For they made offerings upon the mountains
And affronted Me upon the hills.
I will count out their recompense in full,e
Into their bosoms.
8Thus said the LORD:
As, when new wine is present in the cluster,
One says, “Don’t destroy it; there’s good in it,”
So will I do for the sake of My servants,
And not destroy everything.
9I will bring forth offspring from Jacob,
From Judah heirs to My mountains;
My chosen ones shall take possession,
My servants shall dwell thereon.
10Sharonf shall become a pasture for flocks,
And the Valley of Achor a place for cattle to lie down,
For My people who seek Me.
11But as for you who forsake the LORD,
Who ignore My holy mountain,
Who set a table for Luckg
And fill a mixing bowl for Destiny:g
12I will destine you for the sword,
You will all kneel down, to be slaughtered—
Because, when I called, you did not answer,
When I spoke, you would not listen.
You did what I hold evil,
And chose what I do not want.
13Assuredly, thus said the Lord GOD:
My servants shall eat, and you shall hunger;
My servants shall drink, and you shall thirst;
My servants shall rejoice, and you shall be shamed;
14My servants shall shout in gladness,
And you shall cry out in anguish,
Howling in heartbreak.
15You shall leave behind a name
By which My chosen ones shall curse:
“So may the Lord GOD slay you!”
But His servants shall be given a h-different name.-h
16For whoever blesses himself in the land
Shall bless himself by the true God;
And whoever swears in the land
Shall swear by the true God.
The former troubles shall be forgotten,
Shall be hidden from My eyes.
17For behold! I am creating
A new heaven and a new earth;
The former things shall not be remembered,
They shall never come to mind.
18Be glad, then, and rejoice forever
In what I am creating.
For I shall create Jerusalem as a joy,
And her people as a delight;
19And I will rejoice in Jerusalem
And delight in her people.
Never again shall be heard there
The sounds of weeping and wailing.
20No more shall there be an infant or graybeard
Who does not live out his days.
He who dies at a hundred years
Shall be reckoned a youth,
And he who fails to reach a hundred
Shall be reckoned accursed.
21They shall build houses and dwell in them,
They shall plant vineyards and enjoy their fruit.
22They shall not build for others to dwell in,
Or plant for others to enjoy.
For the days of My people shall be
As long as the days of a tree,
My chosen ones shall outlivei
The work of their hands.
23They shall not toil to no purpose;
They shall not bear children j-for terror,-j
But they shall be a people blessed by the LORD,
And their offspring shall remain with them.
24Before they pray, I will answer;
While they are still speaking, I will respond.
25The wolf and the lamb shall graze together,
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox,
And the serpent’s food shall be earth.
In all My sacred mountk
Nothing evil or vile shall be done
—said the LORD.
66 Thus said the LORD:
The heaven is My throne
And the earth is My footstool:
Where could you build a house for Me,
What place could serve as My abode?
2All this was made by My hand,
And thus it all came into being
—declares the LORD.
Yet to such a one I look:
To the poor and brokenhearted,
Who is concerned about My word.
3aAs for those who slaughter oxen and slay humans,
Who sacrifice sheep and immolateb dogs,
Who present as oblation the blood of swine,
Who offerc incense and worship false gods—
Just as they have chosen their ways
And take pleasure in their abominations,
4So will I choose to mock them,
To bring on them the very thing they dread.
For I called and none responded,
I spoke and none paid heed.
They did what I deem evil
And chose what I do not want.
5Hear the word of the LORD,
You who are concerned about His word!
Your kinsmen who hate you,
Who spurn you because of Me,d are saying,
“Let the LORD manifest His Presence,
So that we may look upon your joy.”
But theirs shall be the shame.
6Hark, tumult from the city,
Thunder from the Temple!
It is the thunder of the LORD
As He deals retribution to His foes.
7Before she labored, she was delivered;
Before her pangs came, she bore a son.
8Who ever heard the like?
Who ever witnessed such events?
Can a land pass through travail
In a single day?
Or is a nation born
All at once?
Yet Zion travailed
And at once bore her children!
9Shall I who bring on labor not bring about birth?
—says the LORD.
Shall I who cause birth shut the womb?
—said your God.
10Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her,
All you who love her!
Join in her jubilation,
All you who mourned over her—
11That you may suck from her breast
Consolation to the full,
That you may draw from her bosome
Glory to your delight.
12For thus said the LORD:
I will extend to her
Prosperity like a stream,
The wealth of nations
Like a wadi in flood;
And you shall drink of it.
You shall be carried on shoulders
And dandled upon knees.
13As a mother comforts her son
So I will comfort you;
You shall find comfort in Jerusalem.
14You shall see and your heart shall rejoice,
Your limbs shall flourish like grass.
The power of the LORD shall be revealed
In behalf of His servants;
But He shall rage against His foes.
15See, the LORD is coming with fire—
His chariots are like a whirlwind—
To vent His anger in fury,
His rebuke in flaming fire.
16For with fire will the LORD contend,
With His sword, against all flesh;
And many shall be the slain of the LORD.
