August 14

Isaiah 60:1 — 63:19

60 “Arise, O woman, shed forth light, for your light has come and upon you the very glory of Jehovah has shone forth. 2 For, look! darkness itself will cover the earth, and thick gloom the national groups; but upon you Jehovah will shine forth, and upon you his own glory will be seen. 3 And nations will certainly go to your light, and kings to the brightness of your shining forth.

4 “Raise your eyes all around and see! They have all of them been collected together; they have come to you. From far away your own sons keep coming, and your daughters who will be taken care of on the flank. 5 At that time you will see and certainly become radiant, and your heart will actually quiver and expand, because to you the wealthiness of the sea will direct itself; the very resources of the nations will come to you. 6 The heaving mass of camels itself will cover you, the young male camels of Midian and of Ephah. All those from Sheba—they will come. Gold and frankincense they will carry. And the praises of Jehovah they will announce. 7 All the flocks of Kedar—they will be collected together to you. The rams of Nebaioth—they will minister to you. With approval they will come up upon my altar, and I shall beautify my own house of beauty.

8 “Who are these that come flying just like a cloud, and like doves to their birdhouse holes? 9 For in me the islands themselves will keep hoping, the ships of Tarshish also as at the first, in order to bring your sons from far away, their silver and their gold being with them, to the name of Jehovah your God and to the Holy One of Israel, for he will have beautified you. 10 And foreigners will actually build your walls, and their own kings will minister to you; for in my indignation I shall have struck you, but in my goodwill I shall certainly have mercy upon you.

11 “And your gates will actually be kept open constantly; they will not be closed even by day or by night, in order to bring to you the resources of the nations, and their kings will be taking the lead. 12 For any nation and any kingdom that will not serve you will perish; and the nations themselves will without fail come to devastation.

13 “To you the very glory of Lebanon will come, the juniper tree, the ash tree and the cypress at the same time, in order to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I shall glorify the very place of my feet.

14 “And to you the sons of those afflicting you must go, bowing down; and all those treating you disrespectfully must bend down at the very soles of your feet, and they will have to call you the city of Jehovah, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

15 “Instead of your proving to be one left entirely and hated, with nobody passing through, I will even set you as a thing of pride to time indefinite, an exultation for generation after generation. 16 And you will actually suck the milk of nations, and the breast of kings you will suck; and you will be certain to know that I, Jehovah, am your Savior, and the Powerful One of Jacob is your Repurchaser. 17 Instead of the copper I shall bring in gold, and instead of the iron I shall bring in silver, and instead of the wood, copper, and instead of the stones, iron; and I will appoint peace as your overseers and righteousness as your task assigners.

18 “No more will violence be heard in your land, despoiling or breakdown within your boundaries. And you will certainly call your own walls Salvation and your gates Praise. 19 For you the sun will no more prove to be a light by day, and for brightness the moon itself will no more give you light. And Jehovah must become to you an indefinitely lasting light, and your God your beauty. 20 No more will your sun set, nor will your moon go on the wane; for Jehovah himself will become for you an indefinitely lasting light, and the days of your mourning will have come to completion. 21 And as for your people, all of them will be righteous; to time indefinite they will hold possession of the land, the sprout of my planting, the work of my hands, for [me] to be beautified. 22 The little one himself will become a thousand, and the small one a mighty nation. I myself, Jehovah, shall speed it up in its own time.”

61 The spirit of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah is upon me, for the reason that Jehovah has anointed me to tell good news to the meek ones. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to those taken captive and the wide opening [of the eyes] even to the prisoners; 2 to proclaim the year of goodwill on the part of Jehovah and the day of vengeance on the part of our God; to comfort all the mourning ones; 3 to assign to those mourning over Zion, to give them a headdress instead of ashes, the oil of exultation instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of the downhearted spirit; and they must be called big trees of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah, for [him] to be beautified. 4 And they must rebuild the long-standing devastated places; they will raise up even the desolated places of former times, and they will certainly make anew the devastated cities, the places desolate for generation after generation.

5 “And strangers will actually stand and shepherd the flocks of YOU people, and the foreigners will be YOUR farmers and YOUR vinedressers. 6 And as for YOU, the priests of Jehovah YOU will be called; the ministers of our God YOU will be said to be. The resources of the nations YOU people will eat, and in their glory YOU will speak elatedly about yourselves. 7 Instead of YOUR shame there will be a double portion, and instead of humiliation they will cry out joyfully over their share. Therefore in their land they will take possession of even a double portion. Rejoicing to time indefinite is what will come to be theirs. 8 For I, Jehovah, am loving justice, hating robbery along with unrighteousness. And I will give their wages in trueness, and an indefinitely lasting covenant I shall conclude toward them. 9 And their offspring will actually be known even among the nations, and their descendants in among the peoples. All those seeing them will recognize them, that they are the offspring whom Jehovah has blessed.”

