Isaiah 56

¹¹And do this, understanding the occasion. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

¹²The night is nearly over; the day has drawn near. So let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

⁹Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, that His glory may dwell in our land.

²and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

¹⁶Wash and cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil!

¹⁷Learn to do right; seek justice and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless and plead the case of the widow.”

¹⁷For the gospel reveals the righteousness of God that comes by faith from start to finish, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

⁴He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear deceitfully.

⁵He will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from the God of his salvation.

¹³“Tell the Israelites, ‘Surely you must keep My Sabbaths, for this will be a sign between Me and you for the generations to come, so that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

¹⁴Keep the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Anyone who profanes it must surely be put to death. Whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from among his people.

¹³If you turn your foot from breaking the Sabbath, from doing as you please on My holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight, and the Lord’s holy day honorable, if you honor it by not going your own way or seeking your own pleasure or speaking idle words,

¹Hallelujah! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments.

¹²I also gave them My Sabbaths as a sign between us, so that they would know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them.

²⁸But He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

²¹This is what the Lord says: Take heed for yourselves; do not carry a load or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day.

²²You must not carry a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath day, but you must keep the Sabbath day holy, just as I commanded your forefathers.

¹⁷But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit.

¹²For there are eunuchs who were born that way; others were made that way by men; and still others live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”

¹³Then little children were brought to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them and pray for them. And the disciples rebuked those who brought them.

³⁴Then Peter began to speak: “I now truly understand that God does not show favoritism,

⁵They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and join themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.

⁴They are to join you and attend to the duties of the Tent of Meeting, doing all the work at the Tent; but no outsider may come near you.

⁶So Jesus went with them. But when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends with the message: “Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy to have You come under my roof.

⁷That is why I did not consider myself worthy to come to You. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.

¹⁵But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the Lord, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”

¹¹¹Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart.

⁴²But only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, and it will not be taken away from her.”

⁵Or let them lay claim to My protection; let them make peace with Me—yes, let them make peace with Me.”

⁶And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord to minister to Him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be His servants—all who keep the Sabbath without profaning it and who hold fast to My covenant—

⁵Is not my house right with God? For He has established with me an everlasting covenant, ordered and secured in every part. Will He not bring about my full salvation and my every desire?

¹²The one who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will never again leave it. Upon him I will write the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God (the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from My God), and My new name.

⁵Like them, he who overcomes will be dressed in white. And I will never blot out his name from the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father and His angels.

¹Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.

¹²But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—

¹⁵in case I am delayed, so that you will know how each one must conduct himself in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.

¹³Instead of the thornbush, the cypress will grow, and instead of the brier, the myrtle will spring up; this will make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign, never to be destroyed.”

⁵They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and join themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.

¹³If you turn your foot from breaking the Sabbath, from doing as you please on My holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight, and the Lord’s holy day honorable, if you honor it by not going your own way or seeking your own pleasure or speaking idle words,

²Blessed 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.”

³Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will utterly exclude me from His people.” And let the eunuch not say, “I am but a dry tree.”

⁶For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. What matters is faith expressing itself through love.

⁵Listen, my beloved brothers: Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him?

⁵One will say, ‘I belong to the Lord,’ another will call himself by the name of Jacob, and still another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and will take the name of Israel.”

¹⁷Then Jesus began to teach them, and He declared, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

²In the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.

³And many peoples will come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways so that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

¹¹For My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place, incense and pure offerings will be presented in My name, because My name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord of Hosts.

⁴⁶He declared to them, “It is written: ‘My house will be a house of prayer.’ But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

¹³And He declared to them, “It is written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer.’ But you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”

¹In the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and the peoples will stream to it.

²And many nations will come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

¹⁶I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them in as well, and they will listen to My voice. Then there will be one flock and one shepherd.

⁷“For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will bring you back.

³Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

⁴Lift up your eyes and look around: They all gather and come to you; your sons will come from afar, and your daughters will be carried on the arm.

⁸I will whistle for them to gather, for I have redeemed them; and they will be as numerous as they once were.

⁹Though I sow them among the nations, they will remember Me in distant lands; they and their children will live and return.

¹⁴For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has torn down the dividing wall of hostility

¹⁵by abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments and decrees. He did this to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace

¹⁰The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes and the allegiance of the nations is his.

⁹Is not My inheritance to Me like a speckled bird of prey with other birds of prey circling against her? Go, gather all the beasts of the field; bring them to devour her.

²⁶Your corpses will be food for all the birds of the air and beasts of the earth, with no one to scare them away.

⁶They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey, and to the beasts of the land. The birds will feed on them in summer, and all the wild animals in winter.

¹⁷And as for you, son of man, this is what the Lord God says: Call out to every kind of bird and to every beast of the field: ‘Assemble and come together from all around to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great feast on the mountains of Israel. There you will eat flesh and drink blood.

⁵I will leave you in the desert, you and all the fish of your streams. You will fall on the open field and will not be taken away or gathered for burial. I have given you as food to the beasts of the earth and the birds of the air.

¹⁷Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out in a loud voice to all the birds flying overhead, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God,

¹⁸so that you may eat the flesh of kings and commanders and mighty men, of horses and riders, of everyone slave and free, small and great.”

¹⁰For the Lord has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has shut your eyes, O prophets; He has covered your heads, O seers.

⁶But if the watchman sees the sword coming and fails to blow the horn to warn the people, and the sword comes and takes away a life, then that one will be taken away in his iniquity, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.’

¹⁴Disregard them! They are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

²Watch out for those dogs, those workers of evil, those mutilators of the flesh!

¹“Cry aloud, do not hold back! Raise your voice like a ram’s horn. Declare to My people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins.

⁷The days of punishment have come; the days of retribution have arrived—let Israel know it. The prophet is called a fool, and the inspired man insane, because of the greatness of your iniquity and hostility.

⁸The prophet is Ephraim’s watchman, along with my God, yet the snare of the fowler lies on all his paths. Hostility is in the house of his God!

²“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and tell them that this is what the Lord God says: ‘Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who only feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed their flock?

³You eat the fat, wear the wool, and butcher the fattened sheep, but you do not feed the flock.

¹⁹You have profaned Me among My people for handfuls of barley and scraps of bread. By lying to My people who would listen, you have killed those who should not have died and spared those who should not have lived.

⁴³Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you are unable to accept My message.

¹¹Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean upon the Lord, saying, “Is not the Lord among us? No disaster can come upon us.”

⁵This is what the Lord says: “As for the prophets who lead My people astray, who proclaim peace while they chew with their teeth, but declare war against one who puts nothing in their mouths:

⁶Therefore night will come over you without visions, and darkness without divination. The sun will set on these prophets, and the daylight will turn black over them.

¹⁵And the Lord said to me: “Take up once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd.

¹⁶For behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will neither care for the lost, nor seek the young, nor heal the broken, nor sustain the healthy, but he will devour the flesh of the choice sheep and tear off their hooves.

⁶He says to himself, “I will not be moved; from age to age I am free of distress.”

¹⁹Then I will say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take it easy. Eat, drink, and be merry!”’

²⁰But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’

¹Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

²²Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine and champions in mixing strong drink,

³⁵“They struck me, but I feel no pain! They beat me, but I did not know it! When can I wake up to search for another drink?”

⁴⁵But suppose that servant says in his heart, ‘My master will be a long time in coming,’ and he begins to beat the menservants and maidservants, and to eat and drink and get drunk.

⁴⁶The master of that servant will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not anticipate. Then he will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.