Isaiah 61

¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed,

¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

²²So He replied, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.

⁷to open the eyes of the blind, to bring prisoners out of the dungeon and those sitting in darkness out from the prison house.

⁵The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.

³He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

¹“Here is My Servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen One, in whom My soul delights. I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will bring justice to the nations.

⁴Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

⁸For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

¹⁸I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will guide him and restore comfort to him and his mourners,

¹⁶Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who by grace has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope,

¹⁷encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good word and deed.

²⁰Truly, truly, I tell you, you will weep and wail while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.

²¹A woman has pain in childbirth because her time has come; but when she brings forth her child, she forgets her anguish because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.

¹¹You turned my mourning into dancing; You peeled off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,

⁷But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.

⁸He is like a tree planted by the waters that sends out its roots toward the stream. It does not fear when the heat comes, and its leaves are always green. It does not worry in a year of drought, nor does it cease to produce fruit.

²⁰Truly, truly, I tell you, you will weep and wail while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.

¹⁰I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom wears a priestly headdress, as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

⁷You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you above your companions with the oil of joy.

⁸Let your garments always be white, and never spare the oil for your head.

¹²Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will restore the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of the Streets of Dwelling.

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.

¹⁵I will firmly plant them in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land that I have given them,” says the Lord your God.

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.

³⁴The desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass through.

²³I will show the holiness of My great name, which has been profaned among the nations—the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when I show My holiness in you before their eyes.

²⁴For I will take you from among the nations and gather you out of all the countries, and I will bring you back into your own land.

⁶He says: “It is not enough for You to be My Servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the protected ones of Israel. I will also make You a light for the nations, to bring My salvation to the ends of the earth.”

⁷Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel, to Him who was despised and abhorred by the nation, to the Servant of rulers: “Kings will see You and rise, and princes will bow down, because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen You.”

¹⁰Foreigners will rebuild your walls, and their kings will serve you. Although I struck you in anger, yet in favor I will show you mercy.

¹¹Your gates will always stand open; they will never be shut, day or night, so that the wealth of the nations may be brought into you, with their kings being led in procession.

¹For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob; once again He will choose Israel and settle them in their own land. The foreigner will join them and unite with the house of Jacob.

²The nations will escort Israel and bring it to its homeland. Then the house of Israel will possess the nations as menservants and maidservants in the Lord’s land. They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors.

¹²remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

⁶And unto Me you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to speak to the Israelites.”

⁹But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

⁵you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

⁵Then you will look and be radiant, and your heart will tremble and swell with joy, because the riches of the sea will be brought to you, and the wealth of the nations will come to you.

⁶Caravans of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah, and all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and frankincense and proclaiming the praises of the Lord.

¹⁰You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign upon the earth.”

²¹“And I will select some of them as priests and Levites,” says the Lord.

¹⁰After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his prosperity and doubled his former possessions.

¹²Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; even today I declare that I will restore to you double.

²“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her forced labor has been completed; her iniquity has been pardoned. For she has received from the hand of the Lord double for all her sins.”

¹⁹No longer will the sun be your light by day, nor the brightness of the moon shine on your night; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your splendor.

²⁰Your sun will no longer set, and your moon will not wane; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and the days of your sorrow will cease.

¹¹You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.

⁹After they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken away from you?” “Please, let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.

⁷For the Lord is righteous; He loves justice. The upright will see His face.

²⁴But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, who exercises loving devotion, justice and righteousness on the earth—for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.

¹⁶These are the things you must do: Speak truth to one another, render true and sound judgments in your gates,

¹⁷do not plot evil in your hearts against your neighbor, and do not love to swear falsely, for I hate all these things,” declares the Lord.

⁴⁰I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never turn away from doing good to them, and I will put My fear in their hearts, so that they will never turn away from Me.

⁷I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

³Incline your ear and come to Me; listen, so that your soul may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant—My loving devotion promised to David.

³For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and currents on the dry ground. I will pour out My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring.

¹⁴May the Lord give you increase, both you and your children.

²⁶When God raised up His Servant, He sent Him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”

¹⁸And through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

³For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my own flesh and blood,

⁴the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory and the covenants; theirs the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.

¹³As you have been a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you, and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid; let your hands be strong.”

⁷Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him the glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready.

⁸She was given clothing of fine linen, bright and pure.” For the fine linen she wears is the righteous acts of the saints.

¹⁶I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints will sing out in joy.

⁹May Your priests be clothed with righteousness, and Your saints shout for joy.

⁹and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.

²I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

¹⁸Lift up your eyes and look around. They all gather together; they come to you. As surely as I live,” declares the Lord, “you will wear them all as jewelry and put them on like a bride.

¹¹The Lord will always guide you; He will satisfy you in a sun-scorched land and strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

⁹But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

²⁶Jesus also said, “The kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed on the ground.

²⁷Night and day he sleeps and wakes, and the seed sprouts and grows, though he knows not how.

¹⁰For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return without watering the earth, making it bud and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat,

¹¹so My word that proceeds from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and it will prosper where I send it.

¹¹Faithfulness sprouts from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.

⁸Drip down, O heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open up that salvation may sprout and righteousness spring up with it; I, the Lord, have created it.