55  ^z“Come, everyone who thirsts,

come to the waters;

and he who has no money,

come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without price.

2  Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,

and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,

and delight yourselves in rich food.

3  Incline your ear, and come to me;

hear, that your soul may live;

and ^aI will make with you an everlasting ^bcovenant,

^cmy steadfast, sure love for David.

4  Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples,

a leader and commander for the peoples.

5  Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know,

and a nation that did not know you shall run to you,

because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel,

^dfor he has glorified you.

6  “Seek the Lord ^ewhile he may be found;

call upon him while he is near;

7  let the wicked forsake his way,

and the unrighteous man his thoughts;

let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,

and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

8  For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

9  For ^fas the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

10  “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven

and do not return there but water the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout,

^ggiving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

11  so shall my ^hword be that goes out from my mouth;

it shall not return to me empty,

but ⁱit shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

12  “For you shall go out in joy

and be led forth in peace;

the mountains and the hills before you

shall break forth into singing,

and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

13  ^jInstead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;

instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;

and it shall make a name for the Lord,

an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

56  Thus says the Lord:

“Keep justice, and do righteousness,

for soon my salvation ^kwill come,

and my righteousness be revealed.

2  Blessed is the man who does this,

and the son of man who holds it fast,

who ^lkeeps the Sabbath, not ^mprofaning it,

and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”

3  Let not the foreigner who has ⁿjoined himself to the Lord say,

^o“The Lord will surely separate me from his people”;

and let not the eunuch say,

“Behold, I am a dry tree.”

4  For thus says the Lord:

“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,

who choose the things that please me

and hold fast my covenant,

5  I will give in my house and within my walls

a monument and a name

better than sons and daughters;

I will give them an everlasting name

that shall not be cut off.

6  “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,

to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,

and to be his servants,

everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,

and holds fast my covenant—

7  these I will bring to my holy mountain,

and make them joyful in my house of prayer;

their burnt offerings and their sacrifices

will be ^paccepted on my altar;

for ^qmy house shall be called a house of prayer

^rfor all peoples.”

8  The Lord God,

who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares,

“I will gather yet others to him

besides those already gathered.”

9  All you beasts of the field, ^scome to devour—

all you beasts in the forest.

10  His watchmen are blind;

they are all without knowledge;

they are all silent dogs;

they cannot bark,

dreaming, lying down,

loving to slumber.

11  The dogs have a mighty appetite;

they never have enough.

But they are ^tshepherds who have no understanding;

they have all turned to their own way,

each to his own gain, one and all.

12  “Come,” they say, “let me get wine;

let us fill ourselves with strong drink;

and tomorrow will be like this day,

great beyond measure.”

57  The righteous man perishes,

and no one ^ulays it to heart;

devout men are taken away,

while no one understands.

For the righteous man is taken away from calamity;

2  he enters into peace;

they ^vrest in their beds

who walk in their uprightness.

3  But you, draw near,

sons of the sorceress,

offspring of the adulterer and the loose woman.

4  Whom are you mocking?

Against whom do you ^wopen your mouth wide

and stick out your tongue?

Are you not children of transgression,

the offspring of deceit,

5  you who burn with lust among the ^xoaks,¹

under every green tree,

who ^yslaughter your children in the valleys,

under the clefts of the rocks?

6  Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion;

they, they, are your lot;

to them you have poured out a drink offering,

you have brought a grain offering.

Shall I relent for these things?

7  On a high and lofty mountain

you have set your bed,

and there you went up to offer sacrifice.

8  Behind the door and the doorpost

you have set up your memorial;

for, deserting me, you have uncovered your bed,

you have gone up to it,

you have made it wide;

and you have made a covenant for yourself with them,

you have loved their bed,

you have looked on nakedness.²

9  You journeyed to the king with oil

and multiplied your perfumes;

you ^zsent your envoys far off,

and sent down even to Sheol.

10  You were wearied with the length of your way,

but you did not say, “It is hopeless”;

you found new life for your strength,

and so you were not faint.³

11  Whom did you dread and fear,

so that you lied,

and did not remember me,

did not lay it to heart?

^aHave I not held my peace, even for a long time,

and you do not fear me?

12  I will declare your righteousness and your deeds,

but they will not profit you.

13  When you cry out, ^blet your collection of idols deliver you!

The wind will carry them all off,

a breath will take them away.

But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land

and shall inherit my holy mountain.

14  And it shall be said,

^c“Build up, build up, prepare the way,

remove every obstruction from my people’s way.”

15  For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,

who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:

“I dwell in the high and holy place,

and also with him who is of a ^dcontrite and lowly spirit,

to revive the spirit of the lowly,

and to revive the heart of the contrite.

16  For ^eI will not contend forever,

nor will I always be angry;

for the spirit would grow faint before me,

and the breath of life that I made.

