You also went up there to offer sacrifice.
8 You have set up your memorial behind the doors and the posts,
for you have exposed yourself to someone besides me,
and have gone up.
You have enlarged your bed
and made you a covenant with them.
You loved what you saw on their bed.
9 You went to the king with oil,
increased your perfumes,
sent your ambassadors far off,
and degraded 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,
so that you lie,
and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart?
Haven’t I held my peace for a long time,
and you don’t fear me?
12 I will declare your righteousness;
and as for your works, they will not benefit you.
13 When you cry,
let those whom you have gathered deliver you,
but the wind will take them.
A breath will carry them all away,
but he who takes refuge in me will possess the land,
and will inherit my holy mountain.”
14 He will say, “Build up, build up, prepare the way!
Remove 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 the LORD; “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 mud.
21 “There is no peace”, says my God,
“for the wicked.”
58
1 “Cry aloud! Don’t spare!
Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Declare to my people their disobedience,
and to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet they seek me daily,
and delight to know my ways.
As a nation that did righteousness,
and didn’t forsake the ordinance of their God,
they ask of me righteous judgements.
They delight to draw near to God.
3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you don’t see?
Why have we afflicted our soul, and you don’t notice?’
“Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure,
and oppress all your labourers.
4 Behold, you fast for strife and contention,
and to strike with the fist of wickedness.
You don’t fast today so as to make your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the fast that I have chosen?
A day for a man to humble his soul?
Is it to bow down his head like a reed,
and to spread sackcloth and ashes under himself?
Will you call this a fast,
and an acceptable day to the LORD?
6 “Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen:
to release the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and that you break every yoke?
7 Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry,
and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house?
When you see the naked,
that you cover him;
and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then your light will break out as the morning,
and your healing will appear quickly;
then your righteousness shall go before you,
and the LORD’s glory will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer.
You will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’
“If you take away from amongst you the yoke,
finger pointing,
and speaking wickedly;
10 and if you pour out your soul to the hungry,
and satisfy the afflicted soul,
then your light will rise in darkness,
and your obscurity will be as the noonday;
11 and the LORD will guide you continually,
satisfy your soul in dry places,
and make your bones strong.
You will be like a watered garden,
and like a spring of water
whose waters don’t fail.
12 Those who will be of you will build the old waste places.
You will raise up the foundations of many generations.
You will be called Repairer of the Breach,
Restorer of Paths with Dwellings.
13 “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath,
from doing your pleasure on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight,
and the holy of the LORD honourable,
and honour it,
not doing your own ways,
nor finding your own pleasure,
nor speaking your own words,
14 then you will delight yourself in the LORD,
and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth,
and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father;”
for the LORD’s mouth has spoken it.
59
1 Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it can’t save;
nor his ear dull, that it can’t hear.
2 But your iniquities have separated you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you,
so that he will not hear.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood,
and your fingers with iniquity.
Your lips have spoken lies.
Your tongue mutters wickedness.
4 No one sues in righteousness,
and no one pleads in truth.
They trust in vanity
and speak lies.
They conceive mischief
and give birth to iniquity.
5 They hatch adders’ eggs
and weave the spider’s web.
He who eats of their eggs dies;
and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.
6 Their webs won’t become garments.
They won’t cover themselves with their works.
Their works are works of iniquity,
and acts of violence are in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil,
and they hurry to shed innocent blood.
Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity.
Desolation and destruction are in their paths.
8 They don’t know the way of peace;
and there is no justice in their ways.
They have made crooked paths for themselves;
whoever goes in them doesn’t know peace.
9 Therefore justice is far from us,
and righteousness doesn’t overtake us.
We look for light, but see darkness;
for brightness, but we walk in obscurity.
10 We grope for the wall like the blind.
Yes, we grope as those who have no eyes.
We stumble at noon as if it were twilight.
Amongst those who are strong, we are like dead men.
11 We all roar like bears
and moan sadly like doves.
We look for justice, but there is none,
for salvation, but it is far off from us.
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before you,
and our sins testify against us;
for our transgressions are with us,
and as for our iniquities, we know them:
13 transgressing and denying the LORD,
and turning away from following our God,
speaking oppression and revolt,
conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
14 Justice is turned away backward,
and righteousness stands far away;
for truth has fallen in the street,
and uprightness can’t enter.
15 Yes, truth is lacking;
and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.
The LORD saw it,
and it displeased him that there was no justice.
16 He saw that there was no man,
and wondered that there was no intercessor.
Therefore his own arm brought salvation to him;
and his righteousness sustained him.
17 He put on righteousness as a breastplate,
and a helmet of salvation on his head.
He put on garments of vengeance for clothing,
and was clad with zeal as a mantle.
18 According to their deeds,
he will repay as appropriate:
wrath to his adversaries,
recompense to his enemies.
He will repay the islands their due.
19 So they will fear the LORD’s name from the west,
and his glory from the rising of the sun;
for he will come as a rushing stream,
which the LORD’s breath drives.
20 “A Redeemer will come to Zion,
and to those who turn from disobedience in Jacob,” says the LORD.
21 “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit who is on you, and my words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your offspring, nor out of the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says the LORD, “from now on and forever.”
60
1 “Arise, shine; for your light has come,
and the LORD’s glory has risen on you!
2 For behold, darkness will cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the LORD will arise on you,
and his glory shall be seen on you.
3 Nations will come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your rising.
4 “Lift up your eyes all around, and see:
they all gather themselves together.
They come to you.
Your sons will come from far away,
and your daughters will be carried in arms.
5 Then you shall see and be radiant,
and your heart will thrill and be enlarged;
because the abundance of the sea will be turned to you.
The wealth of the nations will come to you.
6 A multitude of camels will cover you,
the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah.
All from Sheba will come.
They will bring gold and frankincense,
and will proclaim the praises of the LORD.
7 All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered together to you.
The rams of Nebaioth will serve you.
They will be accepted as offerings on my altar;
and I will beautify my glorious house.
8 “Who are these who fly as a cloud,
and as the doves to their windows?
9 Surely the islands will wait for me,
and the ships of Tarshish first,
to bring your sons from far away,
their silver and their gold with them,
for the name of the LORD your God,
and for the Holy One of Israel,
because he has glorified you.
10 “Foreigners will build up your walls,
and their kings will serve you;
for in my wrath I struck you,
but in my favour I have had mercy on you.
11 Your gates also shall be open continually; they
