Aug 14 - Isaiah 58-62
Isaiah
1Cry out! Cease not! Exalt your voice like a trumpet, and announce to my people their wicked acts, and to the house of Jacob their sins2For they also seek me, from day to day, and they are willing to know my ways, like a nation which has done justice and has not abandoned the judgment of their God. They petition me for judgments of justice. They are willing to draw near to God3"Why have we fasted, and you have not taken notice? Why have we humbled our souls, and you have not acknowledged it?" Behold, in the day of your fasting, your own will is found, and you petition for payment from all your debtors4Behold, you fast with strife and contention, and you strike with the fist impiously. Do not choose to fast as you have done even to this day. Then your outcry will be heard on high5Is this a fast such as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his soul for a day, to contort his head in a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? Should you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord6Is not this, instead, the kind of fast that I have chosen? Release the constraints of impiety; relieve the burdens that oppress; freely forgive those who are broken; and break apart every burden7Break your bread with the hungry, and lead the destitute and the homeless into your house. When you see someone naked, cover him, and do not despise your own flesh8Then your light will break forth like the morning, and your health will improve quickly, and your justice will go before your face, and the glory of the Lord will gather you up9Then you will call, and the Lord will heed; you will cry out, and he will say, "Here I am," if you take away the chains from your midst, and cease to point your finger and to speak what is not beneficial10When you pour out your life for the hungry, and you satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise up in darkness, and your darkness will be like the midday11And the Lord will give you rest continually, and he will fill your soul with splendor, and he will free your bones, and you will be like a watered garden and like a fountain of water whose waters will not fail12And places that have been desolate for ages will be built up by you. You will raise a foundation for generation after generation. And you will be called the repairer of hedges, who turns the roadways into quiet places13If you restrain your foot on the Sabbath, from doing your own will on my holy day, and if you call the Sabbath delightful, and the Holy of the Lord glorious, and if you glorify him, while you do not act according to your own ways, and your own will is not found, not even to speak a word14then you will find delight in the Lord, and I will take you up, above the heights of the earth, and I will nourish you with the inheritance of Jacob, your father. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken
1Behold, the hand of the Lord has not been shortened, so that it cannot save, and his ear has not been blocked, so that it cannot hear2But your iniquities have made a division between you and your God, and your sins have concealed his face from you, so that he would not hear3For your hands have been polluted by blood, and your fingers by iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue utters iniquity4There is no one who calls for justice, and there is no one who judges truly. For they trust in nothing, and they speak emptiness. They have conceived hardship, and they have given birth to iniquity5They have ruptured the eggs of asps, and they have woven the webs of spiders. Whoever will eat of their eggs will die. For what has been incubated will hatch into a king snake6Their weavings will not be for clothing, nor will they cover themselves with their handiwork. Their works are useless things, and the work of iniquity is in their hands7Their feet run to evil, and they rush to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are useless thoughts; devastation and destruction are in their ways8They have not known the way of peace, and there is no judgment in their steps. Their paths have become crooked for them. Anyone who treads in them knows no peace9Because of this, judgment is far from us, and justice will not take hold of us. We waited for light, and behold, darkness; we waited for brightness, and we walked in darkness10We groped for the wall, like one who is blind, and we felt our way, like one without eyes. We stumbled at midday, as if in darkness; and in darkness, as if in death11We will all roar like bears, and we will sigh like despondent doves. We hoped for judgment, and there is none; for salvation, and it is far from us12For our iniquities have been multiplied in your sight, and our sins have answered us. For our wickedness is with us, and we have acknowledged our iniquities13sinning and lying against the Lord. And we have turned away, not so as to go after our God, and so that we were speaking calumny and transgression. We have conceived, and spoken from the heart, words of falsehood14And judgment has been turned backwards, and justice has stood far away. For truth has fallen down in the street, and fairness was not able to enter15And the truth has gone into oblivion. And he who withdraws from evil endures plunder. And the Lord saw this, and it seemed evil in his eyes. For there is no judgment16And he saw that there was no good man. And he was astonished that there was no one to meet him. And his own arm brought salvation to him, and his own justice strengthened him17He clothed himself with justice as with a breastplate, and with a helmet of salvation upon his head. He put on the vestments of vengeance, and he was covered with zeal as with a cloak18This was for vindication, as a repayment of indignation to his adversaries, and as a sudden reversal for his enemies. He will repay the islands in their turn19And those from the west will fear the name of the Lord, and those from the rising of the sun will fear his glory, when he arrives like a violent river, which the Spirit of the Lord urges on20And the Redeemer will arrive in Zion, and to those who return from the iniquity within Jacob, says the Lord21This is my pact with them, says the Lord. My Spirit is within you, and my words, which I have put in your mouth, will not withdraw from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring, says the Lord, from this moment, and even forever
