me and my words?

Is it because of my long silence

that you no longer fear me?

¹²Now I will expose your so-called good deeds.

None of them will help you.

¹³Let’s see if your idols can save you

when you cry to them for help.

Why, a puff of wind can knock them down!

If you just breathe on them, they fall over!

But whoever trusts in me will inherit the land

and possess my holy mountain.”

God Forgives the Repentant

¹⁴God says, “Rebuild the road!

Clear away the rocks and stones

so my people can return from captivity.”

¹⁵The high and lofty one who lives in eternity,

the Holy One, says this:

“I live in the high and holy place

with those whose spirits are contrite and humble.

I restore the crushed spirit of the humble

and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.

¹⁶For I will not fight against you forever;

I will not always be angry.

If I were, all people would pass away—

all the souls I have made.

¹⁷I was angry,

so I punished these greedy people.

I withdrew from them,

but they kept going on their own stubborn way.

¹⁸I have seen what they do,

but I will heal them anyway!

I will lead them.

I will comfort those who mourn,

¹⁹bringing words of praise to their lips.

May they have abundant peace, both near and far,”

says the Lord, who heals them.

²⁰“But those who still reject me are like the restless sea,

which is never still

but continually churns up mud and dirt.

²¹There is no peace for the wicked,”

says my God.

Chapter 58

True and False Worship

¹“Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast.

Shout aloud! Don’t be timid.

Tell my people Israel of their sins!

²Yet they act so pious!

They come to the Temple every day

and seem delighted to learn all about me.

They act like a righteous nation

that would never abandon the laws of its God.

They ask me to take action on their behalf,

pretending they want to be near me.

³‘We have fasted before you!’ they say.

‘Why aren’t you impressed?

We have been very hard on ourselves,

and you don’t even notice it!’

“I will tell you why!” I respond.

“It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves.

Even while you fast,

you keep oppressing your workers.

⁴What good is fasting

when you keep on fighting and quarreling?

This kind of fasting

will never get you anywhere with me.

⁵You humble yourselves

by going through the motions of penance,

bowing your heads

like reeds bending in the wind.

You dress in burlap

and cover yourselves with ashes.

Is this what you call fasting?

Do you really think this will please the Lord?

⁶“No, this is the kind of fasting I want:

Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;

lighten the burden of those who work for you.

Let the oppressed go free,

and remove the chains that bind people.

⁷Share your food with the hungry,

and give shelter to the homeless.

Give clothes to those who need them,

and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

⁸“Then your salvation will come like the dawn,

and your wounds will quickly heal.

Your godliness will lead you forward,

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

⁹Then when you call, the Lord will answer.

‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.

“Remove the heavy yoke of oppression.

Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors!

¹⁰Feed the hungry,

and help those in trouble.

Then your light will shine out from the darkness,

and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.

¹¹The Lord will guide you continually,

giving you water when you are dry

and restoring your strength.

You will be like a well-watered garden,

like an ever-flowing spring.

¹²Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities.

Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls

and a restorer of homes.

¹³“Keep the Sabbath day holy.

Don’t pursue your own interests on that day,

but enjoy the Sabbath

and speak of it with delight as the Lord’s holy day.

Honor the Sabbath in everything you do on that day,

and don’t follow your own desires or talk idly.

¹⁴Then the Lord will be your delight.

I will give you great honor

and satisfy you with the inheritance I promised to your ancestor Jacob.

I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Chapter 59

Warnings against Sin

¹Listen! The Lord’s arm is not too weak to save you,

nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call.

²It’s your sins that have cut you off from God.

Because of your sins, he has turned away

and will not listen anymore.

³Your hands are the hands of murderers,

and your fingers are filthy with sin.

Your lips are full of lies,

and your mouth spews corruption.

⁴No one cares about being fair and honest.

The people’s lawsuits are based on lies.

They conceive evil deeds

and then give birth to sin.

⁵They hatch deadly snakes

and weave spiders’ webs.

Whoever eats their eggs will die;

whoever cracks them will hatch a viper.

⁶Their webs can’t be made into clothing,

and nothing they do is productive.

All their activity is filled with sin,

and violence is their trademark.

⁷Their feet run to do evil,

and they rush to commit murder.

They think only about sinning.

Misery and destruction always follow them.

⁸They don’t know where to find peace

or what it means to be just and good.

They have mapped out crooked roads,

and no one who follows them knows a moment’s peace.

⁹So there is no justice among us,

and we know nothing about right living.

We look for light but find only darkness.

We look for bright skies but walk in gloom.

¹⁰We grope like the blind along a wall,

feeling our way like people without eyes.

Even at brightest noontime,

we stumble as though it were dark.

Among the living,

we are like the dead.

¹¹We growl like hungry bears;

we moan like mournful doves.

We look for justice, but it never comes.

We look for rescue, but it is far away from us.

¹²For our sins are piled up before God

and testify against us.

Yes, we know what sinners we are.

¹³We know we have rebelled and have denied the Lord.

We have turned our backs on our God.

We know how unfair and oppressive we have been,

carefully planning our deceitful lies.

¹⁴Our courts oppose the righteous,

and justice is nowhere to be found.

Truth stumbles in the streets,

and honesty has been outlawed.

¹⁵Yes, truth is gone,

and anyone who renounces evil is attacked.

The Lord looked and was displeased

to find there was no justice.

¹⁶He was amazed to see that no one intervened

to help the oppressed.

So he himself stepped in to save them with his strong arm,

and his justice sustained him.

¹⁷He put on righteousness as his body armor

and placed the helmet of…