Isaiah 65

Judgment and Salvation

¹I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me;[#Rom. 10:20; Eph. 2:12, 13; #2:2, 3; 18:7; 19:19, 25; Zech. 14:16]

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.

²I spread out my hands all the day[#Rom. 10:21]

to a rebellious people,

who walk in a way that is not good,

following their own devices;

³a people who provoke me

to my face continually,

sacrificing in gardens

and making offerings on bricks;

⁴who sit in tombs,

and spend the night in secret places;

who eat pig’s flesh,

and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels;

⁵who 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.

⁶Behold, it is written before me:[#Jer. 2:22; 17:1]

“I will not keep silent, but I will repay;

I will indeed repay into their lap

⁷both your iniquities and your fathers’ iniquities together,[#Ex. 20:5; Matt. 23:35]

because they made offerings on the mountains

and insulted me on the hills,

I will measure into their lap

payment for their former deeds.”

⁸Thus 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 servants’ sake,

and not destroy them all.

⁹I will bring forth offspring from Jacob,[#27:6; 37:31]

and from Judah possessors of my mountains;

my chosen shall possess it,

and my servants shall dwell there.

¹⁰Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks,[#33:9; 35:2]

and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down,

for my people who have sought me.

¹¹But you who forsake the Lord ,[#Josh. 24:20]

who forget my holy mountain,

who set a table for Fortune

and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny,

¹²I will destine you to the sword,

and all of you shall 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.”

¹³Therefore thus says the Lord God :

“Behold, my servants shall eat,

but you shall be hungry;

behold, my servants shall drink,

but you shall be thirsty;

behold, my servants shall rejoice,

but you shall be put to shame;

¹⁴behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart,[#Ps. 5:11]

but you shall cry out for pain of heart

and shall wail for breaking of spirit.

¹⁵You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse,[#9; #Deut. 28:37; Jer. 29:22; Zech. 8:13]

and the Lord God will put you to death,

but his servants he will call by another name,

¹⁶so that he who blesses himself in the land[#Jer. 4:2]

shall bless himself by the God of truth,

and he who takes an oath in the land

shall swear by the God of truth;

because the former troubles are forgotten

and are hidden from my eyes.

New Heavens and a New Earth

¹⁷“For behold, I create new heavens[#66:22; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1]

and a new earth,

and the former things shall not be remembered

or come into mind.

¹⁸But 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.

¹⁹I will rejoice in Jerusalem[#62:5; 66:10]

and be glad in my people;

no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping

and the cry of distress.

²⁰No more shall 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 shall die a hundred years old,

and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.

²¹They shall build houses and inhabit them;[#Ezek. 28:26; Deut. 28:30]

they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

²²They shall not build and another inhabit;[#21]

they shall not plant and another eat;

for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,

and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

²³They shall not labor in vain[#49:4]

or bear children for calamity,

for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord ,

and their descendants with them.

²⁴Before they call I will answer;[#Ps. 32:5]

while they are yet speaking I will hear.

²⁵The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;[#11:6, 7]

the lion shall eat straw like the ox,

and dust shall be the serpent’s food.

They shall not hurt or destroy

in all my holy mountain,”