Isaiah 65
65
LXV
1I am sought of them who asked not of me;
I am found of them that sought me not:
I have said: Behold me! behold me!
Unto a nation that was not called by my name.
2I have spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people,
Who walk in a way that was not good, after their own devices.
3A people who provoke me to anger continually to my face,
Sacrificing in the gardens, and burning incense on the tiles:
4Who dwell in the sepulchres, and lodge in the caverns;
Who eat swine’s flesh,
And broth of abominable meats is in their vessels;
5Who say: Keep by thyself; come not near to me, for I am holier than thou.
These are a smoke in my nose,
A fire that burneth all the day long.
6Behold I it is written before me:
I will not keep silence, but I will surely recompense,
Even recompense into their bosom,
7Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith Jehovah;
For that they have burnt incense on the mountains, and dishonoured me upon the hills;
Yea, I will measure the reward of their former work into their bosom.
8Thus saith Jehovah:
As when new wine is found in a cluster of grapes,
And one saith: Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it:
So will I do for my servants’ sakes; I will not destroy the whole.
9For I will cause to go forth from Jacob a seed,
And from Judah an inheritor of my mountains;
And my chosen shall inherit it,
And my servants shall dwell there.
10And Sharon shall be a fold for the flocks,
And the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in,
For my people that have sought me.
11But ye, who have deserted Jehovah,
And have forgotten my holy mountain;
Who set in order a table for Gad,
And fill out a libation for Meni:
12You will I number out to the sword,
And all of you shall bow down to the slaughter:
Because, when I called, ye did not answer;
When I spake, ye did not hear:
But ye did that which was evil in my sight,
And did choose that wherein I delighted not.
13Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah:
Behold! my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry;
Behold! my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty;
Behold! my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed:
14Behold! my servants shall sing aloud for gladness of heart;
But ye shall cry aloud for sorrow of heart;
And ye Shall howl through the anguish of a broken spirit.
15And ye shall leave your name for an execration unto my chosen;
For the Lord Jehovah shall slay thee,
And call his servants by another name.
16Whoso blesseth himself upon the earth,
Shall bless himself by the God of truth;
And whoso sweareth upon the earth,
Shall swear by the God of truth;
Because the former troubles are forgotten,
And because they ore hidden from mine eyes.
17For behold! I create new heavens, and a new earth;
And the former shall not be remembered,
Nor come into mind.
18But ye shall rejoice and exult for ever in that which I create;
For behold! I create Jerusalem an exultation,
And her people a joy.
19And I will exult in Jerusalem,
And rejoice in my people;
And there shall no more be heard in her The voice of weeping,
Nor the voice of a distressful cry.
20There shall be no more thence an infant of days,
Nor an old man that hath not fulfilled his days;
For he that dieth an hundred years old shall die a youth;
And he that falleth short of an hundred years shall be held accursed.
21And they shall build houses, and shall inhabit them;
And they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
22They shall not build, and another inhabit;
They shall not plant, and another eat:
For as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people,
And my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
23They shall not labour in vain,
Nor bring forth children for instant death;
For they are the seed of the blessed of Jehovah;
And their offspring shall be with them.
24And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer;
And while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
25The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox:
But as for the serpent, dust shall be his food.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain,
Saith Jehovah.
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Isaiah 65: TEG
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Translated by Rev John Jones (Ioan Tegid).Published at Oxford in 1830, second edition 1842.
Isaiah 65
65
The People Who Bothered to Reach Out to God
1-7“I’ve made myself available
to those who haven’t bothered to ask.
I’m here, ready to be found
by those who haven’t bothered to look.
I kept saying ‘I’m here, I’m right here’
to a nation that ignored me.
I reached out day after day
to a people who turned their backs on me,
People who make wrong turns,
who insist on doing things their own way.
They get on my nerves,
are rude to my face day after day,
Make up their own kitchen religion,
a potluck religious stew.
They spend the night in tombs
to get messages from the dead,
Eat forbidden foods
and drink a witch’s brew of potions and charms.
They say, ‘Keep your distance.
Don’t touch me. I’m holier than thou.’
These people gag me.
I can’t stand their stench.
Look at this! Their sins are all written out—
I have the list before me.
I’m not putting up with this any longer.
I’ll pay them the wages
They have coming for their sins.
And for the sins of their parents lumped in,
a bonus.” God says so.
“Because they’ve practiced their blasphemous worship,
mocking me at their hillside shrines,
I’ll let loose the consequences
and pay them in full for their actions.”
* * *
8-10 God’s Message:
“But just as one bad apple doesn’t ruin the whole bushel,
there are still plenty of good apples left.
So I’ll preserve those in Israel who obey me.
I won’t destroy the whole nation.
I’ll bring out my true children from Jacob
and the heirs of my mountains from Judah.
My chosen will inherit the land,
my servants will move in.
The lush valley of Sharon in the west
will be a pasture for flocks,
And in the east, the valley of Achor,
a place for herds to graze.
These will be for the people
who bothered to reach out to me, who wanted me in their lives,
who actually bothered to look for me.
* * *
11-12“But you who abandon me, your God,
who forget the holy mountains,
Who hold dinners for Lady Luck
and throw cocktail parties for Sir Fate,
Well, you asked for it. Fate it will be:
your destiny, Death.
For when I invited you, you ignored me;
when I spoke to you, you brushed me off.
You did the very things I exposed as evil;
you chose what I hate.”
13-16Therefore, this is the Message from the Master, God:
“My servants will eat,
and you’ll go hungry;
My servants will drink,
and you’ll go thirsty;
My servants will rejoice,
and you’ll hang your heads.
My servants will laugh from full hearts,
and you’ll cry out heartbroken,
yes, wail from crushed spirits.
Your legacy to my chosen
will be your name reduced to a cussword.
I, God, will put you to death
and give a new name to my servants.
Then whoever prays a blessing in the land
will use my faithful name for the blessing,
And whoever takes an oath in the land
will use my faithful name for the oath,
Because the earlier troubles are gone and forgotten,
banished far from my sight.
New Heavens and a New Earth
17-25“Pay close attention now:
I’m creating new heavens and a new earth.
All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain
are things of the past, to be forgotten.
Look ahead with joy.
Anticipate what I’m creating:
I’ll create Jerusalem as sheer joy,
create my people as pure delight.
I’ll take joy in Jerusalem,
take delight in my people:
No more sounds of weeping in the city,
no cries of anguish;
No more babies dying in the cradle,
or old people who don’t enjoy a full lifetime;
One-hundredth birthdays will be considered normal—
anything less will seem like a cheat.
They’ll build houses
and move in.
They’ll plant fields
and eat what they grow.
No more building a house
that some outsider takes over,
No more planting fields
that some enemy confiscates,
For my people will be as long-lived as trees,
my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work.
They won’t work and have nothing come of it,
they won’t have children snatched out from under them.
For they themselves are plantings blessed by God,
with their children and grandchildren likewise God-blessed.
Before they call out, I’ll answer.
Before they’ve finished speaking, I’ll have heard.
Wolf and lamb will graze the same meadow,
lion and ox eat straw from the same trough,
but snakes—they’ll get a diet of dirt!
Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill
anywhere on my Holy Mountain,” says God.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.