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New Testament
Isaiah 55
Come to the Water
even if you have no money!
Come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
2Why do you spend money on something that is not bread?
Why do you waste your labor on something that does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good.
Satisfy your appetite with rich food.
3Turn your ear toward me, and come to me.
Listen, so that you may continue to live.
The Creator's Everlasting Covenant
Yes, I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
the faithful mercies promised to David.
4Look, I appointed him as a witness for peoples,
a leader and commander of peoples.
5Look, you will call out to a nation you do not know,
and a nation that does not know you will run to you,
on account of the Lord your God,
because of the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.
6Seek the Lord while he may be found!
Call on him while he is near!
7Let the wicked man abandon his way.
Let an evil man abandon his thoughts.
Let him turn to the Lord,
and he will show him mercy.
Let him turn to our God,
because he will abundantly pardon.
8Certainly my plans are not your plans,
and your ways are not my ways, declares the Lord.
9Just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways,
and my plans are higher than your plans.
10Just as the rain and the snow come down from the sky
and do not return there
unless they first water the earth, make it give birth, and cause it to sprout,
so that it gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11in the same way my word that goes out from my mouth
will not return to me empty.
Rather, it will accomplish whatever I please,
and it will succeed in the purpose for which I sent it.
12Yes, you will go out with joy,
and in peace you will be carried along.
The mountains and the hills will break out in shouts of joy before you,
and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
13Instead of thorns, a fir tree will grow up.
Instead of briers, a myrtle tree will grow up.
This will make a name for the Lord.
It will serve as an everlasting sign that will not be cut off.
Footnotes
- 55:1 English hey expresses the same urgency as the Hebrew hoi. It is the cry of the street vendor who is eager to sell.