Isaiah 64

If only you would tear the heavens open
and come down,
so that mountains would quake at your presence —
2 just as fire kindles brushwood,
and fire boils water —
to make your name known to your enemies,
so that nations would tremble at your presence!
3 When you did awesome works
that we did not expect,
you came down,
and the mountains quaked at your presence.
4 From ancient times no one has heard,
no one has listened to,
no eye has seen any God except you
who acts on behalf of the one who waits for him.
5 You welcome the one who joyfully does what is right;
they remember you in your ways.
But we have sinned, and you were angry.
How can we be saved if we remain in our sins?
6 All of us have become like something unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment;
all of us wither like a leaf,
and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.
7 No one calls on your name,
striving to take hold of you.
For you have hidden your face from us
and made us melt because of our iniquity.
8 Yet Lord, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we all are the work of your hands.
9 Lord, do not be terribly angry
or remember our iniquity forever.
Please look ​— ​all of us are your people!
10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness;
Zion has become a wilderness,
Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our holy and beautiful temple,
where our ancestors praised you,
has been burned down,
and all that was dear to us lies in ruins.
12 Lord, after all this, will you restrain yourself?
Will you keep silent and afflict us severely?

Isaiah 65

THE LORD’S RESPONSE
“Iwas sought by those who did not ask;
I was found by those who did not seek me.
I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’
to a nation that did not call on my name.
2 I spread out my hands all day long
to a rebellious people
who walk in the path that is not good,
following their own thoughts.
3 These people continually anger me
to my face,
sacrificing in gardens,
burning incense on bricks,
4 sitting among the graves,
spending nights in secret places,
eating the meat of pigs,
and putting polluted broth in their bowls.
5 They say, ‘Keep to yourself,
don’t come near me, for I am too holy for you! ’
These practices are smoke in my nostrils,
a fire that burns all day long.
6 Look, it is written in front of me:
I will not keep silent, but I will repay;
I will repay them fully
7 for your iniquities and the iniquities
of your ancestors together,”
says the Lord.
“Because they burned incense on the mountains
and reproached me on the hills,
I will reward them fully
for their former deeds.”
8 The Lord says this:

“As the new wine is found in a bunch of grapes,
and one says, ‘Don’t destroy it,
for there’s some good in it,’
so I will act because of my servants
and not destroy them all.
9 I will produce descendants from Jacob,
and heirs to my mountains from Judah;
my chosen ones will possess it,
and my servants will dwell there.
10 Sharon will be 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 abandon the Lord,
who forget my holy mountain,
who prepare a table for Fortune
and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny,
12 I will destine you for the sword,
and all of you will kneel down to be slaughtered,
because I called and you did not answer,
I spoke and you did not hear;
you did what was evil in my sight
and chose what I did not delight in.”
13 Therefore, this is what the Lord God says:

“Look! My servants will eat,
but you will be hungry.
Look! My servants will drink,
but you will be thirsty.
Look! My servants will rejoice,
but you will be put to shame.
14 Look! My servants will shout for joy from a glad heart,
but you will cry out from an anguished heart,
and you will lament out of a broken spirit.
15 You will leave your name behind
as a curse for my chosen ones,
and the Lord God will kill you;
but he will give his servants another name.
16 Whoever asks for a blessing in the land
will ask for a blessing by the God of truth,
and whoever swears in the land
will swear by the God of truth.
For the former troubles will be forgotten
and hidden from my sight.

A NEW CREATION
17 “For I will create new heavens and a new earth;
the past events will not be remembered or come to mind.
18 Then be glad and rejoice forever
in what I am creating;
for I will create Jerusalem to be a joy
and its people to be a delight.
19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and be glad in my people.
The sound of weeping and crying
will no longer be heard in her.
20 In her, a nursing infant will no longer live
only a few days,
or an old man not live out his days.
Indeed, the one who dies at a hundred years old
will be mourned as a young man,
and the one who misses a hundred years
will be considered cursed.
21 People will build houses and live in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 They will not build and others live in them;
they will not plant and others eat.
For my people’s lives will be
like the lifetime of a tree.
My chosen ones will fully enjoy
the work of their hands.
23 They will not labor without success
or bear children destined for disaster,
for they will be a people blessed by the Lord
along with their descendants.
24 Even before they call, I will answer;
while they are still speaking, I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
and the lion will eat straw like cattle,
but the serpent’s food will be dust!
They will not do what is evil or destroy
on my entire holy mountain,”
says the Lord.

