Isaiah 52-56
Easy-to-Read Version
Israel Will Be Saved
52 Wake up! Wake up!
Zion, clothe yourself with strength.
Holy city of Jerusalem, stand up
and put on your beautiful clothes!
Those filthy foreigners[a] will not enter you again.
2 Jerusalem, get up and shake off the dust!
Daughter Zion,[b] you were a prisoner,
but take the chains off your neck.
3 The Lord says,
“You were not sold for money.
So I will not use money to set you free.”
4 The Lord God says, “First, my people went down to Egypt and became slaves. Then Assyria made them slaves. 5 Now look what has happened. Another nation has taken my people,” says the Lord. “That country did not pay to take my people, but they rule over them and laugh at them, and they say bad things about me all the time.” The Lord is the one saying these things.
6 “This happened so that my people will learn about me. My people will know who I am. My people will know my name, and they will know that I Am He[c] is speaking to them.”
7 How wonderful it is to see someone coming over the hills to tell good news. How wonderful to hear him announce, “There is peace! We have been saved!” and to hear him say to Zion, “Your God is the king!”
8 The city guards[d] are shouting.
They are all rejoicing together.
They can all see the Lord returning to Zion.
9 Ruins of Jerusalem, be happy again!
Rejoice because the Lord
comforted his people and set Jerusalem free.
10 The Lord showed his holy strength to all the nations.
All the faraway countries saw how God saved his people.
11 So leave Babylon!
Leave that place!
Priests, you carry the things that belong to the Lord.
So make yourselves pure.
Don’t touch anything that is not pure.
12 You will leave Babylon,
but they will not force you to leave in a hurry.
You will not be forced to run away.
The Lord will be in front of you.
The God of Israel will be behind you.[e]
God’s Suffering Servant
13 The Lord says, “Look, my servant will succeed in what he has to do, and he will be raised to a position of high honor. 14 It is true that many were shocked when they saw him. He was beaten so badly that he no longer looked like a man. 15 But it is also true that many nations will be amazed at him. Kings will look at him and be unable to speak. They will see what they had never been told. They will understand what they had never heard.[f]”
53 Who really believed what we heard? Who saw in it the Lord’s great power?[g]
2 He was always close to the Lord. He grew up like a young plant, like a root growing in dry ground. There was nothing special or impressive about the way he looked, nothing we could see that would cause us to like him. 3 People made fun of him, and even his friends left him. He was a man who suffered a lot of pain and sickness. We treated him like someone of no importance, like someone people will not even look at but turn away from in disgust.
4 The fact is, it was our suffering he took on himself; he bore our pain. But we thought that God was punishing him, that God was beating him for something he did. 5 But he was being punished for what we did. He was crushed because of our guilt. He took the punishment we deserved, and this brought us peace. We were healed because of his pain. 6 We had all wandered away like sheep. We had gone our own way. And yet the Lord put all our guilt on him.
7 He was treated badly, but he never protested. He said nothing, like a lamb being led away to be killed. He was like a sheep that makes no sound as its wool is being cut off. He never opened his mouth to defend himself. 8 He was taken away by force and judged unfairly. The people of his time did not even notice that he was killed.[h] But he was put to death[i] for the sins of his[j] people. 9 He had done no wrong to anyone. He had never even told a lie. But he was buried among the wicked. His tomb was with the rich.
10 But the Lord was pleased with this humble servant who suffered such pain.[k] Even after giving himself as an offering for sin, he will see his descendants and enjoy a long life. He will succeed in doing what the Lord wanted. 11 After his suffering he will see the light,[l] and he will be satisfied with what he experienced.
The Lord says, “My servant, who always does what is right, will make his people right with me; he will take away their sins. 12 For this reason, I will treat him as one of my great people. I will give him the rewards of one who wins in battle, and he will share them with his powerful ones. I will do this because he gave his life for the people. He was considered a criminal, but the truth is, he carried away the sins of many. Now he will stand before me and speak for those who have sinned.”
God Brings His People Home
54 “Woman, be happy!
You have not had any children,
but you should be very happy.
“Yes, the woman who is alone[m]
will have more children than the woman with a husband.”
This is what the Lord says.
2 “Make your tent bigger.
