Isaiah 65

¹ I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me;
I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, "Here I am, here I am,"
to a nation that was not called by my name.

² I spread out my hands all the day
to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
following their own devices;

³ a people who provoke me
to my face continually,
sacrificing in gardens
and making offerings on bricks;

⁴ who sit in tombs,
and spend the night in secret places;
who eat pig's flesh,
and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels;

⁵ who say, "Keep to yourself,
do not come near me, for I am too holy for you."
These are a smoke in my nostrils,
a fire that burns all the day.

⁶ Behold, it is written before me:
I will not keep silent, but I will repay;
I will indeed repay into their lap

⁷ both your iniquities and your fathers' iniquities
together, says the LORD;
because they made offerings on the mountains
and insulted me on the hills,
I will measure into their lap
payment for their former deeds."

⁸ Thus says the LORD:
"As the new wine is found in the cluster,
and they say, 'Do not destroy it,
for there is a blessing in it,'
so I will do for my sake of my servants,
and not destroy them all.

⁹ I will bring forth offspring from Jacob,
and from Judah an inheritor of my mountains;
my chosen will inherit it,
and my servants will dwell there.

¹⁰ Sharon will become a pasture for flocks,
and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down,
for my people who have sought me.

¹¹ But you who forsake the LORD,
who forget my holy mountain,
who set a table for Fortune
and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny,

¹² I will destine you to the sword,
and all of you will bow down to the slaughter,
because, when I called, you did not answer;
when I spoke, you did not listen,
but you did what was evil in my eyes
and chose what I did not delight in."

¹³ Therefore thus says the Lord GOD:
"Behold, my servants will eat,
but you will be hungry;
behold, my servants will drink,
but you will be thirsty;
behold, my servants will rejoice,
but you will be ashamed;

¹⁴ behold, my servants will sing for joy
of heart,
but you will cry out for pain of heart
and will wail for breaking of spirit.

¹⁵ You will leave your name to my chosen
for a curse,
and the Lord GOD will put you to death,
but his servants he will call by another name.

¹⁶ So that he who blesses himself in the land
will bless himself by the God of faithfulness,
and he who takes an oath in the land
will swear by the God of faithfulness;
because the former troubles are forgotten
and are hidden from my eyes.

¹⁷ For behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth,
and the former things will not be remembered
or come into mind.

¹⁸ But be glad and rejoice forever
in that which I create;
for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy,
and her people to be a gladness.

¹⁹ I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and be glad in my people;
no more will be heard in it
the sound of weeping
and the cry of distress.

²⁰ No more will there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not fill out his days,
for the young man will die a hundred years old,
and the sinner a hundred years old will be accursed.

²¹ They will build houses and inhabit them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

²² They will not build and another inhabit;
they will not plant and another eat;
for like the days of a tree will be the days of my people,
and my chosen will long enjoy the work of their hands.

²³ They will not labor in vain
or bear children for calamity,
for they will be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD,
and their descendants with them.

²⁴ Before they call I will answer;
while they are yet speaking I will hear.

²⁵ The wolf and the lamb will graze together;
the lion will eat straw like the ox,
and dust will be the serpent's food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,"
says the LORD.