Isaiah 59-61: The Garment of Praise for the Spirit of Heaviness

59 ¶ Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:

² But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

³ For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips pronounce lies; your tongue speaks evil.

⁴ No one calls for righteousness, nor do any judge by the truth; they trust in vanity, and speak vanities; they conceive trouble and bring forth iniquity.

⁵ They hatch cockatrice’ eggs and weave the spider’s web; whosoever shall eat of their eggs shall die, and if they should squeeze them, a viper shall come out.

⁶ Their cloth is unfit to be a garment, neither shall they cover themselves with their works; their works are works of violence, and the work of iniquity is in their hands.

⁷ Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are their paths.

⁸ The way of peace they did not know; nor is there anything straight about their ways; they have wilfully made themselves crooked paths; whosoever goes therein shall not know peace.

⁹ ¶ Therefore judgment has withdrawn from us, and righteousness has never overtaken us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.

¹⁰ We grope for the wall like the blind, and as if we had no eyes we walk by touch; we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in graves as dead men.

¹¹ We all roar like bears and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for saving health, but it has withdrawn from us.

¹² For our rebellions are multiplied before thee, and our sins have testified against us; for our iniquities are with us; and we know our sins:

¹³ To rebel and to lie against the LORD, and to depart away from our God; the speaking of libel and rebellion, to conceive, and to speak from the heart words of falsehood,

¹⁴ and that which is right has departed, and righteousness withdrew afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity could not enter.

¹⁵ And the truth was taken captive; and he that departed from evil was imprisoned: and the LORD saw it, and it was displeasing in his eyes because that which is right was lost.

¹⁶ ¶ And he saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore his arm brought salvation unto him, and his righteousness, it sustained him.

¹⁷ For he put on righteousness as a coat of mail, and a helmet of saving health upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloak,

¹⁸ so as to give payment, so as to repay the vengeance of his enemies, and repay his adversaries; to the islands he will give recompense.

¹⁹ So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he shall come like a violent river impelled by the breath {Spirit} of the LORD.

²⁰ And the Redeemer shall come to Zion and unto those that turn from the rebellion in Jacob, said the LORD.

²¹ And this shall be my covenant with them, said the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words, which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from now on and for ever.

60 ¶ Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.

² For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

³ And the Gentiles shall walk to thy light, and the kings to the brightness of thy birth.

⁴ Lift up thine eyes round about and see: they all gather themselves together; they come to thee; thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.

⁵ Then thou shall see, and thou shall shine, and thine heart shall marvel, and be enlarged because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the strength of the Gentiles shall have come unto thee.

⁶ The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall show forth the praises of the LORD.

⁷ All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee, rams of Nebaioth shall be served unto thee: they shall be offered up with grace upon my altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory.

⁸ Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?

⁹ ¶ For the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish from the first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the LORD thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, who has glorified thee.

¹⁰ And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall serve thee; for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my good favour I shall have mercy on thee.

¹¹ Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that the strength of the Gentiles may be brought unto thee, and their kings guided.

¹² For the people or the kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish and shall be utterly wasted.

¹³ The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will honour the place of my feet.

¹⁴ The sons also of those that afflicted thee shall come humbled unto thee; and at the steps of thy feet all those that despised thee shall bow themselves down; and they shall call thee, The city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵ ¶ Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee, I will place thee in eternal glory, in joy from generation to generation.

¹⁶ Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breast of the kings: and thou shalt know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.

¹⁷ For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for the stones iron; I will also put peace in the place of thy government, and righteousness in the place of thine oppressors.

¹⁸ Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Saving Health and thy gates Praise.

¹⁹ The sun shall no longer be thy light by day; nor shall the moon give light unto thee for brightness; but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light and thy God thy glory.

²⁰ Thy sun shall set no more; neither shall thy moon wane: for the LORD shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.

²¹ And thy people shall all be righteous; they shall inherit the land for ever; they shall be shoots of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.

²² The small one shall be as a thousand; the youngest as a strong nation; I the LORD will hasten it in its time.

61 ¶ The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to preach good tidings unto those who are cast down; to bind up the wounds of the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those that are bound;

² to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

³ to order in Zion those that mourn, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

⁴ ¶ And they shall build the old wastes; they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall restore the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.

⁵ And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.

⁶ But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD; men shall call you the Ministers of our God; ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and with their glory ye shall be lifted up.

⁷ Instead of your double shame, and your dishonour, they shall praise you in your inheritance; therefore in your land ye shall possess double, and ye shall have everlasting joy.

⁸ For I the LORD love that which is right, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will confirm your work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

⁹ And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles and their offspring among the peoples; all that saw them shall acknowledge them that they are the seed which the LORD has blessed.

¹⁰ ¶ I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of saving health; he has surrounded me with the robe of righteousness; as a bridegroom he has arrayed me, and as a bride made up of his jewels.

¹¹ For as the earth brings forth her shoot and as the garden causes her seed to spring forth so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the Gentiles.