UST GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOS JDG RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR EZRA NEH EST JOB PSA PROV ECC SNG ISA JER LAM EZE DAN HOS JOEL AMOS OBA YNA MIC NAH HAB ZEP HAG ZEC MAL MAT MARK LUKE YHN ACTs ROM 1 COR 2 COR GAL EPH PHP COL 1 TH 2 TH 1 TIM 2 TIM TIT PHM HEB YAC 1 PET 2 PET 1 YHN 2 YHN 3 YHN YUD REV

ISA C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21 C22 C23 C24 C25 C26 C27 C28 C29 C30 C31 C32 C33 C34 C35 C36 C37 C38 C39 C40 C41 C42 C43 C44 C45 C46 C47 C48 C49 C50 C51 C52 C53 C54 C55 C56 C57 C58 C59 C60 C61 C62 C63 C64 C65 C66

UST ISA Chapter 65

◄ ISA 65 ► ║ ═ ©

65 This is what Yahweh replied:

“I was ready to respond to my people,

but they did not ask me to help them.

I kept telling them that I was available,

but they were a nation that did not pray to me.

2 I kept trying to encourage

people who were rebelling against me to obey me again.

But they kept doing evil things.

They did whatever they wanted to do.

3 Those people kept making me angry blatantly.

They offered sacrifices to idols in gardens,

and they made brick altars on which to burn incense.

4 They sat among graves

and spent the night in caves

trying to talk with the spirits of dead people.

They ate the meat of pigs,

and their pots were full of broth from other unclean meats.

5 But they still said to others,

‘Stay away from me and do not touch me,

because I am holier than you and you would make me unclean.’

Those people continually made me angry,

the way smoke irritates a person’s nose.

6 Pay attention! I have recorded what they have done.

I will certainly act. Indeed, I will punish them,

and I will do that just as they deserve

7 for what they and their ancestors both did wrong,”

says Yahweh.

“They mocked me by burning incense to their idols

on the mountains and the hills.

So I will punish them fully as they deserve

for these sins that they have committed.”

8 Yahweh also said,

“When someone finds that there is still some good juice in a cluster of grapes,

he says, ‘Do not throw it away,

because there is still something good in it.’

In the same way, I will not destroy all of my people,

because some of them still serve me.

9 Instead, I bring back some of the descendants of Jacob

who are from the tribe of Judah,

and they will once again possess my mountainous land.

The people whom I have chosen will possess that land.

Yes, those who serve me will live there.

10 Some of my people have remained loyal to me.

The Plain of Sharon will become pastureland for their flocks,

and the Valley of Achor will become a resting place for their herds.

11 But it will be different for you who have abandoned me, Yahweh,

who no longer worship me, the one whose temple is on Mount Zion.

Instead, you set out food on tables for the god Fortune,

and you fill bowls with mixed wine for the god Destiny.

12 So I will make you die violently.

You will all fall to the ground when someone slaughters you.

I will do this because you did not obey me

when I spoke to you and gave you instructions.

Instead, you did things that I consider evil,

and you chose to do things that do not please me.”

13 Therefore, this is what Yahweh, the Lord, says:

“Listen! Those who serve me will have food to eat,

but you will go hungry.

Those who serve me will have wine to drink,

but you will go thirsty.

Those who serve me will celebrate,

but you will feel shame.

14 Those who serve me will shout joyfully because they feel so happy,

but you will cry out because you feel so badly.

You will wail because your sufferings will make you feel despair.

15 After you die, the people whom I have chosen

will curse others by saying they wish they were like you.

I, Yahweh, the Lord, will kill you,

but I will give a new name to those who serve me.

16 People will forget the troubles that happened before.

That is because I will consider that they never happened at all.

Then anyone in the land who asks for a blessing

will ask me, the God who is faithful, to bless him.

Anyone who makes a solemn promise in the land

will swear by me, the God who is faithful.

17 Pay attention! It is as if I am about to create

a new sky and a new earth.

You will not remember the things that happened before,

and you will not feel badly about them.

18 Instead, be glad and celebrate forever

because of what I am about to create,

because I am going to make Jerusalem a place of celebration.

I will make the people who live there happy.

19 I will celebrate because of Jerusalem,

and I will be glad because of my people.

The people of that city will not weep

or cry out in distress anymore.

20 No baby will die there anymore after living for only a few days.

People will live a full lifetime.

If someone is 100 years old when he dies,

people will feel that he died as a young man.

If someone dies before he is 100 years old,

people will conclude that God punished him for his sins.

21 My people will build houses and then live in them.

They will plant vineyards and then eat the grapes from those vineyards.

22 Someone else will not live in the houses that they build.

Someone else will not eat the crops that grow from what they plant.

Instead, my people will live for a long time, just as trees live for a long time.

They will live so long that they will wear out the things they make for themselves.

23 They will not work hard and get nothing in return.

Their children will not die from sudden disasters.

That is because they are the descendants of

people whom Yahweh has blessed,

and so are their children.

24 Then I will start to help them even before they ask me for help.

Even while they are still praying, I will do what they request.

25 Wolves and lambs will eat grass together peacefully;

and lions will eat straw as oxen do.

But snakes will eat only dust.

No one will harm anyone or destroy anything

anywhere on the mountain where I am present in a special way,”

says Yahweh.