Isaiah 61-64

Isaiah 61

¹The spirit of the Lord is on me, because I am marked out by him to give good news to the poor; he has sent me to make the broken-hearted well, to say that the prisoners will be made free, and that those in chains will see the light again;

²To give knowledge that the year of the Lord's good pleasure has come, and the day of punishment from our God; to give comfort to all who are sad;

³To give them a fair head-dress in place of dust, the oil of joy in place of the clothing of grief, praise in place of sorrow; so that they may be named trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, and so that he may have glory.

⁴And they will be building again the old broken walls, and will make new the old waste places, and will put up again the towns which have been waste for long generations.

⁵And men from strange countries will be your herdsmen, and those who are not Israelites will be your ploughmen and vine-keepers.

⁶But you will be named the priests of the Lord, the servants of our God: you will have the wealth of the nations for your food, and you will be clothed with their glory.

⁷As they had twice as much grief, and marks of shame were their heritage, so in their land they will be rewarded twice over, and will have eternal joy.

⁸For I, the Lord, take pleasure in upright judging; I will not put up with the violent taking away of right; and I will certainly give them their reward, and I will make an eternal agreement with them.

⁹And their seed will be noted among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples: it will be clear to all who see them that they are the seed to which the Lord has given his blessing.

¹⁰I will be full of joy in the Lord, my soul will be glad in my God; for he has put on me the clothing of salvation, covering me with the robe of righteousness, as the husband puts on a fair head-dress, and the bride makes herself beautiful with jewels.

¹¹For as the earth puts out buds, and as the garden gives growth to the seeds which are planted in it, so the Lord will make righteousness and praise to be flowering before all the nations.

Isaiah 62

¹Because of Zion I will not keep quiet, and because of Jerusalem I will take no rest, till her righteousness goes out like the shining of the sun, and her salvation like a burning light.

²And the nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory: and you will have a new name, given by the mouth of the Lord.

³And you will be a fair crown in the hand of the Lord, and a king's head-dress in the hand of your God.

⁴You will not now be named, She who is given up; and your land will no longer be named, The waste land: but you will have the name, My pleasure is in her, and your land will be named, Married: for the Lord has pleasure in you, and your land will be married.

⁵For as a young man takes a virgin for his wife, so will your maker be married to you: and as a husband has joy in his bride, so will the Lord your God be glad over you.

⁶I have put watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will not keep quiet day or night: you who are the Lord's recorders, take no rest,

⁷And give him no rest, till he puts Jerusalem in her place to be praised in the earth.

⁸The Lord has taken an oath by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Truly, I will no longer give your grain to be food for your haters; and men of strange countries will not take the wine for which your work has been done:

⁹But those who have got in the grain will have it for their food, and will give praise to the Lord; and those who have got in the grapes will take the wine of them in the open places of my holy house.

¹⁰Go through, go through the doors; make ready the way of the people; let the highway be lifted up; let the stones be taken away; let a flag be lifted up over the peoples.

¹¹The Lord has sent out word to the end of the earth, Say to the daughter of Zion, See, your saviour comes; those whom he has made free are with him, and those to whom he has given salvation go before him.

¹²And they will be named, The holy people, Those whose cause has been taken up by the Lord: and you will be named, Desired, A town not given up.

Isaiah 63

¹Who is this who comes from Edom, with blood-red robes from Bozrah? he whose clothing is fair, stepping with pride in his great strength? I whose glory is in the right, strong for salvation.

²Why is your clothing red, and why are your robes like those of one who is crushing the grapes?

³I have been crushing the grapes by myself, and of the peoples there was no man with me: in my wrath and in my passion, they were crushed under my feet; and my robes are marked with their life-blood, and all my clothing is red.

⁴For the day of punishment is in my heart, and the year for the payment of the price for my people has come.

⁵And I saw that there was no helper, and I was wondering that no one gave them support: so my arm did the work of salvation, and my wrath was my support.

⁶And in my passion the peoples were crushed under my feet, and broken in my wrath, and I put down their strength to the earth.

⁷I will give news of the mercies of the Lord, and his great acts, even all the things the Lord has done for us, in his great grace to the house of Israel; even all he has done for us in his unnumbered mercies.

⁸For he said, Truly they are my people, children who will not be false: so he was their saviour out of all their trouble.

⁹It was no sent one or angel, but he himself who was their saviour: in his love and in his pity he took up their cause, and he took them in his arms, caring for them all through the years.

¹⁰But they went against him, causing grief to his holy spirit: so he was turned against them, and made war on them.

¹¹Then the early days came to their minds, the days of Moses his servant: and they said, Where is he who made the keeper of his flock come up from the sea? where is he who put his holy spirit among them,

¹²He who made the arm of his glory go at the right hand of Moses, by whom the waters were parted before them, to make himself an eternal name;

¹³He who made them go through the deep waters, like a horse in the waste land?

¹⁴Like the cattle which go down into the valley, they went without falling, the spirit of the Lord guiding them: so you went before your people, to make yourself a great name.

¹⁵Let your eyes be looking down from heaven, from your holy and beautiful house: where is your deep feeling, the working of your power? do not keep back the moving of your pity and your mercies:

¹⁶For you are our father, though Abraham has no knowledge of us, and Israel gives no thought to us: you, O Lord, are our father; from the earliest days you have taken up our cause.

¹⁷O Lord, why do you send us wandering from your ways, making our hearts hard, so that we have no fear of you? Come back, because of your servants, the tribes of your heritage.

¹⁸Why have evil men gone over your holy place, so that it has been crushed under the feet of our haters?

¹⁹We have become as those who were never ruled by you, on whom your name was not named.

Isaiah 64

¹O let the heavens be broken open and come down, so that the mountains may be shaking before you,

²As when fire puts the brushwood in flames, or as when water is boiling from the heat of the fire: to make your name feared by your haters, so that the nations may be shaking before you;

³While you do acts of power for which we are not looking, and which have not come to the ears of men in the past.

⁴The ear has not had news of, or the eye seen, ... any God but you, working for the man who is waiting for him.

⁵Will you not have mercy on him who takes pleasure in doing righteousness, even on those who keep in mind your ways? Truly you were angry, and we went on doing evil, and sinning against you in the past.

⁶For we have all become like an unclean person, and all our good acts are like a dirty robe: and we have all become old like a dead leaf, and our sins, like the wind, take us away.

⁷And there is no one who makes prayer to your name, or who is moved to keep true to you: for your face is veiled from us, and you have given us into the power of our sins.

⁸But now, O Lord, you are our father; we are the earth, and you are our maker; and we are all the work of your hand.

⁹Be not very angry, O Lord, and do not keep our sins in mind for ever: give ear to our prayer, for we are all your people.

¹⁰Your holy towns have become a waste, Zion has become a waste, Jerusalem is a mass of broken walls.

¹¹Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers gave praise to you, is burned with fire; and all the things of our desire have come to destruction.

¹²In view of all this, will you still do nothing, O Lord? will you keep quiet, and go on increasing our punishment?