Isaiah, chapter 55

The Lord's Invitation

C If you are thirsty, come and drink water!

If you don't have any money, come, eat what you want!

Drink wine and milk without paying a cent.

²Why waste your money on what really isn't food?

Why work hard for something that doesn't satisfy?

Listen carefully to me,

and you will enjoy the very best foodsI.

³ C Pay close attention! Come to me and live.

I will promise you the eternal love and loyalty

that I promised David.

⁴I made him the leader and ruler of the nations;

he was my witness to them.

⁵ CYou will call out to nations you have never known.

And they have never known you,

but they will come running because I am the Lord,

the holy God of Israel, and I have honored you.

God's Words Are Powerful

⁶Turn to the Lord! He can still be found.

Call out to God! He is near.

⁷Give up your evil ways and your evil thoughts.

Return to the Lord our GodI.

He will be merciful and forgive your sins.

⁸ CThe Lord says: “My thoughts and my ways

are not like yours.

⁹Just as the heavens are higher than the earth,

my thoughts and my ways are higher than yours.

¹⁰“Rain and snow fall from the sky.

But they don't return without watering the earth

that produces seeds to plant and grain to eat.

¹¹That's how it is with my wordsI.

They don't return to me without doing everything

I send them to do.”

God's People Will Celebrate

¹²When you are set freeH, you will celebrate

and travel home in peace.

Mountains and hills will sing as you pass by,

and trees will clap.

The Lord says, When you are set free, you will celebrate and travel home in peace. Mountains and hills will sing as you pass by, and trees will clap.

— Isa 55.12

¹³Cypress and myrtle treesO will grow in fields

once covered by thorns.

And then those trees will stand as a lasting witness

to the glory of the Lord.