Isaiah 65–66

Chapter 65

Judgment and Final Salvation

The Lord says,

“I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help.

I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me.

I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’

to a nation that did not call on my name.

²All day long I opened my arms to a rebellious people.

But they follow their own evil paths

and their own crooked schemes.

³All day long they insult me to my face

by worshiping idols in their sacred gardens.

They burn incense on pagan altars.

⁴At night they go out among the graves,

worshiping the dead.

They eat the flesh of pigs

and make stews with other forbidden foods.

⁵Yet they say to each other,

‘Don’t come too close or you will defile me!

I am holier than you!’

These people are a stench in my nostrils,

an acrid smell that never goes away.

⁶“Look, my decree is written out in front of me:

I will not stand silent;

I will repay them in full!

Yes, I will repay them—

⁷both for their own sins

and for those of their ancestors,”

says the Lord.

“For they also burned incense on the mountains

and insulted me on the hills.

I will pay them back in full!

⁸“But I will not destroy them all,”

says the Lord.

“For just as good grapes are found among a cluster of bad ones

(and someone will say, ‘Don’t throw them all away—

some of those grapes are good!’),

so I will not destroy all Israel.

For I still have true servants there.

⁹I will preserve a remnant of the people of Israel

and of Judah to possess my land.

Those I choose will inherit it,

and my servants will live there.

¹⁰The plain of Sharon will again be filled with flocks

for my people who have searched for me,

and the valley of Achor will be a place to pasture herds.

¹¹“But because the rest of you have forsaken the Lord

and have forgotten his Temple,

and because you have prepared feasts to honor the god of Fate

and have offered mixed wine to the god of Destiny,

¹²now I will ‘destine’ you for the sword.

All of you will bow down before the executioner.

For when I called, you did not answer.

When I spoke, you did not listen.

You deliberately sinned—before my very eyes—

and chose to do what you know I despise.”

¹³Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“My servants will eat,

but you will starve.

My servants will drink,

but you will be thirsty.

My servants will rejoice,

but you will be sad and ashamed.

¹⁴My servants will sing for joy,

but you will cry in sorrow and despair.

¹⁵Your name will be a curse word among my people,

for the Sovereign Lord will destroy you

and will call his true servants by another name.

¹⁶All who invoke a blessing or take an oath

will do so by the God of truth.

For I will put aside my anger

and forget the evil of earlier days.

¹⁷“Look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth,

and no one will even think about the old ones anymore.

¹⁸Be glad; rejoice forever in my creation!

And look! I will create Jerusalem as a place of happiness.

Her people will be a source of joy.

¹⁹I will rejoice over Jerusalem

and delight in my people.

And the sound of weeping and crying

will be heard in it no more.

²⁰“No longer will babies die when only a few days old.

No longer will adults die before they have lived a full life.

No longer will people be considered old at one hundred!

Only the cursed will die that young!

²¹In those days people will live in the houses they build

and eat the fruit of their own vineyards.

²²Unlike the past, invaders will not take their houses

and confiscate their vineyards.

For my people will live as long as trees,

and my chosen ones will have time to enjoy their hard-won gains.

²³They will not work in vain,

and their children will not be doomed to misfortune.

For they are people blessed by the Lord,

and their children, too, will be blessed.

²⁴I will answer them before they even call to me.

While they are still talking about their needs,

I will go ahead and answer their prayers!

²⁵The wolf and the lamb will feed together.

The lion will eat hay like a cow.

But the snakes will eat dust.

In those days no one will be hurt or destroyed on my holy mountain.

I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Chapter 66

This is what the Lord says:

“Heaven is my throne,

and the earth is my footstool.

Could you build me a temple as good as that?

Could you build me such a resting place?

²My hands have made both heaven and earth;

they and everything in them are mine.

I, the Lord, have spoken!

“I will bless those who have humble and contrite hearts,

who tremble at my word.

³But those who choose their own ways—

delighting in their detestable sins—

will not have their offerings accepted.

When such people sacrifice a bull,

it is no more acceptable than a human sacrifice.

When they sacrifice a lamb,

it’s as though they had sacrificed a dog!

When they bring an offering of grain,

they might as well offer the blood of a pig.

When they burn frankincense,

it’s as if they had blessed an idol.

⁴I will send them great trouble—

all the things they feared.

For when I called, they did not answer.

When I spoke, they did not listen.

They deliberately sinned before my very eyes

and chose to do what they know I despise.”

⁵Hear this message from the Lord,

all you who tremble at his words:

“Your own people hate you

and throw you out for being loyal to my name.

‘Let the Lord be honored!’ they scoff.

‘Be joyful in him!’

But they will be put to shame.

⁶What is all the commotion in the city?

What is that terrible noise from the Temple?

It is the voice of the Lord

taking vengeance against his enemies.

⁷“Before the birth pains even begin,

Jerusalem gives birth to a son.

⁸Who has ever seen anything as strange as this?

Who ever heard of such a thing?

Has a nation ever been born in a single day?

Has a country ever come forth in a mere moment?

But by the time Jerusalem’s birth pains begin,

her children will be born.

⁹Would I ever bring this nation to the point of birth

and then not deliver it?” asks the Lord.

“No! I would never keep this nation from being born,”

says your God.

¹⁰“Rejoice with Jerusalem!

Be glad with her, all you who love her

and all you who mourn for her.

¹¹Drink deeply of her glory

even as an infant drinks at its mother’s comforting breasts.”

¹²This is what the Lord says:

“I will give Jerusalem a river of peace and prosperity.

The wealth of the nations will flow to her.

Her children will be nursed at her breasts,

carried in her arms, and held on her lap.

¹³I will comfort you there in Jerusalem

as a mother comforts her child.”

¹⁴When you see these things, your heart will rejoice.

You will flourish like the grass!

Everyone will see the Lord’s hand of blessing on his servants—

and his anger against his enemies.

¹⁵See, the Lord is coming with fire,

and his swift chariots roar like a whirlwind.

He will bring punishment with the fury of his anger

and the flaming fire of his hot rebuke.

¹⁶The Lord will punish the world by fire

and by his sword.

He will judge the earth,

and many will be killed by him.

¹⁷“Those who ‘consecrate’ and ‘purify’ themselves in a sacred garden with its idol in the center—feasting on pork and rats and other detestable meats—will come to a terrible end,” says the Lord.

¹⁸“I can see what they are doing, and I know what they are thinking. So I will gather all nations and peoples together, and they will see my glory. ¹⁹I will perform a sign among them. And I will send those who survive to be messengers to the nations—to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians (who are famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, and to all the lands beyond the sea that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. There they will declare my glory to the nations. ²⁰They will bring the remnant of your people back from every nation. They will bring them to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the Lord. They will ride on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,” says the Lord. ²¹“And I will appoint some of them to be my priests and Levites. I, the Lord, have spoken!

²²“As surely as my new heavens and earth will remain,

so will you always be my people,

with a name that will never disappear,”

says the Lord.

²³“All humanity will come to worship me

from week to week

and from month to month.

²⁴And as they go out, they will see

the dead bodies of those who have rebelled against me.

For the worms that devour them will never die,

and the fire that burns them will never go out.

All who pass by

will view them with utter horror.”