Isaiah 65

¹I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me;

I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.

I said, “Here am I, here am I,”

to a nation that did not call on my name.

²I spread out my hands all the day

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 burning incense upon bricks;

⁴who sit in tombs,

and spend the night in secret places;

who eat swine’s flesh,

and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;

⁵who say, “Keep to yourself,

do not come near me, for I am set apart from you.”

These are a smoke in my nostrils,

a fire that burns all the day.

⁶Behold, it is written before me:

“I will not keep silent, but I will repay,

yea, I will repay into their bosom

⁷their iniquities and their fathers’ iniquities together,

says the Lord;

because they burned incense upon the mountains

and reviled me upon the hills,

I will measure into their bosom

payment for their former doings.”

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 dwell 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 eyes,

and chose what I did not delight in.”

¹³Therefore thus says the Lord God:

“Behold, my servants shall eat,

but you shall be hungry;

behold, my servants shall drink,

but you shall be thirsty;

behold, my servants shall rejoice,

but you shall be put to shame;

¹⁴behold, my 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 for a curse,

and the Lord God will slay you;

but his servants he will call by a different name.

¹⁶So that he who blesses himself in the land

shall bless himself by the God of truth,

and he who takes an oath in the land

shall swear by the God of truth;

because the former troubles are forgotten

and are hid from my eyes.

¹⁷“For behold, I create new heavens

and a new earth;

and the former things shall not be remembered

or come into mind.

¹⁸But be glad and rejoice for ever

in that which I create;

for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing,

and her people a joy.

¹⁹I will rejoice in Jerusalem,

and be glad in my people;

no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping

and the cry of distress.

²⁰No more shall there be in it

an infant that lives but a few days,

or an old man who does not fill out his days,

for the child shall die a hundred years old,

and the sinner a hundred years old shall be 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 the offspring of the blessed of the Lord,

and their children with them.

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;

and dust shall be the serpent’s food.

They shall not hurt or destroy

in all my holy mountain,

says the Lord.”