17  Because of the iniquity of his ^funjust gain I was angry,

I struck him; I ^ghid my face and was angry,

but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart.

18  I have seen his ways, but I will ^hheal him;

I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners,

19  creating the fruit of the lips.

ⁱPeace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the Lord,

“and I will heal him.

20  But ^jthe wicked are like the tossing sea;

for it cannot be quiet,

and its waters toss up mire and dirt.

21  ^kThere is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”

58  “Cry aloud; do not hold back;

lift up your voice like a trumpet;

^ldeclare to my people their transgression,

to the house of Jacob their sins.

2  ^mYet they seek me daily

and delight to know my ways,

as if they were a nation that did righteousness

and did not forsake the judgment of their God;

they ask of me righteous judgments;

they delight to draw near to God.

3  ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not?

Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’

Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,¹

and oppress all your workers.

4  Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight

and to hit with a wicked fist.

Fasting like yours this day

will not make your voice to be heard on high.

5  Is such the fast that I choose,

a day for a person to humble himself?

Is it to bow down his head like a reed,

and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?

Will you call this a fast,

and a day acceptable to the Lord?

6  “Is not this the fast that I choose:

to loose the bonds of wickedness,

to undo the straps of the yoke,

ⁿto let the oppressed² go free,

and to break every yoke?

7  Is it not to ^oshare your bread with the hungry

and ^pbring the homeless poor into your house;

^qwhen you see the naked, to cover him,

and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

8  ^rThen shall your light break forth like the dawn,

and your healing shall spring up speedily;

your righteousness shall go before you;

^sthe glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

9  Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;

you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’

If you take away the yoke from your midst,

the ^tpointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,

10  if you pour yourself out for the hungry

and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,

then shall your light rise in the darkness

and your gloom be as the noonday.

11  And the Lord will guide you continually

and satisfy your desire in scorched places

and make your bones strong;

and you shall be ^ulike a watered garden,

like a spring of water,

whose waters do not fail.

12  And your ^vancient ruins shall be rebuilt;

you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;

you shall be called the repairer of the breach,

the restorer of streets to dwell in.

13  “If you turn back your foot from the ^wSabbath,

from doing your pleasure³ on my holy day,

and call the Sabbath a delight

and the holy day of the Lord honorable;

if you honor it, not going your own ways,

or seeking your own pleasure,⁴ or talking idly;⁵

14  then you shall take delight in the Lord,

and I will ^xmake you ride on the heights of the earth;⁶

I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,

^yfor the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

59  Behold, ^zthe Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,

or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;

2  but ^ayour iniquities have made a separation

between you and your God,

and your sins have ^bhidden his face from you

so that he does not hear.

3  For your ^chands are defiled with blood

and your fingers with iniquity;

your lips have spoken lies;

your tongue mutters wickedness.

4  No one enters suit justly;

no one goes to law honestly;

they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies,

they ^dconceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.

5  They hatch adders’ eggs;

they weave the spider’s web;

he who eats their eggs dies,

and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched.

6  Their webs will not serve as clothing;

men will not cover themselves with what they make.

Their works are works of iniquity,

and deeds of violence are in their hands.

7  ^eTheir feet run to evil,

and they are swift to shed innocent blood;

their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;

desolation and destruction are in their highways.

8  The ^fway of peace they do not know,

and there is no justice in their paths;

they have made their roads crooked;

no one who treads on them knows peace.

9  Therefore justice is far from us,

and righteousness does not overtake us;

we hope for light, and ^gbehold, darkness,

and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.

10  We ^hgrope for the wall like the blind;

we grope like those who have no eyes;

we stumble at noon as in the twilight,

among those in full vigor we are like dead men.

11  We all growl like bears;

we moan and moan ⁱlike doves;

we hope for justice, but there is none;

for salvation, but it is far from us.

12  For our transgressions are multiplied before you,

and our sins ^jtestify against us;

for our transgressions are with us,

and we know our iniquities:

13  transgressing, and denying the Lord,

and turning back from following our God,

speaking oppression and revolt,

conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words.

14  Justice is turned back,

and righteousness stands far away;

for truth has stumbled in the public squares,

and uprightness cannot enter.

15  Truth is lacking,

and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

The Lord saw it, and it displeased him¹

that there was no justice.

16  He saw that ^kthere was no man,

and wondered that there was no one to intercede;

then ^lhis own arm brought him salvation,

and his righteousness upheld him.

17  He put on righteousness as a ^mbreastplate,

and a ⁿhelmet of salvation on his head;

he put on garments of ^ovengeance for clothing,

and wrapped himself in ^pzeal as a cloak.

18  According to their deeds, so will he repay,

wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies;

to the coastlands he will render repayment.

19  So they shall ^qfear the name of the Lord ^rfrom the west,

and his glory from the rising of the sun;

for he will come like a rushing stream,²

which the wind of the Lord drives.

20  “And ^sa Redeemer will come to Zion,

to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord.