Isaiah 66
66
Chapter 66
The Lord is a great Judge
1This is what the Lord says:
‘Heaven is my throne.
The earth is the place where I put my feet.
So you could not build a house for me to live in.
Where would I lie down to rest?
2I made all these things with my own hands.
That is how everything began.’
The Lord says,
‘I am pleased with people who are humble.
Those people are sorry when they do wrong things.
They respect my teaching.
3You may kill a bull as a sacrifice to me,
but you might also kill a man.
You may offer a lamb to me as a sacrifice,
but you might also break a dog's neck to offer to your idols.
You may give me a grain offering,
but you also offer pigs' blood.
You may burn incense to worship me
but you also worship false gods.
Yes, these people have chosen how they want to live.
They love to do these disgusting things.
4So I will cause great trouble to come to them.
It will be the trouble that they are so afraid of.
When I called out to them,
nobody answered me.
When I spoke to them,
nobody listened.
They did evil things against me.
They chose to do things that I would hate.’
5Hear this message from the Lord, you people who respect his teaching. Some of your own people hate you. They throw you out, because you are faithful to me. They laugh at you and they say, ‘Let the Lord show how great he is! We want to see him make you happy!’
But it is those people who will be ashamed.
6Listen to the loud noise that is coming from the city! It is a noise that comes from the temple. The Lord is punishing his enemies as they deserve. That is what is making the noise!
7What is happening? Zion is giving birth to a son before she has her birth pains! 8Nobody has ever heard of anything like that. Nobody has ever seen that happen before. Can a country be born in just one day? Can a nation be born in a moment? But as soon as Zion's birth pains begin, she has already given birth to her children!
9The Lord your God says, ‘When I bring a baby to the moment of birth, the child is always born. I do not stop its birth.’
10All you people who love Jerusalem, join together with its people and be happy. You have been sad to see what has happened to the city, but now you should shout with joy! 11Jerusalem will take care of you like a mother. She will give you all that you need, like a mother that feeds her baby with milk. The great blessing that comes from her full breasts will make you very happy.
12The Lord says,
‘Look! I will give peace to Jerusalem,
like a great river.
Riches from other nations will pour into the city,
like a stream that is full of water.
Jerusalem will take care of you like a mother that feeds her baby.
She will carry you in her arms,
and she will hold you on her knees.
13I will comfort you,
as a mother comforts her child.
As you live in Jerusalem,
you will be happy again.’
14And when you see these things happen, you will feel very happy! You will become strong and healthy, like fresh grass. The Lord's servants will know that he is there to bless them. But his enemies will see that he is angry with them.
15Look! The Lord is coming with fire. His chariots will blow in like a strong storm. People will see his great anger, as he comes to punish his enemies with flames of fire. 16The Lord will use fire and his sword to judge all people. The Lord will kill many people.
17The Lord says, ‘I will destroy people who prepare themselves to worship their false gods. They make themselves clean and they follow one another into their special gardens. They eat unclean meat from pigs and rats and other disgusting animals. They will all come to their deaths together. 18I know everything that they do and everything that they think. So I will come. I will bring together the people from all nations and those who speak all languages. I will show them how great I am.
19I will do a great thing among them, to show them my power. I will send some of the people who are still alive to other nations. They will go to:
Tarshish,
Libya,
Lydia (where their soldiers shoot arrows very well),
Tubal,
Greece,
and lands far away, where people have never heard about me and they do not know how great I am.
Those people will tell other nations about my great glory.’
20The Lord says, ‘They will bring back all your relatives who still live in other countries. They will bring them to my holy hill in Jerusalem, as a gift to me, the Lord. They will come on horses, in chariots, in carts, on mules and on camels. They will bring them in the way that the Israelites bring grain offerings to me in my temple. They bring their offerings in holy dishes.’
21The Lord says, ‘I will choose some of them to be priests. And I will choose some of them to serve me as Levites.’
22The Lord says, ‘The new heavens and the new earth that I will make will always be there. In the same way, your descendants and your family name will always continue.’
23The Lord says, ‘Everybody will come to worship me. They will come at each New Moon and on every Sabbath day. 24When they go out of the city, they will see the dead bodies of the people who turned against me. In that heap of bodies, the worms never die and the fire never stops burning. #66:24 See Mark 9:48. Everybody will see that it is disgusting.’
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Isaiah 66
66
Proper Worship
1Thus says Yahweh:
“Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is the footstool for my feet.
