Isaiah 65

¹I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask,

to be found by those who did not seek me.

I said, “Here I am, here I am,”

to a nation that did not call on my name.

²I held out my hands all day long

to a rebellious people,

who walk in a way that is not good,

following their own devices;

³a people who provoke me

to my face continually,

sacrificing in gardens

and offering incense on bricks;

⁴who sit inside tombs,

and spend the night in secret places;

who eat swine’s flesh,

with broth of abominable things in their vessels;

⁵who say, “Keep to yourself,

do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.”

These are a smoke in my nostrils,

a fire that burns all day long.

⁶See, it is written before me:

I will not keep silent, but I will repay;

I will indeed repay into their laps

⁷their iniquities and their ancestors’ iniquities together,

says the Lord;

because they offered incense on the mountains

and reviled me on the hills,

I will measure into their laps

full payment for their actions.

⁸Thus says the Lord:

As the wine is found in the cluster,

and they say, “Do not destroy it,

for there is a blessing in it,”

so I will do for my servants’ sake,

and not destroy them all.

⁹I will bring forth descendants from Jacob,

and from Judah inheritors of my mountains;

my chosen shall inherit it,

and my servants shall settle there.

¹⁰Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks,

and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down,

for my people who have sought me.

¹¹But you who forsake the Lord,

who forget my holy mountain,

who set a table for Fortune

and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny;

¹²I will destine you to the sword,

and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter;

because, when I called, you did not answer,

when I spoke, you did not listen,

but you did what was evil in my sight,

and chose what I did not delight in.

¹³Therefore thus says the Lord God:

My servants shall eat,

but you shall be hungry;

my servants shall drink,

but you shall be thirsty;

my servants shall rejoice,

but you shall be put to shame;

¹⁴my servants shall sing for gladness of heart,

but you shall cry out for pain of heart,

and shall wail for anguish of spirit.

¹⁵You shall leave your name to my chosen to use as a curse,

and the Lord God will put you to death;

but to his servants he will give a different name.

¹⁶Then whoever invokes a blessing in the land

shall bless by the God of faithfulness,

and whoever takes an oath in the land

shall swear by the God of faithfulness;

because the former troubles are forgotten

and are hidden from my sight.

¹⁷For I am about to create new heavens

and a new earth;

the former things shall not be remembered

or come to mind.

¹⁸But be glad and rejoice forever

in what I am creating;

for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy,

and its people as a delight.

¹⁹I will rejoice in Jerusalem,

and delight in my people;

no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it,

or the cry of distress.

²⁰No more shall there be in it

an infant that lives but a few days,

or an old person who does not live out a lifetime;

for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,

and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.

²¹They shall build houses and inhabit them;

they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

²²They shall not build and another inhabit;

they shall not plant and another eat;

for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,

and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

²³They shall not labor in vain,

or bear children for calamity;

for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord—

and their descendants as well.

²⁴Before they call I will answer,

while they are yet speaking I will hear.

²⁵The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,

the lion shall eat straw like the ox;

but the serpent—its food shall be dust!

They shall not hurt or destroy

on all my holy mountain,

says the Lord.