God's New Bible

The Book of the Prophet Isaiah

Catholic Public Domain Version 2009

- Chapter 56 -

1
Thus says the Lord: Preserve judgment, and accomplish justice. For my salvation is close to its arrival, and my justice is close to being revealed.
2
Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds to this, keeping the Sabbath and not profaning it, guarding his hands and not doing any evil.
3
And let not the son of the new arrival, who adheres to the Lord, speak, saying, “The Lord will divide and separate me from his people.” And let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”
4
For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs: They will keep my Sabbaths, and they will choose the things that I will, and they will hold to my covenant.
5
I will give them a place in my house, within my walls, and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name, which will never perish.
6
And the sons of the new arrival, who adhere to the Lord so as to worship him and to love his name, shall be his servants: all who keep the Sabbath without profaning it, and who hold to my covenant.
7
I will lead them to my holy mountain, and I will gladden them in my house of prayer. Their holocausts and their victims will be pleasing to me upon my altar. For my house will be called the house of prayer for all peoples.
8
The Lord God, who gathers the dispersed of Israel, says: Even now, I will gather his congregation to him.

Israel’s Sinful Leaders

9
All beasts of the field, all the beasts of the forest: approach and devour!
10
His watchmen are all blind. They are all ignorant. They are mute dogs without the ability to bark, seeing empty things, sleeping and loving dreams.
11
And these very imprudent dogs have never known satisfaction. The shepherds themselves do not know understanding. All have turned aside in their own way, each one to his own avarice, from the highest even to the least:
12
“Come, let us take wine, and be filled by inebriation. And as it is today, so shall it be tomorrow and for a long time.”