Where is this house that you would build for me?
And where is this resting place for me?
2And my hand has made all these things,
and all these came to be,”#Literally “were”
declares#Literally “declaration of” Yahweh, “but#Or “and” I look to this one:
to the humble and the contrite of spirit
and the one frightened at my word.
3The one who slaughters a bull strikes a man;
the one who slaughters a lamb for sacrifice breaks the neck of a dog.
The one who offers an offering, the blood of swine;
the one who offers frankincense blesses an idol.
Indeed, they themselves have chosen their ways,
and their soul delights in their abhorrence.
4Indeed, I myself I will choose their ill treatment,
and I will bring them objects of their dread,
because I called, and no one answered;#Literally “there was no one who answers”
I spoke and they did not listen,
but#Or “and” they did the evil in my eyes,
and they chose that in which I do not delight.”
5Hear the word of Yahweh, you who are frightened at his word:
Your brothers who hate you,
who exclude you for my name’s sake have said,
“Let Yahweh be honored so that#Or “and” we may see your joy!”
But#Or “And” they themselves shall be ashamed.
6A voice, an uproar from the city!
A voice from the temple!
The voice of Yahweh paying back#Literally “rewarding retribution to” his enemies!
Zion’s Delivery
7Before she was in labor she gave birth;
before labor pains#Hebrew “pain” came to her, she gave birth to a son.
8Who has heard anything like this?
Who has seen anything like these things?
Can a land be born in one day?
Or can a nation be born in a moment?
Yet when she was in labor, Zion indeed gave birth to her children.
9Shall I myself I break open and not deliver?”#Literally “cause to bring forth” says Yahweh,
“or I who delivers#Literally “causes to bring forth” lock up the womb?” says your God.
10“Rejoice with Jerusalem
and shout in exultation with her, all those who love her!
Rejoice with her in joy, all those who mourn over her,
11so that you may suck and be satisfied from her consoling breast,#Literally “breast of consolation”
so that you may drink deeply and refresh yourselves from her heavy breast.”#Literally “breast of heaviness “
12For thus says Yahweh:
“Look! I am about to spread prosperity out to her like a river,
and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing stream,
and you shall suck and be carried on the hip;
and you shall you shall be played with on the knees.
13As a man whose mother comforts him, so I myself will comfort you,
and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
Yahweh’s Final Judgment
14And you shall see and your heart shall rejoice,
and your bones shall flourish#Literally “sprout” like the grass,
and the hand of Yahweh shall make itself known to#Literally “with” his servants,
and he shall curse his enemies.
15For look! Yahweh will come in fire,
and his chariots like the storm wind,
to give back#Literally “cause to turn around” his anger in wrath,
and his rebuke in flames of fire.
16For Yahweh enters into judgment on all flesh with fire and his sword,
and those slain by#Literally “the slain of” Yahweh shall be many.
17Those who sanctify themselves
and those who cleanse themselves to go into#Literally “toward” the gardens after the one in the middle,
eating the flesh of swine
and detestable things#Hebrew “thing” and rodents#Hebrew “rodent” together
shall come to an end!” declares#Literally “declaration of” Yahweh.
18“And I—their works and thoughts!—am about to come to gather all nations and tongues,
and they shall come and see my glory.
19And I will set a sign among them,
and I will send survivors from them to the nations:
Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow;
Tubal and Javan, the faraway coastlands
that have not heard of my fame,
and have not seen my glory.
And they shall declare my glory among the nations, 20and bring all your countrymen#Or “brothers” from all the nations as an offering to Yahweh on horses and chariots#Hebrew “chariot” and in litters and on mules and camels, to#Or “on” my holy mountain,#Literally “the mountain of holiness me” Jerusalem,” says Yahweh, “just as the sons of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel to the house of Yahweh. 21And indeed, I will take some of them as priests and the Levites,” says Yahweh. 22“For just as the new heavens and earth that I am about to make shall stand before me,” declares#Literally “declaration of” Yahweh, “so shall your descendants#Hebrew “descendant” and your name stand.
23And this shall happen: From new moon to new moon#Literally “enough of new moon in his new moon” and from Sabbath to Sabbath#Literally “enough of Sabbath in his Sabbath” all flesh shall come to bow in worship before me,” says Yahweh. 24“And they shall go out and look at the corpses of the people#Or “men” who have rebelled#Literally “rebelling” against me,
for their worm shall not die,
and their fire shall not be quenched,
and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”
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