Thursday 26th January 2023

The Righteousness of God’s Judgement

65I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask,
   to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, ‘Here I am, here I am’,
   to a nation that did not call on my name.
² I held out my hands all day long
   to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
   following their own devices;
³ a people who provoke me
   to my face continually,
sacrificing in gardens
   and offering incense on bricks;
⁴ who sit inside tombs,
   and spend the night in secret places;
who eat swine’s flesh,
   with broth of abominable things in their vessels;
⁵ who say, ‘Keep to yourself,
   do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.’
These are a smoke in my nostrils,
   a fire that burns all day long.
⁶ See, it is written before me:
   I will not keep silent, but I will repay;
I will indeed repay into their laps
⁷   their^* iniquities and their^* ancestors’ iniquities together,

says the Lord;
because they offered incense on the mountains
   and reviled me on the hills,
I will measure into their laps
   full payment for their actions.
⁸ Thus says the Lord:
As the wine is found in the cluster,
   and they say, ‘Do not destroy it,
   for there is a blessing in it’,
so I will do for my servants’ sake,
   and not destroy them all.
⁹ I will bring forth descendants^* from Jacob,
   and from Judah inheritors^* of my mountains;
my chosen shall inherit it,
   and my servants shall settle there.
¹⁰ Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks,
   and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down,
   for my people who have sought me.
¹¹ But you who forsake the Lord,
   who forget my holy mountain,
who set a table for Fortune
   and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny,
¹² I will destine you to the sword,
   and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter;
because, when I called, you did not answer,
   when I spoke, you did not listen,
but you did what was evil in my sight,
   and chose what I did not delight in.
¹³ Therefore thus says the Lord God:
My servants shall eat,
   but you shall be hungry;
my servants shall drink,
   but you shall be thirsty;
my servants shall rejoice,
   but you shall be put to shame;
¹⁴ my servants shall sing for gladness of heart,
   but you shall cry out for pain of heart,
   and shall wail for anguish of spirit.
¹⁵ You shall leave your name to my chosen to use as a curse,
   and the Lord God will put you to death;
   but to his servants he will give a different name.
¹⁶ Then whoever invokes a blessing in the land
   shall bless by the God of faithfulness,
and whoever takes an oath in the land
   shall swear by the God of faithfulness;
because the former troubles are forgotten
   and are hidden from my sight.

The Glorious New Creation

¹⁷ For I am about to create new heavens
   and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered
   or come to mind.
¹⁸ But be glad and rejoice for ever
   in what I am creating;
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy,
   and its people as a delight.
¹⁹ I will rejoice in Jerusalem,
   and delight in my people;
no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it,
   or the cry of distress.
²⁰ No more shall there be in it
   an infant that lives but a few days,
   or an old person who does not live out a lifetime;
for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,
   and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.
²¹ They shall build houses and inhabit them;
   they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
²² They shall not build and another inhabit;
   they shall not plant and another eat;
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
   and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
²³ They shall not labour in vain,
   or bear children for calamity;^*
for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord—
   and their descendants as well.
²⁴ Before they call I will answer,
   while they are yet speaking I will hear.
²⁵ The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
   the lion shall eat straw like the ox;
   but the serpent—its food shall be dust!
They shall not hurt or destroy
   on all my holy mountain,

says the Lord.

NRSV