God's Grace to the Faithful and Judgment on the Rebellious
Isaiah 65:1-16
1I was sought by those who did not ask; I was found by those who did not seek me. I said, 'Look at me, look at me,' to a nation that was not called by my name.2I spread out my hand all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own plots.3A people who continually provoke me to my face, sacrificing in gardens and burning incense on bricks,4who dwell among the graves and lodge in the watched places, eating the flesh of swine and broth of refuse in their vessels,5who say, 'Keep to yourself; do not come near me, for I am consecrated to you.' These are smoke in my anger, a fire that burns all the day.6Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silent, but I will repay, and I will repay into their bosom,7your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together, says the LORD, because they burned offerings on the mountains and on the hills and taunted me; therefore I will measure out their wages first into their bosom.8Thus says the LORD: As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, 'Do not destroy it, for a blessing is in it,' so I will do for the sake of my servants, that I may not destroy all.9I will bring forth a seed from Jacob, and from Judah an heir of my mountains; my chosen ones shall possess it, and my servants shall dwell there.10Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a resting place for cattle, for my people who have sought me.11But you who forsake the LORD and forget my holy mountain, who set a table for Fortune and fill mixed drink for Destiny.12I will therefore assign you to the sword, and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter, because I called and you did not answer, I spoke and you did not listen, and you did what is evil in my eyes and chose what I did not delight in.13Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall thirst; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be ashamed.14Behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you shall cry out from pain of heart and wail from a broken spirit.15You shall leave your name as a curse to my chosen ones, and the Lord GOD will put you to death, but his servants he will call by another name.16So that he who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of amen, and he who swears in the land shall swear by the God of amen, because the former distresses are forgotten and hidden from my eyes.