59 Evil and Oppression

59:1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; ²but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. ³For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. ⁴No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. ⁵They hatch adders’ eggs; they weave the spider’s web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched. ⁶Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. ⁷Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. ⁸The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace.

⁹Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. ¹⁰We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men. ¹¹We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. ¹²For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities:¹³transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. ¹⁴Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. ¹⁵Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

Judgment and Redemption

The Lord saw it, and it displeased him^[1]that there was no justice. ¹⁶He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him. ¹⁷He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak. ¹⁸According to their deeds, so will he repay, wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies; to the coastlands he will render repayment. ¹⁹So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come like a rushing stream,^[2]which the wind of the Lord drives.

²⁰“And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord.

²¹“And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children’s offspring,” says the Lord, “from this time forth and forevermore.”

[1] Hebrew and it was evil in his eyes [2] Hebrew a narrow river

60 The Future Glory of Israel

60:1 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. ²For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. ³And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

⁴Lift up your eyes all around, and see; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried on the hip. ⁵Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and exult,^[3]because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you. ⁶A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord. ⁷All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you; the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you; they shall come up with acceptance on my altar, and I will beautify my beautiful house.

⁸Who are these that fly like a cloud, and like doves to their windows? ⁹For the coastlands shall hope for me, the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your children from afar, their silver and gold with them, for the name of the Lord your God, and for the Holy One of Israel, because he has made you beautiful.

¹⁰Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you; for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you. ¹¹Your gates shall be open continually; day and night they shall not be shut, that people may bring to you the wealth of the nations, with their kings led in procession. ¹²For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste. ¹³The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the plane, and the pine, to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious. ¹⁴The sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending low to you, and all who despised you shall bow down at your feet; they shall call you the City of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, with no one passing through, I will make you majestic forever, a joy from age to age. ¹⁶You shall suck the milk of nations; you shall nurse at the breast of kings; and you shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

¹⁷Instead of bronze I will bring gold, and instead of iron I will bring silver; instead of wood, bronze, instead of stones, iron. I will make your overseers peace and your taskmasters righteousness. ¹⁸Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders; you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.

¹⁹The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light;^[4]but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.^[5]²⁰Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning s hall be ended. ²¹Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified.^[6]²²The least one shall become a clan, and the smallest one a mighty nation; I am the Lord; in its time I will hasten it.

[3] Hebrew your heart shall tremble and grow wide [4] Masoretic Text; Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint, Targum add by night [5] Or your beauty [6] Or that I might display my beauty

61 The Year of the Lord’s Favor

61:1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor;^[7]he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;^[8]²to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God;to comfort all who mourn; ³to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.^[9]⁴They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.

⁵Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks; foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers; ⁶but you shall be called the priests of the Lord; they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God; you shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory you shall boast. ⁷Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy.

⁸For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and wrong;[10] I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. ⁹Their offspring shall be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed.

¹⁰I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. ¹¹For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.

[7] Or afflicted [8] Or the opening [of the eyes] to those who are blind; Septuagint and recovery of sight to the blind [9] Or that he may display his beauty [10] Or robbery with a burnt offering

62 Zion’s Coming Salvation

62:1 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch. ²The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. ³You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. ⁴You shall no more be termed Forsaken,[11] and your land shall no more be termed Desolate,[12] but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her,[13] and your land Married;[14] for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. ⁵For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

⁶On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest, ⁷and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth. ⁸The Lord has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm: “I will not again give your grain to be food for your enemies, and foreigners shall not drink your wine for which you have labored; ⁹but those who garner it shall eat it and praise the Lord, and those who gather it shall drink it in the courts of my sanctuary.”^[15]

¹⁰Go through, go through the gates; prepare the way for the people; build up, build up the highway; clear it of stones; lift up a signal over the peoples. ¹¹Behold, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the earth: Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.” ¹²And they shall be called The Holy People, The Redeemed of the Lord; and you shall be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.

[11] Hebrew Azubah [12] Hebrew Shemamah [13] Hebrew Hephzibah [14] Hebrew Beulah [15] Or in my holy courts

The Lord’s Day of Vengeance

63:1 Who is this who comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments from Bozrah, he who is splendid in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength? “It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.”

²Why is your apparel red, and your garments like his who treads in the winepress?

³“I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood[16] spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel. ⁴For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption[17] had come. ⁵I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold; so my own arm brought me salvation, and my wrath upheld me. ⁶I trampled down the peoples in my anger; I made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”

The Lord’s Mercy Remembered

⁷I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel that he has granted them according to his compassion, according to the abundance of his steadfast love. ⁸For he said, “Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely.” And he became their Savior. ⁹In all their affliction he was afflicted,[18] and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

¹⁰But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; therefore he turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them. ¹¹Then he remembered the days of old, of Moses and his people.[19] Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put in the midst of them his Holy Spirit, ¹²who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them to make for himself an everlasting name, ¹³ who led them through the depths? Like a horse in the desert, they did not stumble. ¹⁴Like livestock that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest. So you led your people, to make for yourself a glorious name.

Prayer for Mercy

¹⁵Look down from heaven and see, from your holy and beautiful[20] habitation. Where are your zeal and your might? The stirring of your inner parts and your compassion are held back from me. ¹⁶For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name. ¹⁷O Lord, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart, so that we fear you not? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage. ¹⁸Your holy people held possession for a little while;[21] our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary. ¹⁹We have become like those over whom you have never ruled, like those who are not called by your name.

[16] Or their juice; also verse 6 [17] Or the year of my redeemed [18] Or he did not afflict [19] Or Then his people remembered the days of old, of Moses [20] Or holy and glorious [21] Or They have dispossessed your holy people for a little while