Each one says, 'Come on, I'll get some wine! Let's guzzle some beer! Tomorrow will be just like today! We'll have everything we want!'

The righteous one, hath perished, And not a man, hath taken it to heart - Yea the men of lovingkindness, have been withdrawn No one considering, That from the presence of calamity, hath the righteous been withdrawn.

Among the smooth stones of the valley is your heritage; they, even they, are your part: even to them have you made a drink offering and a meal offering. Is it possible for such things to be overlooked by me?

You have put your bed on a high mountain: there you went up to make your offering.

And on the back of the doors and on the pillars you have put your sign: for you have been false to me with another; you have made your bed wide, and made an agreement with them; you had a desire for their bed where you saw it

“You have journeyed to the king with oil
And increased your perfumes;
You have sent your envoys a great distance
And made them go down to Sheol.

Thou hast had trouble for the multitude of thine own ways, yet saidest thou never, "I will leave off." Thou thinkest to have life of thyself, and therefore thou believest not that thou art sick.

Whom are you worried about? Whom do you fear, that you would act so deceitfully and not remember me or think about me? Because I have been silent for so long, you are not afraid of me.

I will make clear what your righteousness is like and your works; you will have no profit in them.

When you cry out for help, let your idols help you! The wind blows them all away, a breeze carries them away. But the one who looks to me for help will inherit the land and will have access to my holy mountain."

“For I will not contend forever,
Nor will I always be angry;
For the spirit would grow faint before Me,
And the breath of those whom I have made.

For the iniquity of his dishonest gain, I have been wroth, and I smite him, Hiding -- and am wroth, And he goeth on turning back in the way of his heart.

I have seen their behavior, but I will heal them and give them rest, and I will once again console those who mourn.

Producing the fruit of the lips, 'Peace, peace,' to the far off, and to the near, And I have healed him, said Jehovah.

Even so the wicked have no peace, sayeth my God.

They say, Why have we kept ourselves from food, and you do not see it? why have we kept ourselves from pleasure, and you take no note of it? If, in the days when you keep from food, you take the chance to do your business, and get in your debts;

Behold, ye have fasted for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness; ye do not at present fast, to cause your voice to be heard on high.

Have I given orders for such a day as this? a day for keeping yourselves from pleasure? is it only a question of the bent head, of putting on haircloth, and being seated in the dust? is this what seems to you a holy day, well-pleasing to the Lord?

“[Rather] is this not the fast which I choose,
To undo the bonds of wickedness,
To tear to pieces the ropes of the yoke,
To let the oppressed go free
And break apart every [enslaving] yoke?

Is it not to give your bread to those in need, and to let the poor who have no resting-place come into your house? to put a robe on the unclothed one when you see him, and not to keep your eyes shut for fear of seeing his flesh?

And if you give your bread to those in need of it, so that the troubled one may have his desire; then you will have light in the dark, and your night will be as the full light of the sun:

“And your people will rebuild the ancient ruins;
You will raise up and restore the age-old foundations [of buildings that have been laid waste];
You will be called Repairer of the Breach,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

Then shalt thou have thy pleasure in the LORD, which shall carry thee high above the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the LORD's own mouth hath so promised.

But your sinful acts have alienated you from your God; your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers.

For your hands are defiled with blood
And your fingers with wickedness [with sin, with injustice, with wrongdoing];
Your lips have spoken lies,
Your tongue mutters wickedness.

No one brings a lawsuit fairly, and no one goes to law honestly; they have relied on empty arguments and they tell lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to iniquity.

Eggs of a viper they have hatched, And webs of a spider they weave, Whoso is eating their eggs doth die, And the crushed hatcheth a viper.

They do not know the way of peace,
And there is no justice in their tracks.
They have made them into crooked paths;
Whoever walks on them does not know peace.

We grope for a wall like the blind,
We grope like those who have no eyes.
We stumble at midday as in the twilight;
Among those who are healthy we are like dead men.

For our evil doings are increased before you, and our sins give witness against us: for our evil doings are with us, and we have knowledge of our sins:

We have rebelled and tried to deceive the Lord; we turned back from following our God. We stir up oppression and rebellion; we tell lies we concocted in our minds.

He repays them for what they have done, dispensing angry judgment to his adversaries and punishing his enemies. He repays the coastlands.

"As for me, this is my promise to them," says the Lord. "My spirit, who is upon you, and my words, which I have placed in your mouth, will not depart from your mouth or from the mouths of your children and descendants from this time forward," says the Lord.

“Arise [from spiritual depression to a new life], shine [be radiant with the glory and brilliance of the Lord]; for your light has come,
And the glory and brilliance of the Lord has risen upon you.

And come have nations to thy light, And kings to the brightness of thy rising.

