64 O if only you had ripped the heavens apart, that you had come down, that on account of you the very mountains had quaked, 2 as when a fire ignites the brushwood, [and] the fire makes the very water boil up, in order to make your name known to your adversaries, that on account of you the nations might be agitated! 3 When you did fear-inspiring things for which we could not hope, you came down. On account of you the mountains themselves quaked. 4 And from time long ago none have heard, nor have any given ear, nor has an eye itself seen a God, except you, that acts for the one that keeps in expectation of him. 5 You have met up with the one exulting and doing righteousness, those who keep remembering you in your own ways.

Look! You yourself became indignant, while we kept sinning—in them a long time, and should we be saved? 6 And we become like someone unclean, all of us, and all our acts of righteousness are like a garment for periods of menstruation; and we shall fade away like leafage, all of us, and our errors themselves will carry us away just like a wind. 7 And there is no one calling upon your name, no one rousing himself to lay hold on you; for you have concealed your face from us, and you cause us to melt by the power of our error.

8 And now, O Jehovah, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are our Potter; and all of us are the work of your hand. 9 Do not be indignant, O Jehovah, to the extreme, and do not forever remember [our] error. Look, now, please: we are all your people. 10 Your own holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion itself has become a sheer wilderness, Jerusalem a desolate waste. 11 Our house of holiness and beauty, in which our forefathers praised you, has itself become something for burning in the fire; and every one of our desirable things has become a devastation. 12 In the face of these things will you continue keeping yourself in check, O Jehovah? Will you stay still and let us be afflicted to the extreme?

65 “I have let myself be searched for by those who had not asked [for me]. I have let myself be found by those who had not looked for me. I have said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’ to a nation that was not calling upon my name.

2 “I have spread out my hands all day long to a stubborn people, those who are walking in the way that is not good, after their thoughts; 3 the people [made up of] those offending me right to my face constantly, sacrificing in the gardens and making sacrificial smoke upon the bricks, 4 seating themselves among the burial places, who also pass the night even in the watch huts, eating the flesh of the pig, even the broth of foul things being in their vessels; 5 those who are saying, ‘Keep close to yourself. Do not approach me, for I shall certainly convey holiness to you.’ These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire burning all day long.

6 “Look! It is written before me. I shall not keep still, but I will render a reward; I will even render the reward into their own bosom, 7 for their own errors and for the errors of their forefathers at the same time,” Jehovah has said. “Because they have made sacrificial smoke upon the mountains, and upon the hills they have reproached me, I will also measure out their wages first of all into their own bosom.”

8 This is what Jehovah has said: “In the same way that the new wine is found in the cluster and someone has to say, ‘Do not ruin it, because there is a blessing in it,’ so I shall do for the sake of my servants in order not to bring everybody to ruin. 9 And I will bring forth out of Jacob an offspring and out of Judah the hereditary possessor of my mountains; and my chosen ones must take possession of it, and my own servants will reside there. 10 And Sharon must become a pasture ground for sheep and the low plain of Achor a resting-place for cattle, for my people who will have looked for me.

11 “But YOU men are those leaving Jehovah, those forgetting my holy mountain, those setting in order a table for the god of Good Luck and those filling up mixed wine for the god of Destiny. 12 And I will destine YOU men to the sword, and YOU will all of YOU bow down to being slaughtered; for the reason that I called, but YOU did not answer; I spoke, but YOU did not listen; and YOU kept doing what was bad in my eyes, and the thing in which I took no delight YOU chose.”

13 Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said: “Look! My own servants will eat, but YOU yourselves will go hungry. Look! My own servants will drink, but YOU yourselves will go thirsty. Look! My own servants will rejoice, but YOU yourselves will suffer shame. 14 Look! My own servants will cry out joyfully because of the good condition of the heart, but YOU yourselves will make outcries because of the pain of heart and YOU will howl because of sheer breakdown of spirit. 15 And YOU men will certainly lay up YOUR name for an oath by my chosen ones, and the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will actually put [YOU] individually to death, but his own servants he will call by another name; 16 so that anyone blessing himself in the earth will bless himself by the God of faith, and anyone making a sworn statement in the earth will swear by the God of faith; because the former distresses will actually be forgotten and because they will actually be concealed from my eyes.

17 “For here I am creating new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be called to mind, neither will they come up into the heart. 18 But exult, YOU people, and be joyful forever in what I am creating. For here I am creating Jerusalem a cause for joyfulness and her people a cause for exultation. 19 And I will be joyful in Jerusalem and exult in my people; and no more will there be heard in her the sound of weeping or the sound of a plaintive cry.”

