Isaiah 57-61

Common English Bible

³ Come here, you children of sorcery,
    offspring of adultery and prostitution!
⁴ Whom are you mocking?
    Against whom do you open your mouth wide
    and stick out your tongue?
Aren’t you children of rebellion, offspring of lies,
⁵     who console yourselves with idols under every green tree,
    who slaughter children in the valleys, under the rocky cliffs?
⁶ You belong with the smooth talkers^[a] in the valley;
    they, they are your lot.
For them you poured out a drink offering,
    and presented a grain offering.
    Should I condone these things?
⁷ On a very high mountain you made your bed.
    You went up there to offer a sacrifice.
⁸ Behind the door and the doorpost
    you placed your symbols.
You abandoned me and lay down,
    making room in your bed
    and making deals for yourself with them.^[b]
You loved their bed;
    you saw their nakedness.
⁹ You went down to Molech^[c] with oil,
    and you slathered on your ointments;
    you sent your messengers far away,
    sent them down to the underworld.^[d]
10 Worn out by all your efforts,
    yet you wouldn’t say, “This is useless.”
You found new strength;
    therefore, you weren’t tired.
¹¹ Whom did you dread and fear so that you lied,
    didn’t remember me or give me a thought?
Isn’t it because I was silent and closed my eyes
    that you stopped fearing me?
¹² I will bring evidence about your righteousness and your actions;
    they won’t help you.
¹³ When you cry out,
    let those things you’ve gathered save you!
The wind will lift them all;
    one breath will take them away.
but those taking refuge in me will inherit the land and possess my holy mountain.

¹⁴ It will be said: “Survey, survey; build a road!
    Remove barriers from my people’s road!”
¹⁵ The one who is high and lifted up,
    who lives forever, whose name is holy, says:
I live on high, in holiness,
    and also with the crushed^[e] and the lowly,
    reviving the spirit of the lowly,
    reviving the heart of those who have been crushed.^[f]
16 I won’t always accuse,
    nor will I be enraged forever.
    It is my own doing that their spirit is exhausted—
    I gave them breath!
¹⁷ I was enraged about their illegal profits;
    I struck them; in rage I withdrew from them.
Yet they went on wandering wherever they wanted.
¹⁸     I have seen their ways, but I will heal them.
    I will guide them,
        and reward them with comfort.
And for those who mourn,
¹⁹     I will create reason for praise:^[g]
    utter prosperity to those far and near,
    and I will heal them, says the Lord.
²⁰ But the wicked are like the churning sea that can’t keep still.
    They churn up from their waters muck and mud.
²¹     There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked.

58 Shout loudly; don’t hold back;
    raise your voice like a trumpet!
Announce to my people their crime,
    to the house of Jacob their sins.
² They seek me day after day,
    desiring knowledge of my ways
    like a nation that acted righteously,
    that didn’t abandon their God.
They ask me for righteous judgments,
    wanting to be close to God.
³ “Why do we fast and you don’t see;
    why afflict ourselves and you don’t notice?”
Yet on your fast day you do whatever you want,
    and oppress all your workers.
⁴ You quarrel and brawl, and then you fast;
    you hit each other violently with your fists.
You shouldn’t fast as you are doing today
    if you want to make your voice heard on high.
⁵ Is this the kind of fast I choose,
    a day of self-affliction,
    of bending one’s head like a reed
    and of lying down in mourning clothing and ashes?
    Is this what you call a fast,
        a day acceptable to the Lord?

    59 Look! The Lord does not lack the power to save,
    nor are his ears too dull to hear,
²     but your misdeeds have separated you from your God.
Your sins have hidden his face from you
    so that you aren’t heard.
³ Your hands are stained with blood,
    and your fingers with guilt.
Your lips speak lies;
    your tongues mutter malice.
⁴ No one sues honestly;
    no one pleads truthfully.
By trusting in emptiness and speaking deceit,
    they conceive harm and give birth to malice.
⁵ They hatch adders’ eggs,
    and weave spiderwebs.
Whoever eats their eggs will die.
    Moreover, the crushed egg hatches a viper.
⁶ Their webs can’t serve as clothing;
    they can’t cover themselves with their deeds.
Their deeds are deeds of malice,
    and the work of violence is in their hands.
⁷ Their feet run to evil;
    they rush to shed innocent blood.
Their thoughts are thoughts of malice;
    desolation and destruction litter their highways.
⁸ They don’t know the way of peace;
    there’s no justice in their paths.
They make their roads crooked;
    no one who walks in them knows peace.

⁹ Because of all this, justice is far from us,
    and righteousness beyond our reach.
We expect light, and there is darkness;
    we await a gleam of light, but walk about in gloom.
¹⁰ We grope along the wall like the blind;
    like those without eyes we grope.
We stumble at noonday as if it were twilight,
    and among the strong as if we were dying.
¹¹ All of us growl like bears,
    and like doves we moan.
We expect justice, but there is none;
    we await salvation, but it is far from us.
¹² Our rebellions are numerous in your presence;
    our sins testify against us.
Our rebellions are with us;
    we’re aware of our guilt:
¹³     defying and denying the Lord,
    turning away from our God,
    planning oppression and revolt,
    muttering lying words conceived in our minds.
¹⁴ Justice is pushed aside;
    righteousness stands far off,
    because truth has stumbled in the public square,
    and honesty can’t enter.
¹⁵ Truth is missing;
    anyone turning from evil is plundered.

The Lord looked and was upset at the absence of justice.
¹⁶ Seeing that there was no one,
    and astonished that no one would intervene,
    God’s arm brought victory,
    upheld by righteousness,
¹⁷     putting on righteousness as armor
    and a helmet of salvation on his head,
    putting on garments of vengeance,
    and wrapping himself in a cloak of zeal.
¹⁸ God will repay according to their actions:
    wrath to his foes, retribution to enemies,
    retribution to the coastlands,
¹⁹     so those in the west will fear the Lord’s name,
    and those in the east will fear God’s glory.
It will come like a rushing river
    that the Lord’s wind drives on.
²⁰ A redeemer will come to Zion
    and to those in Jacob who stop rebelling,
    says the Lord.

60 Arise! Shine! Your light has come;
    the Lord’s glory has shone upon you.
² Though darkness covers the earth
    and gloom the nations,
    the Lord will shine upon you;
    God’s glory will appear over you.
³ Nations will come to your light
    and kings to your dawning radiance.

61 The Lord God’s spirit is upon me,
    because the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me
    to bring good news to the poor,
    to bind up the brokenhearted,
    to proclaim release for captives,
        and liberation for prisoners,
²     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
        and a day of vindication for our God,
    to comfort all who mourn,
³     to provide for Zion’s mourners,
    to give them a crown in place of ashes,
    oil of joy in place of mourning,
    a mantle of praise in place of discouragement.
They will be called Oaks of Righteousness,
    planted by the Lord to glorify himself.
⁴ They will rebuild the ancient ruins;
    they will restore formerly deserted places;
    they will renew ruined cities,
    places deserted in generations past.