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.
Currently Selected:
Isaiah 65: MSG
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
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 65
65
Judgment and Salvation
1“I let myself be sought by those who did not ask;
I let myself be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, ‘Here I am; here I am!’ to a nation that did not call on my name;
2I spread out my hands all day to a stubborn people,
those who walk after their thoughts in the way that is not good,
3the people who provoke#Literally “provoking” me to anger continually to my face,
slaughtering for sacrifices in the garden,
and making smoke offerings on bricks,
4who sit#Literally “sitting” in graves
and spend the night in secret places,#Literally “watches”
who eat#Literally “eating” the flesh of swine
with#Or “and” a fragment#The reading tradition (Qere) has “broth” of impurity in their vessels,
5who say,#Literally “saying” “Keep to yourself!#Literally “Come near to you”
You must not come near me, for I am too holy for you!”
These are a smoke in my nostrils,#Literally “nose”
a fire burning all day.
6Look! It is written before me: I will not be silent, but I will repay;
and I will repay in#Or “on” the fold of their garment
7your iniquities and the iniquities of your ancestors#Or “fathers” together, says Yahweh,
because they made smoke offerings on the mountains
and they taunted me on the hills,
I will measure their punishment from the beginning into the fold of their garment.”
8Thus says Yahweh: “Just as the new wine is found in the cluster, and they say ‘You must not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it,’ so I will do for the sake of my servants by#Literally “to” not destroying everyone.#Literally “all”
9And I will bring descendant s#Hebrew “descendant” out from Jacob,
and a people#Literally “man” from Judah to take possession of my mountain,
and my chosen ones shall inherit it,
and my servants shall settle there.
10And Sharon shall become a pasture for#Literally “of” flocks,#Hebrew “flock”
and the valley of Achor a resting place for#Or “of” herds#Hebrew “herd”
for my people who have sought me.
11But#Or “and” you who forsake#Literally “forsaking” Yahweh,
forgetting my holy mountain,#Literally “the mountain of my holiness”
who set a table for Fortune,
and who pour out#Literally “fill” a jug of mixed wine for Destiny,
12and I will remit you to the sword,
and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter,
because I called, but#Or “and” you did not answer;
I spoke, but#Or “and” you did not listen,
but#Or “and” you did the evil in my eyes,
and you chose that in which I do not delight.”
13Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh:
“Look! My servants shall eat but#Or “and” you, you shall be hungry.
Look! My servants shall drink but#Or “and” you, you shall be thirsty.
Look! My servants shall rejoice but#Or “and” you, you shall be ashamed.
14Look! My servants shall shout for joy,#Literally “from goodness of heart” but#Or “and” you, you shall cry out for pain#Literally “from pain of heart” and howl for sadness.#Literally “from a breaking of the spirit”
15And you shall leave your name to my chosen ones as a curse,
and the Lord Yahweh will kill you, and he will give#Literally “call” his servants another name.
16Whoever blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of trustworthiness,
and the one who swears an oath in the land shall swear by the God of trustworthiness,
because the former troubles are forgotten,
and they are hidden from my eyes.
New Creation
17For look! I am about to create new heavens and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered,
and they shall not come to mind.#Literally “go up to heart”
18But rejoice and shout in exultation forever and ever over what I am about to create!
For look! I am about to create Jerusalem as a source of rejoicing,
and her people as a source of joy.
19And I will shout in exultation over Jerusalem,
and I will rejoice over my people,
and the sound of weeping shall no longer be heard in it,
or#Or “and” the sound of a cry for help.
20There will no longer be a nursing infant who lives only a few#Literally “of” days,
or#Or “and” an old man who does not fill his days,
for the boy will die a hundred years old,#Literally “a son of a hundred year”
and the one who fails to reach#Literally “misses” a hundred years#Literally “a son of a hundred year” will be considered#Literally “treated” accursed.
21And they shall build houses and inhabit them,
and they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22They shall not build and another inhabit;
they shall not plant and another eat.
For the days of my people shall be like the days of a tree,
and my chosen ones shall enjoy the work of their hands.
23They shall not labor for nothing,
and they shall not give birth to horror,
for they shall be offspring blessed by#Literally “the offspring of the blessing of” Yahweh,
and their descendants with them.
24And this will happen: before they call, I myself will answer;
while still they are speaking, I myself will hear.
25The wolf and the lamb shall feed like one,
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox,
but#Or “and” dust shall be the serpent’s food.
They shall do no evil,
and they shall not destroy on all my holy mountain,”#Literally “the mountain of my holiness” says Yahweh.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
2010 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software