Isaiah 58

¹⁵Speak these things as you encourage and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.

¹Put the ram’s horn to your lips! An eagle looms over the house of the Lord, because the people have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law.

²⁶Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.

²⁷For I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole will of God.

¹⁷“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from My mouth, give them a warning from Me.

¹⁸If I say to the wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ but you do not warn him or speak out to warn him from his wicked way to save his life, that wicked man will die in his iniquity, and I will hold you responsible for his blood.

⁵¹You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did.

⁵²Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—

⁷But when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his place of baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

⁸Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance.

¹⁶They profess to know God, but by their actions they deny Him. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good deed.

¹³Therefore the Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men.

⁷You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you:

⁸‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.

¹⁶Some are like the seeds sown on rocky ground. They hear the word and at once receive it with joy.

¹⁷But they themselves have no root, and they remain for only a season. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.

¹Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander.

²Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,

²¹Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and every expression of evil, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save your souls.

²²Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.

⁹To some who trusted in their own righteousness and viewed others with contempt, He also told this parable:

¹⁰“Two men went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

¹⁴You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His requirements and walking mournfully before the Lord of Hosts?

⁹Whoever turns his ear away from hearing the law, even his prayer is detestable.

¹¹On receiving their pay, they began to grumble against the landowner.

¹²‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’

²⁹This is to be a permanent statute for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month, you shall humble yourselves and not do any work—whether the native or the foreigner who resides among you—

⁶When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

⁷Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let no man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink.

⁹In the letters she wrote: “Proclaim a fast and give Naboth a seat of honor among the people.

¹⁰But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them testify, ‘You have cursed both God and the king!’ Then take him out and stone him to death.”

¹⁶When you fast, do not be somber like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.

¹⁷But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,

²⁷The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable—how much more so when brought with ill intent!

²But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.

⁴⁷They defraud widows of their houses, and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will receive greater condemnation.”

⁷Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let no man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink.

³So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petition, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

⁴And I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed, “O, Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of loving devotion to those who love Him and keep His commandments,

⁵“Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted?

⁸This is what the Lord says: “In the time of favor I will answer You, and in the day of salvation I will help You; I will keep You and appoint You to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land, to apportion its desolate inheritances,

¹⁶“Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day, and I and my maidens will fast as you do. After that, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish!”

²to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of our God’s vengeance, to comfort all who mourn,

²Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

¹⁰I, as well as my brothers and my servants, have been lending the people money and grain. Please, let us stop this usury.

¹¹Please restore to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves, and houses, along with the percentage of the money, grain, new wine, and oil that you have been assessing them.”

⁹Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry out, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and malicious talk,

¹All who are under the yoke of slavery should regard their masters as fully worthy of honor, so that God’s name and our teaching will not be discredited.

⁸After King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty, the word came to Jeremiah from the Lord

⁹that each man should free his Hebrew slaves, both male and female, and no one should hold his fellow Jew in bondage.

²You hate good and love evil. You tear the skin from my people and strip the flesh from their bones.

³You eat the flesh of my people after stripping off their skin and breaking their bones. You chop them up like flesh for the cooking pot, like meat in a cauldron.”

³⁵For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in,

³⁶I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me.’

⁷He does not oppress another, but restores the pledge to the debtor. He does not commit robbery, but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with clothing.

¹¹John replied, “Whoever has two tunics should share with him who has none, and whoever has food should do the same.”

¹⁷If anyone with earthly possessions sees his brother in need, but withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God abide in him?

¹⁸Little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth.

²⁷Whoever gives to the poor will not be in need, but he who hides his eyes will receive many curses.

²¹If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.

¹²For you will not leave in a hurry nor flee in haste, for the Lord goes before you, and the God of Israel is your rear guard.

⁶Nevertheless, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal its people and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth.

⁶He will bring forth your righteousness like the dawn, your justice like the noonday sun.

¹⁷But I will restore your health and heal your wounds, declares the Lord, because they call you an outcast, Zion, for whom no one cares.”

²“But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall.

¹³Righteousness will go before Him to prepare the way for His steps.

¹²Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

¹³You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

¹⁵Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”

²⁴Even before they call, I will answer, and while they are still speaking, I will hear.

¹⁵When he calls out to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him.

⁷Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.

⁸For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

¹⁵When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.

²⁴One gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds what is right, only to become poor.

²⁵A generous soul will prosper, and he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.

¹⁶I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; I will guide them on unfamiliar paths. I will turn darkness into light before them and rough places into level ground. These things I will do for them, and I will not forsake them.

⁶He will bring forth your righteousness like the dawn, your justice like the noonday sun.

⁷Isn’t it to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your home, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

⁸Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will come quickly. Your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

¹⁷Your life will be brighter than noonday; its darkness will be like the morning.

⁷If there is a poor man among your brothers within any of the gates in the land that the Lord your God is giving you, then you are not to harden your heart or shut your hand from your poor brother.

⁸Instead, you are to open your hand to him and freely loan him whatever he needs.

¹⁴But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.”

¹²They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will be radiant over the bounty of the Lord—the grain, new wine, and oil, and the young of the flocks and herds. Their life will be like a well-watered garden, and never again will they languish.

⁸I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will give you counsel and watch over you.

¹⁰They will not hunger or thirst, nor will scorching heat or sun beat down on them. For He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water.

¹³However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come.

⁹He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His way.

⁴They will rebuild the ancient ruins; they will restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations.

¹⁴I will restore My people Israel from captivity; they will rebuild and inhabit the ruined cities. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.

³³This is what the Lord God says: On the day I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be resettled and the ruins to be rebuilt.

¹¹“In that day I will restore the fallen tent of David. I will repair its gaps, restore its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old,

¹⁷Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned down. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we will no longer be a disgrace.”

³For the Lord will comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and melodious song.

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.

¹A Psalm. A song for the Sabbath day. It is good to praise the Lord, and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High,

²to proclaim Your loving devotion in the morning and Your faithfulness at night

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.”

¹⁵In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, along with wine, grapes, and figs. All kinds of goods were being brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I warned them against selling food on that day.

¹⁶Additionally, men of Tyre who lived there were importing fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah in Jerusalem.

¹⁰On the Lord’s day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,

⁸Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

⁹Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

¹³He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him the produce of the field. He nourished him with honey from the rock and oil from the flinty crag,

²⁶Surely then you will delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.

¹⁹If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best of the land.

²⁰But if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

¹⁶he will dwell on the heights; the mountain fortress will be his refuge; his food will be provided and his water assured.

¹⁸yet I will exult in the Lord; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!

¹⁹God the Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer; He makes me walk upon the heights! For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments.

²⁹Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord? He is the shield that protects you, the sword in which you boast. Your enemies will cower before you, and you shall trample their high places.”