55:1 “ ①You there! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
And you who have no ②money come, buy and eat.
Come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without cost.
▷ ①Lit Hoy ②Lit silver
55:2 Why do you ①spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And delight yourself in abundance.
▷ ①Lit weigh out silver
55:3 Incline your ear and come to Me.
Listen, that ①you may live;
And I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
According to the faithful mercies ②shown to David.
▷ ①Lit your soul ②Lit of David
55:4 Behold, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
A leader and commander for the peoples.
55:5 Behold, you will call a nation you do not know,
And a nation which does not know you will run to you,
Because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel;
For He has glorified you.”
55:6 Seek the LORD while He may be found;
Call upon Him while He is near.
55:7 Let the wicked abandon his way,
And the unrighteous person his thoughts;
And let him return to the LORD,
And He will have compassion on him,
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
55:8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.
55:9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
55:10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
And do not return there without watering the earth
And making it produce and sprout,
And providing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
55:11 So will My word be which goes out of My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the purpose for which I sent it.
55:12 For you will go out with joy
And be led in peace;
The mountains and the hills will break into shouts of joy before you,
And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
55:13 Instead of the thorn bush, the juniper will come up,
And instead of the stinging nettle, the myrtle will come up;
And ①it will be a ②memorial to the LORD,
An everlasting sign which will not be eliminated.”
▷ ①I.e., the transformation of the desert ②Lit name