Isaiah 62–64

Chapter 62

¹For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,

and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest,

until her vindication goes forth as brightness,

and her salvation as a burning torch.

²The nations shall see your vindication,

and all the kings your glory;

and you shall be called by a new name

which the mouth of the Lord will give.

³You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord,

and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

⁴You shall no more be termed Forsaken,^s

and your land shall no more be termed Desolate;^t

but you shall be called My delight is in her,^u

and your land Married;

for the Lord delights in you,

and your land shall be married.

⁵For as a young man marries a virgin,

so shall your sons marry you,

and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,

so shall your God rejoice over you.

⁶Upon your walls, O Jerusalem,

I have set watchmen;

all the day and all the night

they shall never be silent.

You who put the Lord in remembrance,

take no rest,

⁷and give him no rest

until he establishes Jerusalem

and makes it a praise in the earth.

⁸The Lord has sworn by his right hand

and by his mighty arm:

“I will not again give your grain

to be food for your enemies,

and foreigners shall not drink your wine

for which you have labored;

⁹but those who garner it shall eat it

and praise the Lord,

and those who gather it shall drink it

in the courts of my sanctuary.”

¹⁰Go through, go through the gates,

prepare the way for the people;

build up, build up the highway, clear it of stones,

lift up an ensign over the peoples.

¹¹Behold, the Lord has proclaimed

to the end of the earth:

Say to the daughter of Zion,

“Behold, your salvation comes;

behold, his reward is with him,

and his recompense before him.”

¹²And they shall be called The holy people,

The redeemed of the Lord;

and you shall be called Sought out,

a city not forsaken.

Chapter 63

¹Who is this that comes from Edom,

in crimsoned garments from Bozrah,

he that is glorious in his apparel,

marching in the greatness of his strength?

“It is I, announcing vindication, mighty to save.”

²Why is thy apparel red,

and thy garments like his that treads in the wine press?

³“I have trodden the wine press alone,

and from the peoples no one was with me;

I trod them in my anger

and trampled them in my wrath;

their lifeblood is sprinkled upon my garments,

and I have stained all my raiment.

⁴For the day of vengeance was in my heart,

and my year of redemption^w has come.

⁵I looked, but there was no one to help;

I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold;

so my own arm brought me victory, and my wrath upheld me.

⁶I trod down the peoples in my anger,

I made them drunk in my wrath,

and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”

⁷I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord,

the praises of the Lord,

according to all that the Lord has granted us,

and the great goodness to the house of Israel

which he has granted them according to his mercy,

according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

⁸For he said, Surely they are my people,

sons who will not deal falsely;

and he became their Savior.

⁹In all their affliction he was afflicted,

and the angel of his presence saved them;

in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;

he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

¹⁰But they rebelled

and grieved his holy Spirit;

therefore he turned to be their enemy,

and himself fought against them.

¹¹Then he remembered the days of old,

of Moses his servant.

Where is he who brought up out of the sea

the shepherds of his flock?

Where is he who put in the midst of them

his holy Spirit,

¹²who caused his glorious arm

to go at the right hand of Moses,

who divided the waters before them

to make for himself an everlasting name,

¹³who led them through the depths?

Like a horse in the desert,

they did not stumble.

¹⁴Like cattle that go down into the valley,

the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest.

So thou didst lead thy people,

to make for thyself a glorious name.

¹⁵Look down from heaven and see,

from thy holy and glorious habitation.

Where are thy zeal and thy might?

The yearning of thy heart and thy compassion

are withheld from me.

¹⁶For thou art our Father,

though Abraham does not know us

and Israel does not acknowledge us;

thou, O Lord, art our Father,

our Redeemer from of old is thy name.

¹⁷O Lord, why dost thou make us err from thy ways

and harden our heart,

so that we fear thee not?

Return for the sake of thy servants,

the tribes of thy heritage.

¹⁸Thy holy people possessed thy sanctuary a little while;

our adversaries have trodden it down.

¹⁹We have become like those over whom thou hast never ruled,

like those who are not called by thy name.

Chapter 64

¹O that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down,

that the mountains might quake at thy presence—

^2yas when fire kindles brushwood

and the fire causes water to boil—

to make thy name known to thy adversaries,

and that the nations might tremble at thy presence!

³When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for,

thou camest down, the mountains quaked at thy presence.

⁴From of old no one has heard

or perceived by the ear,

no eye has seen a God besides thee,

who works for those who wait for him.

⁵Thou meetest him that joyfully works righteousness,

those that remember thee in thy ways.

Behold, thou wast angry, and we sinned;

in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?^z

⁶We have all become like one who is unclean,

and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.

We all fade like a leaf,

and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

⁷There is no one that calls upon thy name,

that bestirs himself to take hold of thee;

for thou hast hid thy face from us,

and hast delivered us into the hand of our iniquities.

⁸Yet, O Lord, thou art our Father;

we are the clay, and thou art our potter;

we are all the work of thy hand.

⁹Be not exceedingly angry, O Lord,

and remember not iniquity for ever.

Behold, consider, we are all thy people.

¹⁰Thy holy cities have become a wilderness,

Zion has become a wilderness,

Jerusalem a desolation.

¹¹Our holy and beautiful house,

where our fathers praised thee,

has been burned by fire,

and all our pleasant places have become ruins.

¹²Wilt thou restrain thyself at these things, O Lord?

Wilt thou keep silent, and afflict us sorely?