Isaiah 65:1-25
65 “I have let myself be searched for+ by those who had not asked [for me].*+ I have let myself be found by those who had not looked for me.*+ I have said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’+ to a nation that was not calling* upon my name.+
2 “I have spread out my hands all day long to a stubborn+ people, those who are walking in the way that is not good,+ after their thoughts;+
3 the people [made up of] those offending+ me right to my face constantly, sacrificing in the gardens+ and making sacrificial smoke+ upon the bricks,*
4 seating themselves among the burial places,+ who also pass the night even in the watch huts,* eating the flesh of the pig,+ even the broth of foul things+ being in their vessels;
5 those who are saying, ‘Keep close to yourself. Do not approach me, for I shall certainly convey holiness to you.’*+ These are a smoke in my nostrils,+ a fire burning all day long.*+
6 “Look! It is written before me.+ I shall not keep still,+ but I will render a reward; I will even render the reward+ into their own bosom,*+
7 for their* own errors and for the errors of their forefathers at the same time,”+ Jehovah has said. “Because they have made sacrificial smoke upon the mountains, and upon the hills+ they have reproached me,+ I will also measure out their wages first of all into their own bosom.”+
8 This is what Jehovah has said: “In the same way that the new wine+ is found in the cluster and someone has to say, ‘Do not ruin it,+ because there is a blessing in it,’+ so I shall do for the sake of my servants* in order not to bring everybody to ruin.+
9 And I will bring forth out of Jacob an offspring*+ and out of Judah the hereditary possessor of my mountains;+ and my chosen ones must take possession of it,*+ and my own servants will reside there.+
10 And Sharʹon+ must become a pasture ground for sheep+ and the low plain of Aʹchor+ a resting-place for cattle, for my people who will have looked for me.+
11 “But YOU men are those leaving Jehovah,+ those forgetting my holy mountain,+ those setting in order a table for the god of Good Luck*+ and those filling up mixed wine for the god of Destiny.*+
12 And I will destine YOU men to the sword,+ and YOU will all of YOU bow down to being slaughtered;+ for the reason that I called,+ but YOU did not answer; I spoke, but YOU did not listen;+ and YOU kept doing what was bad in my eyes,+ and the thing in which I took no delight YOU chose.”+
13 Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Look! My own servants will eat,+ but YOU yourselves will go hungry.+ Look! My own servants will drink,+ but YOU yourselves will go thirsty.+ Look! My own servants will rejoice,+ but YOU yourselves will suffer shame.+
14 Look! My own servants will cry out joyfully because of the good condition of the heart,+ but YOU yourselves will make outcries because of the pain of heart and YOU will howl because of sheer breakdown of spirit.+
15 And YOU men will certainly lay up YOUR name for an oath* by my chosen ones, and the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will actually put [YOU] individually* to death,*+ but his own servants he will call by another name;+
16 so that anyone blessing himself in the earth will bless himself by the God* of faith,*+ and anyone making a sworn statement in the earth will swear by the God of faith;+ because the former distresses will actually be forgotten and because they will actually be concealed from my eyes.+
17 “For here I am creating new heavens+ and a new earth;+ and the former things will not be called to mind,+ neither will they come up into the heart.+
18 But exult, YOU people,+ and be joyful forever in what I am creating.+ For here I am creating Jerusalem a cause for joyfulness and her people a cause for exultation.+
19 And I will be joyful in Jerusalem and exult in my people;+ and no more will there be heard in her the sound of weeping or the sound of a plaintive cry.”+
20 “No more will there come to be a suckling a few days old from that place,+ neither an old man that does not fulfill his days;+ for one will die as a mere boy, although a hundred years of age; and as for the sinner, although a hundred years of age he will have evil called down upon him.+
21 And they will certainly build houses and have occupancy;+ and they will certainly plant vineyards and eat [their] fruitage.+
22 They will not build and someone else have occupancy; they will not plant and someone else do the eating. For like the days of a tree will the days of my people be;+ and the work of their own hands my chosen ones will use to the full.+
23 They will not toil for nothing,+ nor will they bring to birth for disturbance;+ because they are the offspring made up of the blessed ones of Jehovah,+ and their descendants with them.+
24 And it will actually occur that before they call out I myself shall answer;+ while they are yet speaking, I myself shall hear.+
25 “The wolf+ and the lamb themselves will feed as one,+ and the lion will eat straw just like the bull;+ and as for the serpent, his food will be dust.+ They will do no harm+ nor cause any ruin in all my holy mountain,”+ Jehovah has said.
Footnotes
^ “For me,” LXXSy and three Heb. mss.
^ “Calling,” by a slight change of vowel pointing in agreement with TSyVg; M, “called.”
^ Possibly the pavement of the place for offering sacrifice or else roof tiles.
^ “Even among the rocks,” by a correction; LXXSy, “in the caves.”
^ Or, “I have become holy toward you.”
^ “As for these, their anger is as a smoke before me; their punishment shall be in Gehinnam (Gehenna) where the fire burns all the day,” TO. See App 4C.
^ “But I will render to them the punishment of their transgressions and will deliver their bodies to the second death,” TO.
^ “Their,” AqLXXSymThSy; MTVg, “your.”
^ “Servants,” MTSyVg; LXX and seven Heb. mss, “servant.”
^ Lit., “seed.”
^ Or, “her,” fem. sing., referring to the hereditary possession.
^ “For the god of Good Luck.” Heb., lag·gadhʹ; LXX, “the demon”; Lat., For·tuʹnae. Compare Ge 30:11 ftns.
^ Or, “for the god of Fate.” Heb., lam·niʹ; Gr., tei tyʹkhei.
^ That is, a curse.
^ “[YOU] individually.” Lit., “you,” masc. sing., to show individuality.
^ “To death,” M; T, “to death with the second death.”
^ “By the God of.” Heb., bEʼ·lo·hehʹ.
^ Or, “faithfulness,” by a change of vowel pointing to read ʼe·munʹ; Heb., ʼa·menʹ, “Amen; Surely!”
