HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 1030
IS A IA H 6 5
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Don’t be so angry with us, Lord.
Please don’t remember our sins forever.
Look at us, we pray,
and see that we are all your people.
Your holy cities are destroyed.
Zion is a wilderness;
yes, Jerusalem is a desolate ruin.
The holy and beautiful Temple
where our ancestors praised you
has been burned down,
and all the things of beauty are
destroyed.
After all this, Lord, must you still refuse
to help us?
Will you continue to be silent and
punish us?
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Judgment and Final Salvation
The Lord says,
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“I was ready to respond, but no one
asked for help.
I was ready to be found, but no one was
looking for me.
I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’
to a nation that did not call on my name.*
All day long I opened my arms to a
rebellious people.*
But they follow their own evil paths
and their own crooked schemes.
All day long they insult me to my face
by worshiping idols in their sacred
gardens.
They burn incense on pagan altars.
At night they go out among the graves,
worshiping the dead.
They eat the flesh of pigs
and make stews with other forbidden
foods.
Yet they say to each other,
‘Don’t come too close or you will defile me!
I am holier than you!’
These people are a stench in my nostrils,
an acrid smell that never goes away.
“Look, my decree is written out* in front
of me:
I will not stand silent;
I will repay them in full!
Yes, I will repay them—
both for their own sins
and for those of their ancestors,”
says the Lord.
“For they also burned incense on the
mountains
and insulted me on the hills.
I will pay them back in full!
“But I will not destroy them all,”
says the Lord.
“For just as good grapes are found among
a cluster of bad ones
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(and someone will say, ‘Don’t throw them
all away—
some of those grapes are good!’),
so I will not destroy all Israel.
For I still have true servants there.
I will preserve a remnant of the people
of Israel*
and of Judah to possess my land.
Those I choose will inherit it,
and my servants will live there.
The plain of Sharon will again be filled
with flocks
for my people who have searched for me,
and the valley of Achor will be a place to
pasture herds.
“But because the rest of you have forsaken
the Lord
and have forgotten his Temple,
and because you have prepared feasts to
honor the god of Fate
and have offered mixed wine to the god
of Destiny,
now I will ‘destine’ you for the sword.
All of you will bow down before the
executioner.
For when I called, you did not answer.
When I spoke, you did not listen.
You deliberately sinned—before my very
eyes—
and chose to do what you know I
despise.”
Therefore, this is what the Sovereign
Lord says:
“My servants will eat,
but you will starve.
My servants will drink,
but you will be thirsty.
My servants will rejoice,
but you will be sad and ashamed.
My servants will sing for joy,
but you will cry in sorrow and despair.
Your name will be a curse word among
my people,
for the Sovereign Lord will destroy you
and will call his true servants by another
name.
All who invoke a blessing or take an oath
will do so by the God of truth.
For I will put aside my anger
and forget the evil of earlier days.
“Look! I am creating new heavens and a
new earth,
and no one will even think about the old
ones anymore.
65:1 Or to a nation that did not bear my name. 65:1-2 Greek
version reads I was found by people who were not looking for
me. / I showed myself to those who were not asking for me. / All
day long I opened my arms to them, / but they were disobedient
and rebellious. Compare Rom 10:20-21. 65:6 Or their sins are
written out; Hebrew reads it stands written. 65:9 Hebrew
remnant of Jacob. See note on 14:1.