1  I WAS [ready to be] inquired of by those who asked not; I was [ready to be] found by those who sought Me not. I said, Here I am, here I am [says I AM] to a nation [Israel] that has not called on My name.

 

2  I have spread out My hands all the day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts--

 

3  A people who provoke Me to My face continually, sacrificing [to idols] in gardens and burning incense upon bricks [instead of at God's prescribed altar];

 

4  Who sit among the graves [trying to talk with the dead] and lodge among the secret places [or caves where familiar spirits were thought to dwell]; who eat swine's flesh, and the broth of abominable {and} loathsome things is in their vessels;

 

5  Who say, Keep to yourself; do not come near me, for I am set apart from you [and lest I sanctify you]! These are smoke in My nostrils, a fire that burns all the day.

 

6  Behold, it is written before Me: I will not keep silence but will repay; yes, I will repay into their bosom

 

7  Both your own iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers, says the Lord. Because they too burned incense upon the mountains and reviled {and} blasphemed Me upon the hills, therefore will I measure {and} stretch out their former doings into their own bosom.

 

8  Thus says the Lord: As the juice [of the grape] is found in the cluster, and one says, Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it, so will I do for My servants' sake, that I may not destroy them all.

 

9  And I will bring forth an offspring from Jacob, and from Judah an inheritor of My mountains; My chosen {and} elect will inherit it, and My servants will dwell there.

 

10  And [the plain of] Sharon shall be a pasture {and} fold for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down, for My people who seek Me, inquire of Me, {and} require Me [by right of their necessity and by right of My invitation].

 

11  But you who forsake the Lord, who forget {and} ignore My holy Mount [Zion], who prepare a table for Gad [the Babylonian god of fortune] and who furnish mixed drinks for Meni [the god of destiny]--

 

12  I will destine you [says the Lord] for the sword, and you shall all bow down to the slaughter, because when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not listen {or} obey. But you did what was evil in My eyes, and you chose that in which I did not delight.

 

13  Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, My servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, My servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; behold, My servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame.

 

14  Behold, My servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry out for pain {and} sorrow of heart and shall wail {and} howl for anguish, vexation, {and} breaking of spirit.

 

15  And you will leave your name to My chosen [to those who will use it] for a curse; and the Lord God will slay you, but He will call His servants by another name [as much greater than the former name as the name Israel was greater than the name Jacob].

 

16  So [it shall be] that he who invokes a blessing on himself in the land shall do so by saying, May the God of truth {and} fidelity [the Amen] bless me; and he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth {and} faithfulness to His promises [the Amen], because the former troubles are forgotten and because they are hidden from My eyes.

 

17  For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. And the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.

 

18  But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a rejoicing and her people a joy.

 

19  And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people; and the sound of weeping will no more be heard in it, nor the cry of distress.

 

20  There shall no more be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who dies prematurely; for the child shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner who dies when only a hundred years old shall be [thought only a child, cut off because he is] accursed.

 

21  They shall build houses and inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.

 

22  They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat [the fruit]. For as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My people, and My chosen {and} elect shall long make use of {and} enjoy the work of their hands.

 

23  They shall not labor in vain or bring forth [children] for sudden terror {or} calamity; for they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them.

 

24  And it shall be that before they call I will answer; and while they are yet speaking I will hear.

 

25  The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy Mount [Zion], says the Lord.