1Rise up to be illuminated, O Jerusalem! For your light has arrived, and the glory of the Lord has risen over you2For behold, darkness will cover the earth, and thick darkness will cover the peoples. Then the Lord will rise above you, and his glory will be seen in you3And the nations will walk in your light, and the kings will walk by the splendor of your rising4Lift up your eyes all around and see! All these have been gathered together; they have arrived before you. Your sons will arrive from far away, and your daughters will rise up from your side5Then you will see, and you will overflow, and your heart will be amazed and expanded. When the multitude of the sea will have been converted to you, the strength of the nations will approach you6A multitude of camels will inundate you: the dromedaries from Midian and Ephah. All those from Sheba will arrive, carrying gold and frankincense, and announcing praise to the Lord7All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered together before you; the rams of Nebaioth will minister to you. They will be offered upon my pleasing altar, and I will glorify the house of my majesty8Who are these ones, who fly like the clouds and like doves to their windows9For the islands await me, and the ships of the sea in the beginning, so that I may lead your sons from far away, their silver and their gold with them, to the name of the Lord your God and to the Holy One of Israel. For he has glorified you10And the sons of sojourners will build up your walls, and their kings will minister to you. For in my wrath, I have struck you. And in my reconciliation, I have taken pity on you11And your gates will be open continually. They will not be closed day or night, so that the strength of the nations may be brought before you, and their kings may be lead in12For the nation and the kingdom that will not serve you will perish. And the Gentiles will be devastated by solitude13The glory of Lebanon will arrive before you, the fir tree and the box tree and the pine tree together, to adorn the place of my sanctification. And I will glorify the place of my feet14And the sons of those who humiliate you will approach and will bow down before you. And all who detract you will reverence the path of your feet. And they will call you the City of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel15For though you were forsaken, and held in hatred, and there was no one who would pass near you, I will establish you as an everlasting glory, as a gladness from generation to generation16And you will drink the milk of the Gentiles, and you will be nursed at the breasts of kings, and you will know that I am the Lord, your Saviour and your Redeemer, the Strong One of Jacob17In exchange for brass, I will bring gold; and in exchange for iron, I will bring silver; and for wood, brass; and for stones, iron. And I will make your visitation into peace, and your leaders into justice18Iniquity will no longer be heard in your land, nor devastation and destruction in your borders. And salvation will occupy your walls, and praise will occupy your gates19The sun will no longer be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon illuminate you. Instead, the Lord will be an everlasting light for you, and your God will be your glory20Your sun will no longer set, and your moon will not diminish. For the Lord will be an everlasting light for you, and the days of your mourning will be completed21And your people will all be just. They will inherit the earth in perpetuity, the seedling of my planting, the work of my hand, so as to glorify me22The least will become a thousand, and a little one will become a very strong nation. I, the Lord, will accomplish this, suddenly, in its time
1The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the meek, so as to heal the contrite of heart, to preach leniency to captives and release to the confined2and so to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vindication of our God: to console all who are mourning3to take up the mourners of Zion and to give them a crown in place of ashes, an oil of joy in place of mourning, a cloak of praise in place of a spirit of grief. And there, they shall be called the strong ones of justice, the planting of the Lord, unto glorification4And they will rebuild the deserted places of past ages, and they will raise up the ruins of antiquity, and they will repair the desolate cities, which had been dissipated for generation after generation5And foreigners will stand up and will pasture your flocks. And the sons of sojourners will be your farmers and the workers of your vineyards6But you yourselves will be called the priests of the Lord. It will be said to you, "You are the ministers of our God." You will eat from the strength of the Gentiles, and you will pride yourself on their glory7Instead of your double confusion and shame, they will praise their portion. Because of this, they will possess double in their land. Everlasting joy will be for them8For I am the Lord, who loves judgment and who holds hatred for robbery within a burnt offering. And I will turn their work into truth, and I will forge a perpetual covenant with them9And they will know their offspring among the nations, and their progeny in the midst of the peoples. All who see them will recognize them: that these are the offspring whom the Lord has blessed10I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, and my soul will exult in my God. For he has clothed me with the vestments of salvation, and he has wrapped me in the clothing of justice, like a groom arrayed with a crown, and like a bride adorned with her jewels11For as the earth brings forth its seedlings and the garden produces its seeds, so will the Lord God bring forth justice and praise in the sight of all the nations
1For the sake of Zion, I will not be silent, and for the sake of Jerusalem, I will not rest, until her Just One advances in splendor, and her Savior is kindled like a lamp2And the Gentiles will see your Just One, and all the kings will see your Renown One. And you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord will choose3And you shall be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God4You will no longer be called Forsaken. And your land will no longer be called Desolate. Instead, you shall be called My Will within it, and your land shall be called Inhabited. For the Lord has been well pleased with you, and your land will be inhabited5For the young man will live with the virgin, and your children will live with you. And the groom will rejoice over the bride, and your God will rejoice over you6Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have stationed watchmen all day and all night unceasingly; they will not be silent. You who are mindful of the Lord, you should not be silent7and you should not grant silence to him, until he makes firm and establishes Jerusalem as a praise upon the earth8The Lord has sworn with his right hand and with the arm of his strength: "Certainly, I will no longer permit your grain to be the food of your enemies. And the sons of foreigners will not drink your wine, for which you have labored.9For those who gather it will eat it, and they will praise the Lord. And those who bring it together will drink it in my holy courts10Pass through, pass through the gates! Prepare a way for the people! Make the road level, remove the stones, and lift up a sign for the people11Behold, the Lord has caused it to be heard to the ends of the earth. Tell the daughter of Zion: "Behold, your Saviour approaches! Behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.12And they will call them: The holy people, the redeemed of the Lord. Then you will be called: A city sought, and not forsaken