The Invitation to Abundant Life, the Power of Righteousness, and Hope for the Humble
Isaiah 55
1 “Hey! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters! He who has no money, come, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which doesn’t satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
3 Turn your ear, and come to me. Hear, and your soul will live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander to the peoples.
5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you don’t know; and a nation that didn’t know you shall run to you, because of Yahweh your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he has glorified you.”
6 Seek Yahweh while he may be found. Call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways,” says Yahweh.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn’t return there, but waters the earth, and makes it grow and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
11 so is my word that goes out of my mouth: it will not return to me void, but it will accomplish that which I please, and it will prosper in the thing I sent it to do.
12 For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace. The mountains and the hills will break out before you into singing; and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn the cypress tree will come up; and instead of the brier the myrtle tree will come up. It will make a name for Yahweh, for an everlasting sign that will not be cut off.”
Isaiah 56
1 Yahweh says, “Maintain justice and do what is right; for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.
2 Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast; who keeps the Sabbath without profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
3 Neither let the foreigner who has joined himself to Yahweh speak, saying, “Yahweh will surely separate me from his people”; neither let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”
4 For Yahweh says, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, choose the things that please me, and hold fast my covenant:
5 I will give them in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than of sons and of daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.
6 Also the foreigners who join themselves to Yahweh, to minister to him, and to love Yahweh’s name, to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it, and holds fast my covenant,
7 I will bring these to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
8 The Lord Yahweh, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, “I will yet gather others to him, besides his own who are gathered.”
9 All you animals of the field, come to devour, all you animals in the forest.
10 His watchmen are blind. They are all without knowledge. They are all mute dogs, they can’t bark; dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.
11 Yes, the dogs are greedy. They can never have enough. They are shepherds who can’t understand. They have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter.
12 “Come,” they say, “I will get wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as today, great beyond measure!”
Isaiah 57
1 The righteous perishes, and no man lays it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.
2 He enters into peace. They rest in their beds, each one who walks in his uprightness.
3 “But draw near here, you sons of the sorceress, the offspring of the adulterer and the prostitute.
4 Against whom do you mock yourselves? Against whom do you make a wide mouth, and stick out your tongue? Aren’t you children of disobedience, offspring of falsehood,
5 you who inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every green tree; who kill the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?
6 Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion. They, they are your lot. You have even poured a drink offering to them. You have offered an offering. Shall I be appeased for these things?
7 On a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed. You also went up there to offer sacrifice.
8 Behind the doors and the posts you have set up your memorial: for you have uncovered yourself to someone other than me, and have gone up; you have enlarged your bed, and made you a covenant with them. You loved their bed where you saw it.
9 You went to the king with oil, increased your perfumes, sent your envoys far off, and debased yourself even to Sheol.
10 You were wearied with the length of your ways; yet you didn’t say, ‘It is in vain.’ You found a reviving of your strength; therefore you weren’t faint.
11 “Whom have you dreaded and feared, that you have lied, and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart? Haven’t I held my peace even for a long time, and you don’t fear me?
12 I will declare your righteousness; and as for your works, they will not profit you.
13 When you cry, let those whom you have gathered deliver you; but the wind will carry them all off. A breath will take them away. But he who takes refuge in me will possess the land, and will inherit my holy mountain.”
14 He will say, “Cast up, cast up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people.”
15 For the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, says: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
16 For I will not contend forever, neither will I always be angry; for the spirit would faint before me, and the souls whom I have made.
17 I was angry because of the iniquity of his covetousness, and struck him. I hid myself and was angry; and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart.
18 I have seen his ways, and will heal him. I will lead him also, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners.
19 I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to him who is far off and to him who is near,” says Yahweh; “and I will heal them.”
20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea; for it can’t rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt.
21 “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”
Scripture: World English Bible (WEB), public domain.