Isaiah 66

FINAL JUDGMENT AND JOYOUS RESTORATION
This is what the Lord says:
Heaven is my throne,
and earth is my footstool.
Where could you possibly build a house for me?
And where would my resting place be?
2 My hand made all these things,
and so they all came into being.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
I will look favorably on this kind of person:
one who is humble, submissive in spirit,
and trembles at my word.
3 One person slaughters an ox, another kills a person;
one person sacrifices a lamb, another breaks a dog’s neck;
one person offers a grain offering, another offers pig’s blood;
one person offers incense, another praises an idol —
all these have chosen their ways
and delight in their abhorrent practices.
4 So I will choose their punishment,
and I will bring on them what they dread
because I called and no one answered;
I spoke and they did not listen;
they did what was evil in my sight
and chose what I did not delight in.
5 You who tremble at his word,
hear the word of the Lord:
“Your brothers who hate and exclude you
for my name’s sake have said,
‘Let the Lord be glorified
so that we can see your joy! ’
But they will be put to shame.”
6 A sound of uproar from the city!
A voice from the temple —
the voice of the Lord,
paying back his enemies what they deserve!
7 Before Zion was in labor, she gave birth;
before she was in pain, she delivered a boy.
8 Who has heard of such a thing?
Who has seen such things?
Can a land be born in one day
or a nation be delivered in an instant?
Yet as soon as Zion was in labor,
she gave birth to her sons.
9 “Will I bring a baby to the point of birth
and not deliver it? ”
says the Lord;
“or will I who deliver, close the womb? ”
says your God.
10 Be glad for Jerusalem and rejoice over her,
all who love her.
Rejoice greatly with her,
all who mourn over her —
11 so that you may nurse and be satisfied
from her comforting breast
and drink deeply and delight yourselves
from her glorious breasts.
12 For this is what the Lord says:

I will make peace flow to her like a river,
and the wealth of nations like a flood;
you will nurse and be carried on her hip
and bounced on her lap.
13 As a mother comforts her son,
so I will comfort you,
and you will be comforted in Jerusalem.
14 You will see, you will rejoice,
and you will flourish like grass;
then the Lord’s power will be revealed to his servants,
but he will show his wrath against his enemies.
15 Look, the Lord will come with fire —
his chariots are like the whirlwind —
to execute his anger with fury
and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For the Lord will execute judgment
on all humanity with his fiery sword,
and many will be slain by the Lord.
17 “Those who dedicate and purify themselves to enter the groves following their leader, eating meat from pigs, vermin, and rats, will perish together.”

This is the Lord’s declaration.

18 “Knowing their works and their thoughts, I have come to gather all nations and languages; they will come and see my glory. 19 I will establish a sign among them, and I will send survivors from them to the nations ​— ​to Tarshish, Put, Lud (who are archers), Tubal, Javan, and the coasts and islands far away ​— ​who have not heard about me or seen my glory. And they will proclaim my glory among the nations. 20 They will bring all your brothers from all the nations as a gift to the Lord on horses and chariots, in litters, and on mules and camels, to my holy mountain Jerusalem,” says the Lord, “just as the Israelites bring an offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord. 21 I will also take some of them as priests and Levites,” says the Lord.

22 “For just as the new heavens and the new earth,
which I will make,
will remain before me” —
this is the Lord’s declaration —
“so your offspring and your name will remain.
23 All humanity will come to worship me
from one New Moon to another
and from one Sabbath to another,”
says the Lord.
24 “As they leave, they will see the dead bodies of those who have rebelled against me; for their worm will never die, their fire will never go out, and they will be a horror to all humanity.

— Isaiah 64-66 (CSB)