Isaiah 56
56
Messages of Hope
Salvation Is Just Around the Corner
1-3 God’s Message:
“Guard my common good:
Do what’s right and do it in the right way,
For salvation is just around the corner,
my setting-things-right is about to go into action.
How fortunate are you who enter into these things,
you men and women who embrace them,
Who keep Sabbath and don’t defile it,
who watch your step and don’t do anything evil!
Make sure no outsider who now follows God
ever has occasion to say, ‘God put me in second-class.
I don’t really belong.’
And make sure no physically mutilated person
is ever made to think, ‘I’m damaged goods.
I don’t really belong.’”
4-5For God says:
“To the mutilated who keep my Sabbaths
and choose what delights me
and keep a firm grip on my covenant,
I’ll provide them an honored place
in my family and within my city,
even more honored than that of sons and daughters.
I’ll confer permanent honors on them
that will never be revoked.
6-8“And as for the outsiders who now follow me,
working for me, loving my name,
and wanting to be my servants—
All who keep Sabbath and don’t defile it,
holding fast to my covenant—
I’ll bring them to my holy mountain
and give them joy in my house of prayer.
They’ll be welcome to worship the same as the ‘insiders,’
to bring burnt offerings and sacrifices to my altar.
Oh yes, my house of worship
will be known as a house of prayer for all people.”
The Decree of the Master, God himself,
who gathers in the exiles of Israel:
“I will gather others also,
gather them in with those already gathered.”
* * *
9-12A call to the savage beasts: Come on the run.
Come, devour, beast barbarians!
For Israel’s watchmen are blind, the whole lot of them.
They have no idea what’s going on.
They’re dogs without sense enough to bark,
lazy dogs, dreaming in the sun—
But hungry dogs, they do know how to eat,
voracious dogs, with never enough.
And these are Israel’s shepherds!
They know nothing, understand nothing.
They all look after themselves,
grabbing whatever’s not nailed down.
“Come,” they say, “let’s have a party.
Let’s go out and get drunk!”
And tomorrow, more of the same:
“Let’s live it up!”
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Isaiah 56: MSG
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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.
Isaiah 56
56
1Yahweh says:
“Maintain justice
and do what is right,
for my salvation is near
and my righteousness will soon be revealed.
2Blessed is the man who does this,
and the son of man who holds it fast;
who keeps the Sabbath without profaning it
and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
3Let no foreigner who has joined himself to Yahweh speak, saying,
“Yahweh will surely separate me from his people.”
Do not let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”
4For Yahweh says, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
choose the things that please me,
and hold fast to my covenant,
5I will give them in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than of sons and of daughters.
I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.
6Also the foreigners who join themselves to Yahweh
to serve him,
and to love Yahweh’s name,
to be his servants,
everyone who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it,
and holds fast my covenant,
7I will bring these to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
8The Lord Yahweh, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says,
“I will yet gather others to him,
in addition to his own who are gathered.”
9All you animals of the field,
come to devour,
all you animals in the forest.
10His watchmen are blind.
They are all without knowledge.
They are all mute dogs.
They can’t bark—
dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.
11Yes, the dogs are greedy.
They can never have enough.
They are shepherds who can’t understand.
They have all turned to their own way,
each one to his gain, from every quarter.
12“Come,” they say, “I will get wine,
and we will fill ourselves with strong drink;
and tomorrow will be as today,
great beyond measure.”
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