Isaiah 65

¹ “I am sought by those who didn’t ask for me. I am found by those who didn’t seek me. I said, ‘See me, see me,’ to a nation that was not called by my name.

² I have spread out my hands all day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own thoughts;

³ a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens, and burning incense on altars of brick;

⁴ who sit among the graves, and spend nights in secret places; who eat pig’s meat, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;

⁵ who say, ‘Stay by yourself. Don’t come near to me, for I am holier than you.’ These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burns all day.

⁶ “Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will repay, yes, I will repay into their bosom,

⁷ your own iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together,” says Yahweh, “who have burned incense on the mountains, and blasphemed me on the hills. Therefore I will first measure their work into their bosom.”

⁸ Thus says Yahweh, “As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, ‘Don’t destroy it, for a blessing is in it,’ so I will do for my servants’ sake, that I may not destroy them all.

⁹ I will bring offspring out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains. My chosen will inherit it, and my servants will dwell there.

¹⁰ Sharon will be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down in, for my people who have sought me.

¹¹ “But you who forsake Yahweh, who forget my holy mountain, who prepare a table for Fortune, and who fill up mixed wine to Destiny;

¹² I will destine you to the sword, and you will all bow down to the slaughter; because when I called, you didn’t answer; when I spoke, you didn’t hear; but you did that which was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I didn’t delight.”

¹³ Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Behold, my servants will eat, but you will be hungry. Behold, my servants will drink, but you will be thirsty. Behold, my servants will rejoice, but you will be disappointed.

¹⁴ Behold, my servants will sing for joy of heart, but you will cry for sorrow of heart, and will wail for vexation of spirit.

¹⁵ You will leave your name for a curse to my chosen; and the Lord Yahweh will kill you. He will call his servants by another name;

¹⁶ so that he who blesses himself in the earth will bless himself in the God of truth; and he who swears in the earth will swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from my eyes.

¹⁷ “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor come into mind.

¹⁸ But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

¹⁹ I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; and the voice of weeping and the voice of crying will be heard in her no more.

²⁰ There will be no more an infant who lives but a few days, nor an old man who has not filled his days; for the child will die one hundred years old, and the sinner being one hundred years old will be accursed.

²¹ They will build houses, and inhabit them. They will plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.

²² They will not build, and another inhabit. They will not plant, and another eat; for as the days of a tree will be the days of my people, and my chosen will long enjoy the work of their hands.

²³ They will not labor in vain, nor bring forth for calamity; for they are the offspring of Yahweh’s blessed, and their descendants with them.

²⁴ It will happen that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.

²⁵ The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain,” says Yahweh.