Isaiah 65

²⁰And Isaiah boldly says: “I was found by those who did not seek Me; I revealed Myself to those who did not ask for Me.”

²⁴including us, whom He has called not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles?

²⁵As He says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘My People’ who are not My people, and I will call her ‘My Beloved’ who is not My beloved,”

¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

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.

¹⁰Yet the number of the Israelites will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. And it will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’

²²Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.

²¹But as for Israel he says: “All day long I have held out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”

¹⁴Wash the evil from your heart, O Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts within you?

²⁴Because you refused my call, and no one took my outstretched hand,

¹¹But My people would not listen to Me, and Israel would not obey Me.

¹²So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.

²Listen, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: “I have raised children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against Me.

¹⁰But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. So He turned and became their enemy, and He Himself fought against them.

²⁹Surely you will be ashamed of the sacred oaks in which you have delighted; you will be embarrassed by the gardens that you have chosen.

¹⁷“Those who consecrate and purify themselves to enter the groves—to follow one in the center of those who eat the flesh of swine and vermin and rats—will perish together,” declares the Lord.

²¹They have provoked My jealousy by that which is not God; they have enraged Me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation without understanding.

¹¹But stretch out Your hand and strike all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”

¹⁴But they would not listen, and they stiffened their necks like their fathers, who did not believe the Lord their God.

¹⁵They rejected His statutes and the covenant He had made with their fathers, as well as the decrees He had given them. They pursued worthless idols and became worthless themselves, going after the surrounding nations that the Lord had commanded them not to imitate.

⁸For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen because they spoke and acted against the Lord, defying His glorious presence.

¹⁷“Those who consecrate and purify themselves to enter the groves—to follow one in the center of those who eat the flesh of swine and vermin and rats—will perish together,” declares the Lord.

⁷And the pig, though it has a split hoof completely divided, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you.

⁸as well as the pig; though it has a divided hoof, it does not chew the cud. It is unclean for you. You must not eat its meat or touch its carcass.

³Whoever slaughters an ox is like one who slays a man; whoever sacrifices a lamb is like one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever presents a grain offering is like one who offers pig’s blood; whoever offers frankincense is like one who blesses an idol. Indeed, they have chosen their own ways and delighted in their abominations.

²⁸When Jesus arrived on the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, He was met by two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs. They were so violent that no one could pass that way.

¹¹casts spells, consults a medium or spiritist, or inquires of the dead.

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.

³⁹When the Pharisee who had invited Jesus saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, He would know who this is and what kind of woman is touching Him—for she is a sinner!”

⁵Everyone who is proud in heart is detestable to the Lord; be assured that he will not go unpunished.

²⁸The older son became angry and refused to go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him.

²⁹But he answered his father, ‘Look, all these years I have served you and never disobeyed a commandment of yours. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

¹⁷Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God;

¹⁸if you know His will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law;

²⁰The Lord will never be willing to forgive him. Instead, His anger and jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse written in this book will fall upon him. The Lord will blot out his name from under heaven

³Our God approaches and will not be silent! Consuming fire precedes Him, and a tempest rages around Him.

¹⁸And I will first repay them double their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and they have filled My inheritance with their abominations.”

²¹You have done these things, and I kept silent; you thought I was just like you. But now I rebuke you and accuse you to your face.

¹²Pay back into the laps of our neighbors sevenfold the reproach they hurled at You, O Lord.

¹²After all this, O Lord, will You restrain Yourself? Will You keep silent and afflict us beyond measure?

¹⁴“I have kept silent from ages past; I have remained quiet and restrained. But now I will groan like a woman in labor; I will at once gasp and pant.

²⁷Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel, and tell them that this is what the Lord God says: In this way also your fathers blasphemed Me by their unfaithfulness against Me.

²⁸When I brought them into the land that I swore to give them and they saw any high hill or leafy tree, there they offered their sacrifices, presented offerings that provoked Me, sent up their fragrant incense, and poured out their drink offerings.

⁷On a high and lofty hill you have made your bed, and there you went up to offer sacrifices.

⁵You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

²⁵This is your lot, the portion I have measured to you,” declares the Lord, “because you have forgotten Me and trusted in falsehood.

⁶Behold, it is written before Me: I will not keep silent, but I will repay; I will pay it back into their laps,

¹⁴The Lord of Hosts has revealed in my hearing: “Until your dying day, this sin of yours will never be atoned for,” says the Lord God of Hosts.

²⁷Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved.

²⁸For the Lord will carry out His sentence on the earth thoroughly and decisively.”

⁸Surely the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth. Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” declares the Lord.

⁹“For surely I will give the command, and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations as grain is sifted in a sieve; but not a pebble will reach the ground.

²⁰If the Lord had not cut short those days, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom He has chosen, He has cut them short.

⁵In the same way, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.

⁶And if it is by grace, then it is no longer by works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.

¹¹For I am with you to save you, declares the Lord. Though I will completely destroy all the nations to which I have scattered you, I will not completely destroy you. Yet I will discipline you justly, and will by no means leave you unpunished.”

