- For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burns. And the gentiles shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. You shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed Forsaken, neither shall your land anymore be termed Desolate, but you shall be called Delightful, and your land Union; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your God marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem, who shall never hold their peace, day nor night. You that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest until he establish and until he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. The Lord has sworn by his right hand and by the arm of his strength, Surely I will no more give your grain to be food for your enemies, and the sons of the stranger shall not drink your wine for which you have labored. But they that have gathered it shall eat it and praise the Lord, and they that have brought it together shall drink it in the courts of my holiness. Go through, go through the gates, prepare the way of the people. Cast up, cast up the highway, gather out the stones. Lift up a standard for the people. Behold, the Lord has proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him and his work before him. And they shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord; and you shall be called sought-out, a city not forsaken.
- Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This who is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength? I, that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Why are you red in your apparel, and your garments like him that treads in the winevat? I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with me; for I will tread them in my anger and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed has come. And I looked and there was none to help, and I wondered that there was none to uphold; therefore, my own arm brought salvation unto me, and my fury, it upheld me. And I will tread down the people in my anger and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth.
- I will mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has bestowed on us and the great goodness toward the house of Israel which he has bestowed on them, according to his mercies and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses. For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie; so he was their Savior. In all their affliction, he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity he redeemed them, and he bore them and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled and vexed his holy spirit. Therefore, he was turned to be their enemy and he fought against them. Then he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? Where is he that put his holy spirit within him? That led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name? That led them through the deep as a horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble? As a beast goes down into the valley, the spirit of the Lord caused him to rest; so did you lead your people, to make yourself a glorious name.
- Look down from Heaven and behold from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory. Where is your zeal and your strength, the sounding of your heart and of your mercies toward me? Are they restrained? Doubtless you are our father, though Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel acknowledge us not. You, O Lord, are our father, our redeemer; your name is from everlasting. O Lord, why have you suffered us to err from your ways and to harden our heart from your fear? Return, for your servants’ sake, the tribes of your inheritance. The people of your holiness have possessed it but a little while; our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary. We are yours; you never bore rule over them, they were not called by your name.
- Oh that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might flow down at your presence — as when the melting fire burns, the fire causes the waters to boil — to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence. When you did terrible things which we looked not for, you came down, the mountains flowed down at your presence. For since the beginning of the world, men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen, O God, besides you, what he has prepared for him that waits for him. You meet him that works righteousness, and rejoice him that remembers you in your ways. In righteousness there is continuance, and such shall be saved, but we have sinned, we are all as an unclean thing. And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is none that calls upon your name, that stirs up himself to take hold of you, for you have hidden your face from us and have consumed us because of our iniquities. But now, O Lord, you are our father; we are the clay and you our potter, and we all are the work of your hand. Be not exceedingly angry, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever. Behold, see, we implore you, we are all your people. Your holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house where our fathers praised you is burned up with fire, and all our pleasant things are laid waste. Will you restrain yourself for these things, O Lord? Will you hold your peace and afflict us exceedingly?
- I am found of them who seek after me, I give unto all them that ask of me. I am not found of them that sought me not, or that inquires not after me. I said unto my servant, Behold me, look upon me; I will send you unto a nation that are not called by my name. For I have spread out my hands all the day to a people who walks not in my ways, and their works are evil and not good, and they walk after their own thoughts; a people that provokes me to anger continually to my face; that sacrifices in gardens and burns incense upon altars of brick; who remain among the graves and lodge in the monuments; who eat swine’s flesh, and broth of abominable beasts, and pollute their vessels; who say, Stand by yourself, come not near to me, for I am holier than you. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burns all the day. Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense — even recompense into their bosom — your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together, says the Lord, who have burned incense upon the mountains and blasphemed me upon the hills. Therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.
- Thus says the Lord: As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it — so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all. And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains; and my elect shall inherit it and my servants shall dwell there. And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me.
- But you are they that forsake the Lord, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop and that furnish the drink offering unto that number. Therefore will I number you to 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 hear, but did evil before my eyes and did choose that wherein I delighted not. 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 ashamed; behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart and shall howl for vexation of spirit. And you shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen, for the Lord God shall slay you and call his servants by another name, that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth, and he that swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth, because the former troubles are forgotten and because they are hidden from my eyes.
- For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. But be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. In those days, there shall be no more from there an infant of days, nor an old man that has not filled his day; for the child shall not die, but shall live to be a hundred years old. But the sinner living to be a hundred years old shall be accursed. And they shall build houses and inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build and another inhabit, they shall not plant and another eat; for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and my elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, says the Lord.
Chapter 24