10 Without fail I shall exult in Jehovah. My soul will be joyful in my God. For he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; with the sleeveless coat of righteousness he has enwrapped me, like the bridegroom who, in a priestly way, puts on a headdress, and like the bride who decks herself with her ornamental things. 11 For as the earth itself brings forth its sprout, and as the garden itself makes the things that are sown in it sprout, in like manner the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will cause the sprouting of righteousness and of praise in front of all the nations.


62 For the sake of Zion I shall not keep still, and for the sake of Jerusalem I shall not stay quiet until her righteousness goes forth just like the brightness, and her salvation like a torch that burns.

2 “And the nations will certainly see your righteousness, [O woman,] and all kings your glory. And you will actually be called by a new name, which the very mouth of Jehovah will designate. 3 And you must become a crown of beauty in the hand of Jehovah, and a kingly turban in the palm of your God. 4 No more will you be said to be a woman left entirely; and your own land will no more be said to be desolate; but you yourself will be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Owned as a Wife. For Jehovah will have taken delight in you, and your own land will be owned as a wife. 5 For just as a young man takes ownership of a virgin as his wife, your sons will take ownership of you as a wife. And with the exultation of a bridegroom over a bride, your God will exult even over you. 6 Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have commissioned watchmen. All day long and all night long, constantly, let them not keep still.

“YOU who are making mention of Jehovah, let there be no silence on YOUR part, 7 and do not give him any silence until he fixes solidly, yes, until he sets Jerusalem as a praise in the earth.”

8 Jehovah has sworn with his right hand and with his strong arm: “I will no more give your grain as food to your enemies, nor will foreigners drink your new wine, for which you have toiled. 9 But the very ones gathering it will eat it, and they will be certain to praise Jehovah; and the very ones collecting it will drink it in my holy courtyards.”
      10
 Pass out, pass out through the gates, YOU men. Clear the way of the people. Bank up, bank up the highway. Rid [it] of stones. Raise up a signal for the peoples.
      11
 Look! Jehovah himself has caused [it] to be heard to the farthest part of the earth: “Say, YOU people, to the daughter of Zion, ‘Look! Your salvation is coming. Look! The reward he gives is with him, and the wages he pays are before him.’”
      12
 And men will certainly call them the holy people, those repurchased by Jehovah; and you yourself will be called Searched For, a City Not Left Entirely.

63 Who is this one coming from Edom, the one with garments of glowing colors from Bozrah, this one who is honorable in his clothing, marching in the abundance of his power?
      “I, the One speaking in righteousness, the One abounding [in power] to save.”

      2
 Why is it that your clothing is red, and your garments are like those of one treading in the winepress?
      3
 “The wine trough I have trodden by myself, while there was no man with me from the peoples. And I kept treading them in my anger, and I kept trampling them down in my rage. And their spurting blood kept spattering upon my garments, and all my clothing I have polluted. 4 For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the very year of my repurchased ones has come. 5 And I kept looking, but there was no helper; and I began to show myself astonished, but there was no one offering support. So my arm furnished me salvation, and my rage was what supported me. 6 And I kept stamping down peoples in my anger, and I proceeded to make them drunk with my rage and to bring down to the earth their spurting blood.”

7 The loving-kindnesses of Jehovah I shall mention, the praises of Jehovah, according to all that Jehovah has rendered to us, even the abundant goodness to the house of Israel that he has rendered to them according to his mercies and according to the abundance of his loving-kindnesses. 8 And he went on to say: “Surely they are my people, sons that will not prove false.” So it was to them that he came to be a Savior. 9 During all their distress it was distressing to him. And his own personal messenger saved them. In his love and in his compassion he himself repurchased them, and he proceeded to lift them up and carry them all the days of long ago.

10 But they themselves rebelled and made his holy spirit feel hurt. He now was changed into an enemy of theirs; he himself warred against them. 11 And one began to remember the days of long ago, Moses his servant: “Where is the One that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is the One that put within him His own holy spirit? 12 The One making His beautiful arm go at the right hand of Moses; the One splitting the waters from before them in order to make an indefinitely lasting name for his own self; 13 the One making them walk through the surging waters so that, like a horse in the wilderness, they did not stumble? 14 Just as when a beast itself goes down into the valley plain, the very spirit of Jehovah proceeded to make them rest.”

Thus you led your people in order to make a beautiful name for your own self.

15 Look from heaven and see out of your lofty abode of holiness and beauty. Where are your zeal and your full might, the commotion of your inward parts, and your mercies? Toward me they have restrained themselves. 16 For you are our Father; although Abraham himself may not have known us and Israel himself may not recognize us, you, O Jehovah, are our Father. Our Repurchaser of long ago is your name. 17 Why do you, O Jehovah, keep making us wander from your ways? Why do you make our heart hard against the fear of you? Come back for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your hereditary possession. 18 For a little while your holy people had possession. Our own adversaries have stamped down your sanctuary. 19 We have for a long time become as those over whom you did not rule, as those upon whom your name had not been called.