Lift up - round about - thine eyes and see, They all, have gathered themselves together - have come to thee, - Thy sons, from afar shall come, And thy daughters, on the side, shall he carried.

Then thou shalt see, and shalt have plenty: thine heart shall wonder and break out in joy, when the multitude of the sea are turned to thee, and the armies of the heathen are come unto thee.

All the cattle of Cedar shall be gathered unto thee, the rams Nebaioth shall serve thee, to be offered upon mine altar, which I have chosen, and in the house of my glory which I have garnished.

Foreigners will rebuild your walls; their kings will serve you. Even though I struck you down in my anger, I will restore my favor and have compassion on you.

And opened have thy gates continually, By day and by night they are not shut, To bring unto thee the force of nations, Even their kings are led.

Moreover, those shall come kneeling unto thee that have vexed thee: and all they that despised thee, shall fall down at thy foot. Thou shalt be called the city of the LORD, the holy Zion of Israel.

“Whereas you [Jerusalem] have been abandoned and hated
With no one passing through,
I will make you an object of pride forever,
A joy from generation to generation.

Instead of the brass I bring in gold, And instead of the iron I bring in silver, And instead of the wood brass, And instead of the stone iron, And I have made thy inspection peace, And thy exactors righteousness.

“No longer will you have the sun for light by day,
Nor for brightness will the moon give you light;
But you will have the Lord for an everlasting light,
And your God for your glory.

“Your sun will no longer set,
Nor will your moon wane;
For you will have the Lord for an everlasting light,
And the days of your mourning will be over.

To give them a fair head-dress in place of dust, the oil of joy in place of the clothing of grief, praise in place of sorrow; so that they may be named trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, and so that he may have glory.

They will rebuild the perpetual ruins and restore the places that were desolate; they will reestablish the ruined cities, the places that have been desolate since ancient times.

And strangers have stood and fed your flock, Sons of a foreigner are your husbandmen, And your vine-dressers.

But you will be named the priests of the Lord, the servants of our God: you will have the wealth of the nations for your food, and you will be clothed with their glory.

Instead of your [former] shame you will have a double portion;
And instead of humiliation your people will shout for joy over their portion.
Therefore in their land they will possess double [what they had forfeited];
Everlasting joy will be theirs.

For I am Jehovah, loving judgment, Hating plunder for a burnt-offering, And I have given their wage in truth, And a covenant age-during I make for them.

And the nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory: and you will have a new name, given by the mouth of the Lord.

You will not now be named, She who is given up; and your land will no longer be named, The waste land: but you will have the name, My pleasure is in her, and your land will be named, Married: for the Lord has pleasure in you, and your land will be married.

On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed and stationed watchmen (prophets),
Who will never keep silent day or night;
You who profess the Lord, take no rest for yourselves,

And ye that stir up the remembrance of the Lord, see that ye pause not, neither let him have rest until he have prepared and made Jerusalem glorious in the earth.

The Lord has sworn [an oath] by His right hand and by His mighty arm,
“I will never again give your grain as food for your enemies,
Nor will [the invading] foreigners drink your new wine for which you have labored.”

But they who have harvested it will eat it and praise the Lord,
And they who have gathered it will drink it [at the feasts celebrated] in the courtyards of My sanctuary.

And they have cried to them, 'People of the Holy One, Redeemed of Jehovah,' Yea, to thee is called, 'Sought out one, a city not forsaken!'

“I have trodden the wine trough alone,
And of the peoples there was no one with Me.
I also trod them in My anger
And trampled them in My wrath;
And their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments,
And I stained all My clothes.

For that day of vengeance that I have taken in hand, and the year of my deliverance, is come.

And I have trodden down the peoples in mine anger, and made them drunk in my fury; and their blood have I brought down to the earth.

And they have rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit, And He turneth to them for an enemy, He Himself hath fought against them.

Look attentively from the heavens, And see from Thy holy and beauteous habitation, Where is Thy zeal and Thy might? The multitude of Thy bowels and Thy mercies Towards me have refrained themselves.

For you are our father, though Abraham has no knowledge of us, and Israel gives no thought to us: you, O Lord, are our father; from the earliest days you have taken up our cause.

O Lord, why do You cause us to stray from Your ways
And harden our heart from fearing You [with reverence and awe]?
Return for Your servants’ sake, the tribes of Your heritage.

Your holy people possessed Your sanctuary for [only] a little while;
Our adversaries have trampled it down.

We have become like those over whom You have never ruled,
Like those who were not called by Your name.

While you do acts of power for which we are not looking, and which have not come to the ears of men in the past.

For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear,
Nor has the eye seen a God besides You,
Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him.