Open your doors wide.
Don’t think small!
Make your tent large and strong,
3 because you will grow in all directions.
Your children will take over many nations
and live in the cities that were destroyed.
4 Don’t be afraid!
You will not be disappointed.
People will not say bad things against you.
You will not be embarrassed.
When you were young, you felt shame.
But you will forget that shame now.
You will not remember the shame you felt
when you lost your husband.[n]
5 Your real husband is the one who made you.
His name is the Lord All-Powerful.
The Holy One of Israel is your Protector,[o]
and he is the God of all the earth!
6 “Like a woman whose husband has left her,
you were very sad.
You were like a young wife left all alone.
But the Lord has called you back to him.”
This is what your God says.
7 “For a short time I turned away from you,
but with all my love I will welcome you again.
8 I was so angry that for a while I did not want to see you.
But now I want to comfort you with kindness forever.”
The Lord your Savior said this.
9 “Remember, in Noah’s time I punished the world with the flood.
But I made a promise to Noah that I would never again destroy the world with water.
In the same way, I promise that I will never again be angry with you
and say bad things to you.
10 “The mountains may disappear,
and the hills may become dust,
but my faithful love will never leave you.
I will make peace with you,
and it will never end.”
The Lord who loves you said this.
11 “You poor city!
Enemies came against you like storms,
and no one comforted you.
But I will rebuild you.
I will use a beautiful mortar to lay the stones of your walls.
I will use sapphire stones when I lay the foundation.
12 The stones on top of the wall will be made from rubies.
I will use shiny jewels for the gates.
I will use precious stones to build the walls around you.
13 I, the Lord, will teach your children,
and they will have real peace.
14 You will be built on goodness.
You will be safe from cruelty and fear.
So you will have nothing to fear.
Nothing will come to hurt you.
15 I will never send anyone to attack you.
And if any army tries to attack you, you will defeat them.
16 “Look, I made the blacksmith. He blows on the fire to make it hotter. Then he takes the hot iron and makes the kind of tool he wants to make. In the same way, I made the ‘Destroyer’ to destroy things.
17 “People will make weapons to fight against you, but their weapons will not defeat you. Some people will say things against you, but anyone who speaks against you will be proved wrong.”
The Lord says, “That is what my servants get! They get the good things[p] that come from me, their Lord.
God Gives “Food” That Really Satisfies
55 “All you people who are thirsty, come!
Here is water for you to drink.
Don’t worry if you have no money.
Come, eat and drink until you are full!
You don’t need money.
The milk and wine are free.
2 Why waste your money on something that is not real food?
Why should you work for something that does not really satisfy you?
Listen closely to me and you will eat what is good.
You will enjoy the food that satisfies your soul.
3 Listen closely to what I say.
Listen to me so that you will live.
I will make an agreement with you that will last forever.
It will be an agreement you can trust, like the one I made with David—
a promise to love him and be loyal to him forever.
4 I made David a witness of my power for all nations.
I promised him that he would become a ruler and commander of many nations.”
5 There are nations in places you don’t know,
but you will call for them to come.
They don’t know you,
but they will run to you.
This will happen because the Lord, your God, wants it.
It will happen because the Holy One of Israel honors you.
6 So you should look for the Lord
before it is too late.
You should call to him now,
while he is near.
7 Evil people should stop living evil lives.
They should stop thinking bad thoughts.
They should come to the Lord again,
and he will comfort them.
They should come to our God
because he will freely forgive them.
People Cannot Understand God
8 The Lord says, “My thoughts are not like yours.
Your ways are not like mine.
9 Just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways,
and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.
10 “Rain and snow fall from the sky
and don’t return until they have watered the ground.
Then the ground causes the plants to sprout and grow,
and they produce seeds for the farmer and food for people to eat.
11 In the same way, my words leave my mouth,
and they don’t come back without results.
My words make the things happen that I want to happen.
They succeed in doing what I send them to do.
12 “So you will go out from there with joy.
You will be led out in peace.
When you come to the mountains and hills, they will begin singing.
All the trees in the fields will clap their hands.
13 Large cypress trees will grow where there were thornbushes.
Myrtle trees will grow where there were weeds.
