1.  I was available to those who did not inquire of me;^a

I was accessible to those who did not seek me.

I said, Here am I; I am here,

to a nation that did not invoke my name.

2.  I held out my hands all the day to a defiant people,

who walk in ways that are not good,

following their own imagination—

3.  a people who constantly provoke me to my face,

sacrificing in parks, making smoke upon bricks,

4.  who sit in sepulchres, spend nights in hideouts,

who eat swine’s flesh,

their bowls full of polluted broth,

5.  who think, Keep your distance,

don’t come near me; I am holier than you!

Such are a smoke to my nostrils,

a fire smoldering all day long.

6.  See, it is written before me that I will not be still

till I have paid back^b into their bosom

7.  their^c own iniquities and their^c fathers’ alike,

says the Lord.

To those who kindle sacrifice in the mountains,

who affront me on the hills, I will measure out

in their laps the payment that has accrued.

8.  Thus says the Lord:

As when there is juice in a cluster of grapes

and someone says, Don't destroy it, it is still good,

so I will do for the sake of my servants

by not destroying everything:

9.  I will extract offspring out of Jacob,

and out of Judah heirs of my mountains;

my chosen ones shall inherit them,

my servants shall dwell there.

10.  Sharon shall become pasture for flocks,

and the Valley of Achor a resting place

for the herds of my people who seek me.

11.  As for you who forsake the Lord

and forget my holy mountain,

who spread tables for Luck

and pour mixed wines for Fortune,

12.  I will destine you to the sword;

all of you shall succumb to the slaughter.

For when I called, you did not respond;

when I spoke, you would not give heed.

You did what was evil in my eyes;

you chose to do what was not my will.

13.  Therefore thus says my Lord the Lord:

My servants shall eat indeed,

while you shall hunger;

my servants shall drink indeed,

while you shall thirst;

my servants shall rejoice indeed,

while you shall be dismayed.

14.  My servants shall shout indeed, for gladness of heart,

while you shall cry out with heartbreak,

howling from brokenness of spirit.

15.  Your name shall be left

to serve my chosen ones as a curse

when my Lord the Lord slays you.

But his servants he will call by a different name.

16.  Those of them who invoke blessings

on themselves in the earth shall do so by the true God,

and those of them who swear oaths in the earth

shall do so by the God of truth.

The troubles of the past shall be forgotten

and hidden from my eyes.

17.  See, I create new heavens and a new earth;

former events shall not be remembered

or recalled to mind.

18.  Rejoice, then, and be glad forever in what I create.

See, I create Jerusalem to be a delight

and its people a joy.

19.  I will delight in Jerusalem, rejoice in my people;

no more shall be heard there

the sound of weeping or the cry of distress.

20.  No more shall there be infants alive but a few days,

or the aged who do not live out their years;

those who die young shall be a hundred years old,

and those who fail to reach a hundred shall be accursed.

21.  When men build houses, they will dwell in them;

when they plant vineyards, they will eat their fruit.

22.  They shall not build so that others may dwell,

or plant so that others may eat.

The lifetime of my people shall be as the lifetime of a tree;

my chosen ones shall outlast the work of their hands.

23.  They shall not exert themselves in vain,

or bear children doomed for calamity.

For they are of the lineage of those blessed by the Lord,

and their posterity with them.

24.  Before they call I will reply;

while they are yet speaking I will respond.

25.  The wolf and the lamb will graze alike,

and the lion will eat straw like the ox;

as for the serpent, dust shall be its food:

there shall be no harm or injury done

throughout my holy mountain, says the Lord.