Isaiah 56 - Modern English Version

Salvation for the Nations

¹ Thus says the Lord: Preserve justice and do righteousness, for My salvation is about to come and My righteousness to be revealed.

² Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who takes hold of it, who keeps from polluting the Sabbath and keeps his hand from doing any evil.

³ Do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord speak, saying, “The Lord has utterly separated me from His people”; do not let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”

⁴ For thus says the Lord: To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose the things that please Me, and take hold of My covenant,

⁵ to them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial, and a name better than that of sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.

⁶ Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, and to be His servants, to everyone who keeps from polluting the Sabbath and takes hold of My covenant,

⁷ even them I will bring to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted on My altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.

⁸ The Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel says, Yet I will gather others to them besides those who already are gathered to him.

God Accuses the Wicked

⁹ All you beasts of the field, all you beasts in the forest, come to devour.

¹⁰ His watchmen are blind; they all are ignorant; they all are dumb dogs, unable to bark; sleepers lying down, who love to slumber.

¹¹ They are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds who cannot understand; they all turn to their own way, every one for his gain, from his territory.

¹² “Come,” they say, “let us get wine, and let us fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as today, only more so.”