You meet him who rejoices in doing that which is morally right,
Who remembers You in Your ways.
Indeed, You were angry, for we sinned;
We have long continued in our sins [prolonging Your anger].
And shall we be saved [under such circumstances]?

For we all have become like one who is [ceremonially] unclean [like a leper],
And all our deeds of righteousness are like filthy rags;
We all wither and decay like a leaf,
And our wickedness [our sin, our injustice, our wrongdoing], like the wind, takes us away [carrying us far from God’s favor, toward destruction].

There is no one who calls on Your name,
Who awakens and causes himself to take hold of You;
For You have hidden Your face from us
And have handed us over to the [consuming and destructive] power of our wickedness [our sin, our injustice, our wrongdoing].

Your holy cities have become a wilderness,
Zion has become a wilderness,
Jerusalem a desolation.

Our holy and beautiful house,
Where our fathers praised You,
Has been burned by fire;
And all our precious things have become a ruin.

I have let myself be consulted by them who had not asked, I have suffered myself to be found by them who had not sought me, - I have said, Here I am! Here I am! Unto a nation that had not been called by my name,

“I have spread out My hands all the day long to a rebellious and stubborn people,
Who walk in the way that is not good, [following] after their own thoughts and intentions,

Who are seated in the resting-places of the dead, and by night are in the secret places; who take pig's flesh for food, and have the liquid of disgusting things in their vessels.

Who are saying, 'Keep to thyself, come not nigh to me, For I have declared thee unholy.' These are a smoke in Mine anger, A fire burning all the day.

Lo! it is written before me, - I will not keep silence, But I have recompensed, and will recompense into their bosom:

your own iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith Jehovah, that have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills; therefore will I first measure their work into their bosom.

This is what the LORD says: "Just as new wine is found in the cluster, and people have said, "Don't destroy it, for there is a gift in it,' so I'll act for my servants' sake, by not destroying them all.

And I will take a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah one who will have my mountains for a heritage: and the people I have taken to be mine will have it for themselves, and my servants will have their resting-place there.

And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me.

But as for you who have given up the Lord, who have no care for my holy mountain, who get ready a table for Chance, and make offerings of mixed wine to Fate;

And I have numbered you for the sword, And all of you for slaughter bow down, Because I called, and ye have not answered, I have spoken, and ye have not hearkened, And ye do the evil thing in Mine eyes, And on that which I desired not -- fixed.

For this cause says the Lord God, My servants will have food, but you will be in need of food: my servants will have drink, but you will be dry: my servants will have joy, but you will be shamed:

And ye have left your name For an oath for My chosen ones, And the Lord Jehovah hath put thee to death, And to His servants He giveth another name.

So that he who blesseth himself in the earth, Will bless himself in the God of faithfulness, And he who sweareth in the earth Will swear by the God of faithfulness - Because the former troubles have been forgotten, and Because they are hid from mine eyes.

But men will be glad and have joy for ever in what I am making; for I am making Jerusalem a delight, and her people a joy.

And I will be glad over Jerusalem, and have joy in my people: and the voice of weeping will no longer be sounding in her, or the voice of grief.

No longer will there be there a child whose days are cut short, or an old man whose days have not come to their full measure: for the young man at his death will be a hundred years old, and he whose life is shorter than a hundred years will seem as one cursed.

And they have built houses, and inhabited, And planted vineyards, and eaten their fruit.

They will no longer be building for the use of others, or planting for others to have the fruit: for the days of my people will be like the days of a tree, and my loved ones will have joy in full measure in the work of their hands.

They shall not labour in vain, Nor have children for terror, - For the seed of the blessed ones of Yahweh, shall they be, And their offspring, with them.

“For all these things My hand has made,
So all these things came into being [by and for Me],” declares the Lord.
“But to this one I will look [graciously],
To him who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who [reverently] trembles at My word and honors My commands.

“He who kills an ox [for pagan sacrifice] is [as guilty] as one who kills a man;
He who sacrifices a lamb, as one who breaks a dog’s neck;
He who offers a grain offering, as one who offers swine’s blood;
He who offers incense, as one who blesses an idol.
Such people have chosen their own ways,
And their soul delights in their repulsive acts;

Therefore will I also have pleasure in laughing them to scorn, and the thing that they fear, will I bring upon them. For when I called, no man gave answer; when I spake, they would not hear: But did wickedness before mine eyes, and chose the things that displease me.

Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble [with awe-filled reverence] at His word:
“Your brothers who hate you, who exclude you for My Name’s sake,
Have said, ‘Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy.’
But they will be put to shame.

'Do I bring to the birth, And not cause to bring forth?' saith Jehovah, 'Am not I He who is causing to beget? I have also restrained,' said thy God.

Have joy with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you her lovers: take part in her joy, all you who are sorrowing for her: