Isaiah 56–58

¹Thus said Jehovah: ‘Keep ye judgment, and do righteousness, For near is My salvation to come, And My righteousness to be revealed.’ ²O the happiness of a man who doth this, And of a son of man who keepeth hold on it, Keeping the sabbath from polluting it, And keeping his hand from doing any evil.

³Nor speak let a son of the stranger, Who is joined unto Jehovah, saying: ‘Jehovah doth certainly separate me from His people.’ Nor say let the eunuch, ‘Lo, I am a tree dried up,’ ⁴For thus said Jehovah of the eunuchs, Who do keep My sabbaths, And have fixed on that which I desired, And are keeping hold on My covenant: ⁵I have given to them in My house, And within My walls a station and a name, Better than sons and than daughters, A name age-during I give to him That is not cut off. ⁶And sons of the stranger, who are joined to Jehovah, To serve Him, and to love the name of Jehovah, To be to Him for servants, Every keeper of the sabbath from polluting it, And those keeping hold on My covenant. ⁷I have brought them unto My holy mountain, And caused them to rejoice in My house of prayer, Their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices Are for a pleasing thing on Mine altar, For My house, ‘A house of prayer,’ Is called for all the peoples. ⁸An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, Who is gathering the outcasts of Israel: ‘Again I gather to him—to his gathered ones.’

⁹Every beast of the field, Come to devour, every beast in the forest. ¹⁰Blind are his watchmen—all of them, They have not known, All of them are dumb dogs, they are not able to bark, Dozing, lying down, loving to slumber. ¹¹And the dogs are strong of desire, They have not known sufficiency, And they are shepherds! They have not known understanding, All of them to their own way they did turn, Each to his dishonest gain from his quarter: ¹²‘Come ye, I take wine, And we drink, quaff strong drink, And as this day hath been to-morrow, Great—exceeding abundant!’

Chapter 57

¹The righteous hath perished, And there is none laying it to heart, And men of kindness are gathered, Without any considering that from the face of evil Gathered is the righteous one. ²He entereth into peace, they rest on their beds, Each is going straightforward.

³And ye, come near hither, O sons of a sorceress, seed of an adulterer, Even thou dost commit whoredom. ⁴Against whom do ye sport yourselves? Against whom enlarge ye the mouth? Prolong ye the tongue? Are not ye children of transgression? a false seed? ⁵Who are inflamed among oaks, under every green tree, Slaughtering the children in valleys, Under clefts of the rocks. ⁶Among the smooth things of a brook is thy portion, They—they are thy lot, Also to them thou hast poured out an oblation, Thou hast caused a present to ascend, For these things am I comforted? ⁷On a mountain, high and exalted, Thou hast set thy couch, Also thither thou hast gone up to make a sacrifice. ⁸And behind the door, and the post, Thou hast set up thy memorial, For from Me thou hast removed, and goest up, Thou hast enlarged thy couch, And dost covenant for thyself among them, Thou hast loved their couch, the station thou sawest, ⁹And goest joyfully to the king in ointment, And dost multiply thy perfumes, And sendest thine ambassadors afar off, And humblest thyself unto Sheol. ¹⁰In the greatness of thy way thou hast laboured, Thou hast not said, ‘It is desperate.’ The life of thy hand thou hast found, Therefore thou hast not been sick. ¹¹And of whom hast thou been afraid, and fearest, That thou liest, and Me hast not remembered? Thou hast not laid it to thy heart, Am not I silent, even from of old? And Me thou fearest not? ¹²I declare thy righteousness, and thy works, And they do not profit thee.

¹³When thou criest, let thy gatherings deliver thee, And all of them carry away doth wind, Take away doth vanity, And whoso is trusting in Me inheriteth the land, And doth possess My holy mountain. ¹⁴And he hath said, ‘Raise up, raise up, prepare a way, Lift a stumbling-block out of the way of My people.’ ¹⁵For thus said the high and exalted One, Inhabiting eternity, and holy is His name: ‘In the high and holy place I dwell, And with the bruised and humble of spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of bruised ones,’ ¹⁶For, not to the age do I strive, nor for ever am I wroth, For the spirit from before Me is feeble, And the souls I have made.

¹⁷For the iniquity of his dishonest gain, I have been wroth, and I smite him, Hiding—and am wroth, And he goeth on turning back in the way of his heart. ¹⁸His ways I have seen, and I heal him, yea, I lead him, And recompense comforts to him and to his mourning ones. ¹⁹Producing the fruit of the lips, ‘Peace, peace,’ to the far off, and to the near, And I have healed him, said Jehovah. ²⁰And the wicked are as the driven out sea, For to rest it is not able, And its waters cast out filth and mire. ²¹There is no peace, said my God, to the wicked!

Chapter 58

¹Call with the throat, restrain not, As a trumpet lift up thy voice, And declare to My people their transgression, And to the house of Jacob their sins; ²Seeing—Me day by day they seek, And the knowledge of My ways they desire, As a nation that righteousness hath done, And the judgment of its God hath not forsaken, They ask of me judgments of righteousness, The drawing near of God they desire:

³‘Why have we fasted, and Thou hast not seen? We have afflicted our soul, and Thou knowest not.’ Lo, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, And all your labours ye exact. ⁴Lo, for strife and debate ye fast, And to smite with the fist of wickedness, Ye fast not as to -day, To sound in the high place your voice. ⁵Like this is the fast that I choose? The day of a man’s afflicting his soul? To bow as a reed his head, And sackcloth and ashes spread out? This dost thou call a fast, And a desirable day—to Jehovah? ⁶Is not this the fast that I chose—To loose the bands of wickedness, To shake off the burdens of the yoke, And to send out the oppressed free, And every yoke ye draw off? ⁷Is it not to deal to the hungry thy bread, And the mourning poor bring home, That thou seest the naked and cover him, And from thine own flesh hide not thyself?

⁸Then broken up as the dawn is thy light, And thy health in haste springeth up, Gone before thee hath thy righteousness, The honour of Jehovah doth gather thee. ⁹Then thou callest, and Jehovah answereth, Thou criest, and He saith, ‘Behold Me.’ If thou turn aside from thy midst the yoke, The sending forth of the finger, And the speaking of vanity, ¹⁰And dost bring out to the hungry thy soul, And the afflicted soul dost satisfy, Then risen in the darkness hath thy light, And thy thick darkness is as noon. ¹¹And Jehovah doth lead thee continually, And hath satisfied in drought thy soul, And thy bones He armeth, And thou hast been as a watered garden, And as an outlet of waters, whose waters lie not. ¹²And they have built out of thee the wastes of old, The foundations of many generations thou raisest up, And one calleth thee, ‘Repairer of the breach, Restorer of paths to rest in.’

¹³If thou dost turn from the sabbath thy foot, Doing thine own pleasure on My holy day, And hast cried to the sabbath, ‘A delight,’ To the holy of Jehovah, ‘Honoured,’ And hast honoured it, without doing thine own ways, Without finding thine own pleasure, And speaking a word. ¹⁴Then dost thou delight thyself on Jehovah, And I have caused thee to ride on high places of earth, And have caused thee to eat the inheritance of Jacob thy father, For the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken!

Chapter 59