Isaiah 55 - 58

Seek Yahweh While He May Be Found

“Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters;

And you who have no money come, buy and eat.

Come, buy wine and milk

Without money and without cost.

Why do you spend money for what is not bread,

And your wages for what does not satisfy?

Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,

And delight your soul in richness.

Incline your ear and come to Me.

Listen, that your soul may live;

And I will cut an everlasting covenant with you,

According to the faithful lovingkindnesses of David.

Behold, I have given him as a witness to the peoples,

A ruler and commander for the peoples.

Behold, you will call a nation you do not know,

And a nation which knows you not will run to you,

Because of Yahweh your God, even the Holy One of Israel;

For He has adorned you with beautiful glory.”

Seek Yahweh while He may be found;

Call upon Him while He is near.

Let the wicked forsake his way

And the unrighteous man his thoughts;

And let him return to Yahweh,

And He will have compassion on him,

And to our God,

For He will abundantly pardon.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,” declares Yahweh.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

So are My ways higher than your ways

And My thoughts than your thoughts.

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,

And do not return there without watering the earth

And making it bear and sprout,

And giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;

It will not return to Me empty,

Without accomplishing what pleases Me,

And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

For you will go out with gladness

And be led forth with peace;

The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you,

And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up,

And instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up,

And it will be to Yahweh for His renown,

For an everlasting sign which will not be cut off.”

Salvation for the Foreigner

Thus says Yahweh,

“Keep justice and do righteousness,

For My salvation is about to come

And My righteousness to be revealed.

How blessed is the man who does this,

And the son of man who takes hold of it,

Who keeps from profaning the sabbath,

And keeps his hand from doing any evil.”

Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to Yahweh say,

“Yahweh will surely separate me from His people.”

Nor let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”

For thus says Yahweh,

“To the eunuchs who keep My sabbaths,

And choose what pleases Me,

And hold fast My covenant,

To them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial,

And a name better than that of sons and daughters;

I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off.

“Also the foreigners who join themselves to Yahweh,

To minister to Him, and to love the name of Yahweh,

To be His slaves, every one who keeps from profaning the sabbath

And takes hold of My covenant,

Even those I will bring to My holy mountain

And make them glad in My house of prayer.

Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar;

For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”

Lord Yahweh, who gathers the banished of Israel, declares,

“Yet others I will gather to them, to those already gathered.”

All you beasts of the field,

All you beasts in the forest,

Come to eat.

His watchmen are blind;

All of them know nothing.

All of them are mute dogs unable to bark,

Dreamers lying down, who love to slumber;

And the dogs have a strong appetite; they do not know satisfaction.

And they are shepherds who do not know understanding;

They have all turned to their own way,

Each one to his greedy gain, to the last one.

“Come,” they say, “let us take wine, and let us drink heavily of strong drink;

And tomorrow will be like today—beyond exceedingly great.”

Evil Leaders Rebuked

The righteous man perishes, and no man puts it upon his heart;

And men of lovingkindness are gathered away, while no one understands.

For the righteous man is gathered away from evil,

He enters into peace;

They rest in their beds,

Each one who walked in his upright way.

“But draw near, you sons of a soothsayer,

Seed of an adulterer and a prostitute.

Against whom do you jest?

Against whom do you open wide your mouth

And stick out your tongue?

Are you not children of transgression,

Seed of lying,

Who inflame yourselves among the oaks,

Under every green tree,

Who slaughter the children in the ravines,

Under the clefts of the cliffs?

Among the smooth stones of the ravine

Is your portion, they are your lot;

Even to them you have poured out a drink offering;

You have made a grain offering.

Shall I relent concerning these things?

Upon a mountain lofty and lifted up

You have made your bed.

You also went up there to offer sacrifice.

Behind the door and the doorpost

You have set up your memorial;

Indeed, far removed from Me, you have uncovered yourself,

And have gone up and made your bed wide,

And you have cut a covenant for yourself with them;

You have loved their bed;

You have looked on their manhood.

You have journeyed to the king with oil

And increased your perfumes;

You have sent your envoys a great distance

And made them go down to Sheol.

You were tired out by the length of your road,

Yet you did not say, ‘It is hopeless.’

You found renewed strength;

Therefore you did not faint.

“Of whom were you anxious and fearful

When you lied and did not remember Me,

Nor even put Me upon your heart?

Was I not silent even for a long time

So you do not fear Me?

I will declare your righteousness and your deeds,

But they will not profit you.

When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you.

But the wind will lift all of them up,

And a breath will take them away.

But he who takes refuge in Me will inherit the land

And will possess My holy mountain.”

Yahweh Revives the Spirit of the Lowly

And it will be said,

“Build up, build up, prepare the way,

Remove every stumbling block out of the way of My people.”

For thus says the One high and lifted up

Who dwells forever, whose name is Holy,

“I dwell on a high and holy place,

And also with the crushed and lowly of spirit

In order to revive the spirit of the lowly

And to revive the heart of the crushed.

For I will not contend forever,

Nor will I always be angry;

For the spirit would grow faint before Me,

And the breath of those whom I have made.

Because of the iniquity of his greedy gain I was angry and struck him;

I hid My face and was angry,

And he went on turning away, in the way of his heart.

I have seen his ways, but I will heal him;

I will lead him and pay him and his mourners in full with comfort,

Creating the praise of the lips.

Peace, peace to him who is far and to him who is near,”

Says Yahweh, “and I will heal him.”

But the wicked are like the tossing sea,

For it cannot be quiet,

And its waters toss up refuse and mud.

“There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”

Fasting as Yahweh Chooses

“Call out from your throat, do not hold back;

Raise your voice like a trumpet,

And declare to My people their transgression

And to the house of Jacob their sins.

Yet they seek Me day by day and find pleasure in knowing My ways,

As a nation that has done righteousness

And has not forsaken the judgment of their God.

They ask Me for righteous judgments;

They find pleasure in the nearness of God.

‘Why have we fasted and You do not see?

Why have we afflicted our souls and You do not know?’

Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire,

And oppress all your workers.

Behold, you fast for contention and quarreling and to strike with a wicked fist.

You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high.

Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to afflict himself?

Is it for bowing one’s head like a reed

And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed?

Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to Yahweh?

Is this not the fast which I choose,

To loosen the bonds of wickedness,

To release the bands of the yoke,

And to let the oppressed go free

And break every yoke?

Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry

And bring the afflicted homeless into the house;

When you see the naked, you cover him;

And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

Then your light will break out like the dawn,

And your recovery will speedily spring forth;

And your righteousness will go before you;

The glory of Yahweh will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and Yahweh will answer;

You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’

If you remove the yoke from your midst,

The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness,

And if you offer your soul to the hungry

And satisfy the soul of the afflicted,

Then your light will rise in darkness

And your thick darkness will become like midday.

And Yahweh will continually guide you,

And satisfy your soul in scorched places,

And fortify your bones;

And you will be like a watered garden,

And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.

Those from among you will rebuild the ancient waste places;

You will raise up the foundations of past generation upon generation;

And you will be called the repairer of the breach,

The restorer of the paths for one to inhabit.

Keeping the Sabbath

“If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot

From doing your own desire on My holy day,

And call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of Yahweh honorable,

And honor it, by not doing your own ways,

By not finding your own desire

And speaking your own word,

Then you will take delight in Yahweh,

And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;

And I will feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father,

For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.”