17Those who sanctify and purify themselves to enter the groves, f-imitating one in the center,-f eating the flesh of the swine, the reptile, and the mouse, shall one and all come to an end—declares the LORD. 18gFor I [know] their deeds and purposes.
[The time] has come to gather all the nations and tongues; they shall come and behold My glory. 19I will set a sign among them, and send from them survivors to the nations: to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud—that draw the bow—to Tubal, Javan, and the distant coasts, that have never heard My fame nor beheld My glory. They shall declare My glory among these nations. 20And out of all the nations, said the LORD, they shall bring all your brothers on horses, in chariots and drays, on mules and dromedaries, to Jerusalem My holy mountain as an offering to the LORD—just as the Israelites bring an offering in a pure vessel to the House of the LORD. 21And from them likewise I will take some to be h-levitical priests,-h said the LORD.
22For as the new heaven and the new earth
Which I will make
Shall endure by My will
—declares the LORD—
So shall your seed and your name endure.
23And new moon after new moon,
And sabbath after sabbath,
All flesh shall come to worship Me
—said the LORD.
24They shall go out and gaze
On the corpses of the men who rebelled against Me:
Their worms shall not die,
Nor their fire be quenched;
They shall be a horror
To all flesh.
And new moon after new moon,
And sabbath after sabbath,
All flesh shall come to worship Me
—said the LORD.
a-a Emendation yields “like Sodom overthrown.”
b Lit. “Daughter.”
c-c Others “To trample My courts? /13Bring no more vain oblations.”
d-d Septuagint “Fast and assembly”; cf. Joel 1.14.
e-e Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
f-f Or “you will be fed the sword.”
g I.e., Jerusalem’s.
h-h Emendation yields “in a crucible”; cf. 48.10.
i Others “Zion shall be saved by justice, /Her repentant ones by righteousness.”
j For this meaning cf. 5.16; 10.22.
k Heb. “they.”
l-l Connecting hason with hasan, “to store” (23.18), and hosen, “treasure” (33.6).
a I.e., oracles will be obtainable.
b More exactly, the iron points with which wooden plows were tipped.
c Cf. Judg. 3.2.
d-d Emendation yields “For they are full of divination/and have abundance of soothsaying,/Like Philistines/And like alien folk.”
e Cf. Targum; lit. “children.”
f-f Meaning of Heb. uncertain. Emendation yields “And their idols with them”; cf. vv. 17–21.
g-g Probably a type of large ship.
h-h Exact meaning of Heb. uncertain.
a Emendation yields “clothing”; cf. v. 7; 4.1.
b Emendation yields “craftsman.”
c Heb. “I.”
d-d Emendation yields “His father’s son, saying.…”
e Meaning of Heb. uncertain. Emendation yields “wound.”
f So Targum; cf. Deut. 1.17; 16.19.
g Emendation yields “Happy is.”
h Emendation yields “boys”; cf. v. 4 (and v. 5).
i Septuagint “His people”; cf. vv. 14, 15.
j-j Lit. “throats bent back.”
k So Saadia. To bare a woman’s head in public was an intolerable humiliation; cf. Mishnah Baba Kamma 8.6.
l Many of the articles named in vv. 18–24 cannot be identified with certainty.
m-m The complete Isaiah scroll from Qumran, hereafter IQIsa, reads “For shame shall take the place of beauty”; cf. note k.
n I.e., Zion’s; cf. vv. 16, 17; Heb. “your.”
o-o Meaning of Heb. uncertain. Emendation yields “her wall”; cf. Lam. 2.8.
a For the interpretation of this verse, cf. 28.5. For “radiance,” cf. Septuagint and the Syriac semha, and for “splendor,” cf. the meaning of peri in 10.12.
b-b Emendation yields “my Lord”; cf. the parallelism (in reverse order) in 3.17.
c-c Emendation yields “Daughter Zion,” i.e., Zion personified; cf. 1.8 and note.
d Emendation yields “spread”; cf. Ps. 105.39.
e-e Emendation yields “His whole shrine.”
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b This sentence contains two word-plays: “And He hoped for mishpat, And there is mispah [exact meaning uncertain];/For sedaqah, But there is se’aqah [lit. ‘outcry’].”
c I.e., of wine. The bath was the liquid equivalent of the ephah; and the homer was ten baths or ephahs (Ezek 45.11).
d-d Emendation yields “whose interests are” (mish’ehem, from sha’ah “to turn to,” 17.7, 8; 31.1).
e Meaning of verse uncertain. Emendation yields “The lambs shall graze/In the pasture of the fat [rams], /And the kids shall feed/On the ranges of the stout [bucks].” The lambs and the kids are the poor and the rams and bucks are the rich oppressors (cf. Ezek. 34.17–22).
f By way of retort to v. 12.
g-g Emendation yields “is burned by flame”; cf. 33.11–12; 47.14.
h An allusion to the destructive earthquake in the reign of King Uzziah: Amos 1.1; Zech. 14.5; cf. Isa. 9.18a
i Heb. “nations.”
j I.e., the LORD will intervene and come to his