¹³And though a tenth remains in the land, it will be burned again. As the terebinth and oak leave stumps when felled, so the holy seed will be a stump in the land.”

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,

¹²that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear My name,” declares the Lord, who will do this.

⁶In the days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will bud and blossom and fill the whole world with fruit.

⁵In the same way, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.

⁶And if it is by grace, then it is no longer by works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.

⁶I will strengthen the house of Judah and save the house of Joseph. I will restore them because I have compassion on them, and they will be as though I had not rejected them. For I am the Lord their God, and I will answer them.

⁷Ephraim will be like a mighty man, and their hearts will be glad as with wine. Their children will see it and be joyful; their hearts will rejoice in the Lord.

²²No longer will they build houses for others to inhabit, nor plant for others to eat. For as is the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people, and My chosen ones will fully enjoy the work of their hands.

²⁰At that time I will bring you in; yes, at that time I will gather you. For I will give you fame and praise among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your captives before your very eyes,” says the Lord.

²It will bloom profusely and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God.

⁹The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is ashamed and decayed. Sharon is like a desert; Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.

¹⁵There I will give back her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor into a gateway of hope. There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

¹“Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord: Look to the rock from which you were cut, and to the quarry from which you were hewn.

²⁴Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the cloak, the bar of gold, his sons and daughters, his oxen and donkeys and sheep, his tent, and everything else he owned, and brought them to the Valley of Achor.

²⁵“Why have you brought this trouble upon us?” said Joshua. “Today the Lord will bring trouble upon you!” And all Israel stoned him to death. Then they stoned the others and burned their bodies.

¹³I will bring them out from the peoples, gather them from the countries, and bring them into their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines, and in all the settlements of the land.

¹⁴I will feed them in good pasture, and the lofty mountains of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in a good grazing land; they will feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.

²⁸But rebels and sinners will together be shattered, and those who forsake the Lord will perish.

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.

¹⁷They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they had not known, to newly arrived gods, which your fathers did not fear.

²⁰No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons.

²¹You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot partake in the table of the Lord and the table of demons too.

¹³When you cry out, let your companies of idols deliver you! Yet the wind will carry off all of them, a breath will take them away. But he who seeks refuge in Me will inherit the land and possess My holy mountain.”

⁹As for you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve Him wholeheartedly and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands the intent of every thought. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.

¹³And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and because I have spoken to you again and again but you would not listen, and I have called to you but you would not answer,

¹⁵Again and again the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to His people through His messengers because He had compassion on them and on His dwelling place.

¹⁶But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord against His people was stirred up beyond remedy.

²Why was no one there when I arrived? Why did no one answer when I called? Is My hand too short to redeem you? Or do I lack the strength to deliver you? Behold, My rebuke dries up the sea; I turn the rivers into a desert; the fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst.

³⁴When the harvest time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit.

³⁵But the tenants seized his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.

¹¹But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing.

¹²They made their hearts like flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord of Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets. Therefore great anger came from the Lord of Hosts.

²⁵Your men will fall by the sword, and your warriors in battle.

¹⁸So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

¹⁴When you see, you will rejoice, and you will flourish like grass; then the hand of the Lord will be revealed to His servants, but His wrath will be shown to His enemies.

²⁴So he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. For I am in agony in this fire.’

²⁵But Abraham answered, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here, while you are in agony.

⁷Instead of shame, My people will have a double portion, and instead of humiliation, they will rejoice in their share; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs.

⁵You who tremble at His word, hear the word of the Lord: “Your brothers who hate you and exclude you because of My name have said, ‘Let the Lord be glorified that we may see your joy!’ But they will be put to shame.”

⁹All makers of idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Their witnesses fail to see or comprehend, so they are put to shame.

⁴All the earth bows down to You; they sing praise to You; they sing praise to Your name.” Selah

¹²But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

¹⁴They raise their voices, they shout for joy; from the west they proclaim the majesty of the Lord.

⁴²And they will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

¹Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you.

⁷For this is what the Lord says: “Sing with joy for Jacob; shout for the foremost of the nations! Make your praises heard, and say, ‘O Lord, save Your people, the remnant of Israel!’

²Nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory. You will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.

²⁶and, “It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”

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.”

²⁶and when he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. So for a full year they met together with the church and taught large numbers of people. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.

²²Because of them, all the exiles of Judah who are in Babylon will use this curse: ‘May the Lord make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire!’

²²No longer will they build houses for others to inhabit, nor plant for others to eat. For as is the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people, and My chosen ones will fully enjoy the work of their hands.

²and if you can swear, ‘As surely as the Lord lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then the nations will be blessed by Him, and in Him they will glory.”

¹⁸In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of Hosts. One of them will be called the City of the Sun.

⁵Into Your hands I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth.

¹⁷So when God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath.

¹⁸Thus by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be strongly encouraged.

¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

¹⁹I will rejoice in Jerusalem and take delight in My people. The sounds of weeping and crying will no longer be heard in her.

¹³But in keeping with God’s promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

²²“For just as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, will endure before Me,” declares the Lord, “so your descendants and your name will endure.

¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

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

¹⁸“Do not call to mind the former things; pay no attention to the things of old.

¹⁶“In those days, when you multiply and increase in the land,” declares the Lord, “they will no longer discuss the ark of the covenant of the Lord. It will never come to mind, and no one will remember it or miss it, nor will another one be made.

¹⁶I have put My words in your mouth, and covered you with the shadow of My hand, to establish the heavens, to found the earth, and to say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’”

¹A Psalm. Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done wonders; His right hand and holy arm have gained Him the victory.

²The Lord has proclaimed His salvation and revealed His righteousness to the nations.

¹⁰Be glad for Jerusalem and rejoice over her, all who love her. Rejoice greatly with her, all who mourn over her,

¹¹so that you may nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts; you may drink deeply and delight yourselves in her glorious abundance.

¹After this I heard a sound like the roar of a great multitude in heaven, shouting: “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God!

²For His judgments are true and just. He has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality. He has avenged the blood of His servants that was poured out by her hand.”

¹⁵Then the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and loud voices called out in heaven: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever.”

¹⁶And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God,

³Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You.

⁴Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for You judge the peoples justly and lead the nations of the earth. Selah

¹⁶Rejoice at all times.

⁴‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,’ and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the former things have passed away.”

¹⁷For the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd. ‘He will lead them to springs of living water,’ and ‘God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”

⁸He will swallow up death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face and remove the disgrace of His people from the whole earth. For the Lord has spoken.

⁴¹Yes, I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul.

¹⁰So the redeemed of the Lord will return and enter Zion with singing, crowned with everlasting joy. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee.

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.

²⁶You will come to the grave in full vigor, like a sheaf of grain gathered in season.

¹²Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and still lives long, yet I also know that it will go well with those who fear God, who are reverent in His presence.

¹³Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.

⁴⁰Keep His statutes and commandments, which I am giving you today, so that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may live long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.

¹²Who is the man who delights in life, who desires to see good days?

¹¹Woe to the wicked; disaster is upon them! For they will be repaid with what their hands have done.

⁵But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

⁶God “will repay each one according to his deeds.”

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.

⁸The Lord has sworn by His right hand and by His mighty arm: “Never again will I give your grain to your enemies for food, nor will foreigners drink the new wine for which you have toiled.

⁹For those who harvest grain will eat it and praise the Lord, and those who gather grapes will drink the wine in My holy courts.”

⁴Again I will build you, and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out in joyful dancing.

⁵Again you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria; the farmers will plant and enjoy the fruit.

¹⁸Then my people will dwell in a peaceful place, in safe and secure places of rest.

³⁰And this will be a sign to you, O Hezekiah: This year you will eat what grows on its own, and in the second year what springs from the same. But in the third year you will sow and reap; you will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

¹Again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord; so He delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years,

²and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds.

¹²The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

¹³Planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God.

¹⁶With long life I will satisfy him and show him My salvation.”

⁴He asked You for life, and You granted it—length of days, forever and ever.

¹⁵You will leave behind your name as a curse for My chosen ones, and the Lord God will slay you; but to His servants He will give another name.

⁹And I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and heirs from Judah; My elect will possess My mountains, and My servants will dwell there.

²⁷So Methuselah lived a total of 969 years, and then he died.

⁹Their descendants will be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed.

³⁸They will be My people, and I will be their God.

³⁹I will give them one heart and one way, so that they will always fear Me for their own good and for the good of their children after them.

³You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.

⁴The fruit of your womb will be blessed, as well as the produce of your land and the offspring of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

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

¹⁵May you be blessed by the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

³⁹This promise belongs to you and your children and to all who are far off—to all whom the Lord our God will call to Himself.”

⁴But I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent My strength in futility and vanity; yet My vindication is with the Lord, and My reward is with My God.”

¹²“Do not be afraid, Daniel,” he said, “for from the first day that you purposed to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.

¹⁴And this is the confidence that we have before Him: If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

¹⁵And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we already possess what we have asked of Him.

²⁴Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

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,

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

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

⁶The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat; the calf and young lion and fatling will be together, and a little child will lead them.

⁷The cow will graze with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

³Then He will judge between many peoples and arbitrate for strong nations far and wide. Then they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer take up the sword against nation, nor will they train anymore for war.

¹⁹and after taking some food, he regained his strength. And he spent several days with the disciples in Damascus.

²⁰Saul promptly began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, declaring, “He is the Son of God.”

¹Then I looked and saw the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him 144,000 who had His name and His Father’s name written on their foreheads.

⁷Then a war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.

⁸But the dragon was not strong enough, and no longer was any place found in heaven for him and his angels.

¹¹But you who forsake the Lord, who forget My holy mountain, who set a table for Fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny,