Isaiah 64:5-65:10

New International Version

⁵You come to the help of those who gladly do right,^(A)
    who remember your ways.
But when we continued to sin against them,
    you were angry.^(B)
    How then can we be saved?
⁶All of us have become like one who is unclean,^(C)
    and all our righteous^(D) acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,^(E)
    and like the wind our sins sweep us away.^(F)
⁷No one^(G) calls on your name^(H)
    or strives to lay hold of you;
for you have hidden^(I) your face from us
    and have given us over^(J) to^[a] our sins.

⁸Yet you, Lord, are our Father.^(K)
    We are the clay, you are the potter;^(L)
    we are all the work of your hand.^(M)
⁹Do not be angry^(N) beyond measure, Lord;
    do not remember our sins^(O) forever.
Oh, look on us, we pray,
    for we are all your people.^(P)
¹⁰Your sacred cities^(Q) have become a wasteland;
    even Zion is a wasteland, Jerusalem a desolation.^(R)
¹¹Our holy and glorious temple,^(S) where our ancestors praised you,
    has been burned with fire,
    and all that we treasured^(T) lies in ruins.
¹²After all this, Lord, will you hold yourself back?^(U)
    Will you keep silent^(V) and punish us beyond measure?

Judgment and Salvation

65 “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me;
    I was found by those who did not seek me.^(W)
To a nation^(X) that did not call on my name,^(Y)
    I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’
²All day long I have held out my hands
    to an obstinate people,^(Z)
who walk in ways not good,
    pursuing their own imaginations^(AA)—
³a people who continually provoke me
    to my very face,^(AB)
offering sacrifices in gardens^(AC)
    and burning incense^(AD) on altars of brick;
⁴who sit among the graves^(AE)
    and spend their nights keeping secret vigil;
who eat the flesh of pigs,^(AF)
    and whose pots hold broth of impure meat;
⁵who say, ‘Keep away; don’t come near me,
    for I am too sacred^(AG) for you!’
Such people are smoke^(AH) in my nostrils,
    a fire that keeps burning all day.

⁶“See, it stands written before me:
    I will not keep silent^(AI) but will pay back^(AJ) in full;
    I will pay it back into their laps^(AK)—
⁷both your sins^(AL) and the sins of your ancestors,”^(AM)
    says the Lord.
“Because they burned sacrifices on the mountains
    and defied me on the hills,^(AN)
I will measure into their laps
    the full payment^(AO) for their former deeds.”

⁸This is what the Lord says:

“As when juice is still found in a cluster of grapes^(AP)
    and people say, ‘Don’t destroy it,
    there is still a blessing in it,’
so will I do in behalf of my servants;^(AQ)
    I will not destroy them all.
⁹I will bring forth descendants^(AR) from Jacob,
    and from Judah those who will possess^(AS) my mountains;
my chosen^(AT) people will inherit them,
    and there will my servants live.^(AU)
¹⁰Sharon^(AV) will become a pasture for flocks,^(AW)
    and the Valley of Achor^(AX) a resting place for herds,
    for my people who seek^(AY) me.