20 “No more will there come to be a suckling a few days old from that place, neither an old man that does not fulfill his days; for one will die as a mere boy, although a hundred years of age; and as for the sinner, although a hundred years of age he will have evil called down upon him. 21 And they will certainly build houses and have occupancy; and they will certainly plant vineyards and eat [their] fruitage. 22 They will not build and someone else have occupancy; they will not plant and someone else do the eating. For like the days of a tree will the days of my people be; and the work of their own hands my chosen ones will use to the full. 23 They will not toil for nothing, nor will they bring to birth for disturbance; because they are the offspring made up of the blessed ones of Jehovah, and their descendants with them. 24 And it will actually occur that before they call out I myself shall answer; while they are yet speaking, I myself shall hear.

25 “The wolf and the lamb themselves will feed as one, and the lion will eat straw just like the bull; and as for the serpent, his food will be dust. They will do no harm nor cause any ruin in all my holy mountain,” Jehovah has said.

66 This is what Jehovah has said: “The heavens are my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where, then, is the house that YOU people can build for me, and where, then, is the place as a resting-place for me?”

2 “Now all these things my own hand has made, so that all these came to be,” is the utterance of Jehovah. “To this one, then, I shall look, to the one afflicted and contrite in spirit and trembling at my word.

3 “The one slaughtering the bull is as one striking down a man. The one sacrificing the sheep is as one breaking the neck of a dog. The one offering up a gift—the blood of a pig! The one presenting a memorial of frankincense is as one saying a blessing with uncanny words. They are also the ones that have chosen their own ways, and in their disgusting things their very soul has taken a delight. 4 I myself, in turn, shall choose ways of ill-treating them; and the things frightful to them I shall bring upon them; for the reason that I called, but there was no one answering; I spoke, but there were none that listened; and they kept on doing what was bad in my eyes, and the thing in which I took no delight they chose.”

5 Hear the word of Jehovah, YOU men who are trembling at his word: “YOUR brothers that are hating YOU, that are excluding YOU by reason of my name, said, ‘May Jehovah be glorified!’ He must also appear with rejoicing on YOUR part, and they are the ones that will be put to shame.”

6 There is a sound of uproar out of the city, a sound out of the temple! It is the sound of Jehovah repaying what is deserved to his enemies.

7 Before she began to come into labor pains she gave birth. Before birth pangs could come to her, she even gave deliverance to a male child. 8 Who has heard of a thing like this? Who has seen things like these? Will a land be brought forth with labor pains in one day? Or will a nation be born at one time? For Zion has come into labor pains as well as given birth to her sons.

9 “As for me, shall I cause the breaking through and not cause the giving birth?” says Jehovah. “Or am I causing a giving birth and do I actually cause a shutting up?” your God has said.

10 Rejoice with Jerusalem and be joyful with her, all YOU lovers of her. Exult greatly with her, all YOU keeping yourselves in mourning over her; 11 for the reason that YOU will suck and certainly get satisfaction from the breast of full consolation by her; for the reason that YOU will sip and experience exquisite delight from the teat of her glory. 12 For this is what Jehovah has said: “Here I am extending to her peace just like a river and the glory of nations just like a flooding torrent, and YOU will certainly suck. Upon the flank YOU will be carried, and upon the knees YOU will be fondled. 13 Like a man whom his own mother keeps comforting, so I myself shall keep comforting YOU people; and in the case of Jerusalem YOU will be comforted. 14 And YOU will certainly see, and YOUR heart will be bound to exult, and YOUR very bones will sprout just like tender grass. And the hand of Jehovah will certainly be made known to his servants, but he will actually denounce his enemies.”

15 “For here Jehovah himself comes as a very fire, and his chariots are like a storm wind, in order to pay back his anger with sheer rage and his rebuke with flames of fire. 16 For as fire Jehovah himself will for a fact take up the controversy, yes, with his sword, against all flesh; and the slain of Jehovah will certainly become many. 17 Those sanctifying themselves and cleansing themselves for the gardens behind one in the center, eating the flesh of the pig and the loathsome thing, even the jumping rodent, they will all together reach their end,” is the utterance of Jehovah. 18 “And as regards their works and their thoughts, I am coming in order to collect all the nations and tongues together; and they will have to come and see my glory.”

19 “And I will set among them a sign, and I will send some of those who are escaped to the nations, [to] Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, those drawing the bow, Tubal and Javan, the faraway islands, who have not heard a report about me or seen my glory; and they will for certain tell about my glory among the nations. 20 And they will actually bring all YOUR brothers out of all the nations as a gift to Jehovah, on horses and in chariots and in covered wagons and on mules and on swift she-camels, up to my holy mountain, Jerusalem,” Jehovah has said, “just as when the sons of Israel bring the gift in a clean vessel into the house of Jehovah.”

21 “And from them also I shall take some for the priests, for the Levites,” Jehovah has said.

22 “For just as the new heavens and the new earth that I am making are standing before me,” is the utterance of Jehovah, “so the offspring of YOU people and the name of YOU people will keep standing.”

23 “And it will certainly occur that from new moon to new moon and from sabbath to sabbath all flesh will come in to bow down before me,” Jehovah has said. 24 “And they will actually go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that were transgressing against me; for the very worms upon them will not die and their fire itself will not be extinguished, and they must become something repulsive to all flesh.”