All this will happen to make the Lord known,
to be a permanent reminder of his goodness and power.”
All Nations Will Follow the Lord
56 The Lord said these things, “Be fair to all people. Do what is right, because soon my salvation will come to you. My goodness will soon be shown to the whole world. 2 I will bless those who refuse to do wrong and who obey the law about the Sabbath.”
3 Some foreigners will choose to follow the Lord. They should not say, “The Lord will not really accept me like the rest of his people.” A eunuch should not say, “I am only a dry piece of wood. I cannot have any children.”
4 They should not say that because the Lord says, “Some eunuchs obey the laws about the Sabbath. They choose to do what I want, and they follow my agreement.[q] 5 So I will put a memorial stone in my Temple for them. Their name will be remembered in my city! Yes, I will give those eunuchs something better than sons and daughters. I will give them a name that will last forever! They will not be cut off[r] from my people.
6 “Some foreigners have chosen to follow the Lord. They do this so that they can serve him and love his name and be his servants. They keep the Sabbath as a special day of worship, and they will continue to follow closely my agreement. 7 So I will bring them to my holy mountain and make them happy in my house of prayer. The offerings and sacrifices they give me will please me, because my Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” 8 The Lord God said these things.
The Israelites were forced to leave their country, but the Lord will gather them together again. He says, “I will bring them back together again!”
9 Wild animals in the forest,
come and eat.
10 The watchmen[s] are all blind.
They don’t know what they are doing.
They are like dogs that will not bark.
They lie on the ground and sleep.
Oh, they love to sleep.
11 They are like hungry dogs.
They are never satisfied.
The shepherds don’t know what they are doing.
Like their sheep, they have all wandered away.
They are greedy.
All they want is to satisfy themselves.
12 They come and say,
“I will drink some wine.
I will drink some beer.
I will do the same thing tomorrow,
but I will drink even more.”
Footnotes
- Isaiah 52:1 filthy foreigners Or “unclean men that have not been circumcised.”
- Isaiah 52:2 Daughter Zion Another name for Jerusalem.
- Isaiah 52:6 I Am He This is like Yahweh, the Hebrew name for God. It shows that God lives forever, and that he is always with his people. See Ex. 3:13-17.
- Isaiah 52:8 guards Men who stand on the city walls and watch for messengers or trouble coming to the city. Here, this probably means the prophets.
- Isaiah 52:12 The Lord … behind you This shows that God will protect his people. Compare Ex. 14:19, 20.
- Isaiah 52:15 They will see … heard Or “Those who were not told the message saw what happened. Those who did not hear understood.”
- Isaiah 53:1 Who … power Or “Upon whom was the arm of the Lord revealed?” This could mean, “Who received the punishment from the Lord?”
- Isaiah 53:8 The people … killed Or “There is no story about his descendants, because he was taken from the land of the living.”
- Isaiah 53:8 put to death Or “punished.”
- Isaiah 53:8 his This is the reading in a Hebrew copy among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The standard Hebrew text has “my.”
- Isaiah 53:10 But the Lord … such pain Or “The Lord decided to crush him. He decided that he must suffer.”
- Isaiah 53:11 the light This is found in some Hebrew scrolls from Qumran and the ancient Greek version. Light is often used as a symbol for life.
- Isaiah 54:1 Yes, the woman … alone This Hebrew word is like the word “destroyed.” This probably means “Jerusalem, the city that is destroyed.”
- Isaiah 54:4 husband In Hebrew this word is like the name Baal. This means that the Lord is Jerusalem’s true God, not the false god Baal.
- Isaiah 54:5 Protector Or “Redeemer,” someone who cared for and protected the family of a dead relative. Often this person bought back (redeemed) the poor relatives from slavery, making them free again.
- Isaiah 54:17 good things Or “victory.”
- Isaiah 56:4 agreement This usually means the agreement God made with Israel through Moses. (See “agreement” in the Word List.) Here, it might mean the agreement of Isa. 55:3.
- Isaiah 56:5 cut off To be removed from the list of the people of Israel. This included a person’s being forced to leave family, land, and the people of Israel.
- Isaiah 56:10 The watchmen Literally, “The seers,” an ancient title for prophets.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International
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