Parallel Bible results for "isaiah 65"

Isaiah 65

New Living Translation NLT

1 The LORD says, “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.

2 All day long I opened my arms to a rebellious people. But they follow their own evil paths and their own crooked schemes.

3 All day long they insult me to my face by worshiping idols in their sacred gardens. They burn incense on pagan altars.

4 At night they go out among the graves, worshiping the dead. They eat the flesh of pigs and make stews with other forbidden foods.

5 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.

6 “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—

7 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!

8 “But I will not destroy them all,” says the LORD . “For just as good grapes are found among a cluster of bad ones (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.

9 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.

10 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.

11 “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,

12 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.”

13 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.

14 My servants will sing for joy, but you will cry in sorrow and despair.

15 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.

16 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.

17 “Look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth, and no one will even think about the old ones anymore.

18 Be glad; rejoice forever in my creation! And look! I will create Jerusalem as a place of happiness. Her people will be a source of joy.

19 I will rejoice over Jerusalem and delight in my people. And the sound of weeping and crying will be heard in it no more.

20 “No longer will babies die when only a few days old. No longer will adults die before they have lived a full life. No longer will people be considered old at one hundred! Only the cursed will die that young!

21 In those days people will live in the houses they build and eat the fruit of their own vineyards.

22 Unlike the past, invaders will not take their houses and confiscate their vineyards. For my people will live as long as trees, and my chosen ones will have time to enjoy their hard-won gains.

23 They will not work in vain, and their children will not be doomed to misfortune. For they are people blessed by the LORD, and their children, too, will be blessed.

24 I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers!

25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together. The lion will eat hay like a cow. But the snakes will eat dust. In those days no one will be hurt or destroyed on my holy mountain. I, the LORD, have spoken!”

The Message Bible MSG

1 "I've made myself available to those who haven't bothered to ask. I'm here, ready to be found by those who haven't bothered to look. I kept saying 'I'm here, I'm right here' to a nation that ignored me.

2 I reached out day after day to a people who turned their backs on me, People who make wrong turns, who insist on doing things their own way.

3 They get on my nerves, are rude to my face day after day, Make up their own kitchen religion, a potluck religious stew.

4 They spend the night in tombs to get messages from the dead, Eat forbidden foods and drink a witch's brew of potions and charms.

5 They say, 'Keep your distance. Don't touch me. I'm holier than thou.' These people gag me. I can't stand their stench.

6 Look at this! Their sins are all written out - I have the list before me. I'm not putting up with this any longer. I'll pay them the wages

7 They have coming for their sins. And for the sins of their parents lumped in, a bonus." God says so. "Because they've practiced their blasphemous worship, mocking me at their hillside shrines, I'll let loose the consequences and pay them in full for their actions."

8 God's Message: "But just as one bad apple doesn't ruin the whole bushel, there are still plenty of good apples left. So I'll preserve those in Israel who obey me. I won't destroy the whole nation.

9 I'll bring out my true children from Jacob and the heirs of my mountains from Judah. My chosen will inherit the land, my servants will move in.

10 The lush valley of Sharon in the west will be a pasture for flocks, And in the east, the valley of Achor, a place for herds to graze. These will be for the people who bothered to reach out to me, who wanted me in their lives, who actually bothered to look for me.

11 "But you who abandon me, your God, who forget the holy mountains, Who hold dinners for Lady Luck and throw cocktail parties for Sir Fate,

12 Well, you asked for it. Fate it will be: your destiny, Death. For when I invited you, you ignored me; when I spoke to you, you brushed me off. You did the very things I exposed as evil; you chose what I hate."

13 Therefore, this is the Message from the Master, God: "My servants will eat, and you'll go hungry; My servants will drink, and you'll go thirsty; My servants will rejoice, and you'll hang your heads.

14 My servants will laugh from full hearts, and you'll cry out heartbroken, yes, wail from crushed spirits.

15 Your legacy to my chosen will be your name reduced to a cussword. I, God, will put you to death and give a new name to my servants.

16 Then whoever prays a blessing in the land will use my faithful name for the blessing, And whoever takes an oath in the land will use my faithful name for the oath, Because the earlier troubles are gone and forgotten, banished far from my sight. New Heavens and a New Earth

17 "Pay close attention now: I'm creating new heavens and a new earth. All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain are things of the past, to be forgotten.

18 Look ahead with joy. Anticipate what I'm creating: I'll create Jerusalem as sheer joy, create my people as pure delight.

19 I'll take joy in Jerusalem, take delight in my people: No more sounds of weeping in the city, no cries of anguish;

20 No more babies dying in the cradle, or old people who don't enjoy a full lifetime; One-hundredth birthdays will be considered normal - anything less will seem like a cheat.

21 They'll build houses and move in. They'll plant fields and eat what they grow.

22 No more building a house that some outsider takes over, No more planting fields that some enemy confiscates, For my people will be as long-lived as trees, my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work.

23 They won't work and have nothing come of it, they won't have children snatched out from under them. For they themselves are plantings blessed by God, with their children and grandchildren likewise God-blessed.

24 Before they call out, I'll answer. Before they've finished speaking, I'll have heard.

25 Wolf and lamb will graze the same meadow, lion and ox eat straw from the same trough, but snakes - they'll get a diet of dirt! Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill anywhere on my Holy Mountain," says God.