Isaiah 55

Listen! Everyone who is thirsty, come to the water. And you who have no money, come, buy food, and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without paying anything at all.

1Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

NoteThe verse is shaped like a street vendor's cry in an ancient marketplace (the opening word is the shout used to hail passers-by, and "buy" translates a Hebrew verb used specifically of buying grain rations. Water, wine and milk were not luxuries but the ordinary marks of a well-supplied household: water for life, wine and milk for a table that has more than the minimum. The paradox is deliberate) a market call in which nothing costs anything.

2Why do you spend money on what is not bread? Why do you work hard for what never fills you up? Listen closely to me, and eat what is good. Then you will enjoy the richest food.

2Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

Note"Bread" in Hebrew regularly stands for food in general, not only baked loaves. The word translated "fatness", rendered here as "the richest food", refers to the fat of meat, which in the ancient diet was the choicest and most prized part, so it stands for the best of everything. The word behind "your soul" (Hebrew nephesh) means the whole living self, including appetite and throat, not an immaterial part of a person; "let your soul delight itself" is closer to "enjoy yourself thoroughly."

3Turn your ear toward me and come to me. Listen, and you will live. I will make a lasting agreement with you that will never end. It is the faithful love I promised to David.

3Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

NoteA covenant was a formal, binding agreement, sworn and publicly witnessed, of the kind made between a king and his people or between two rulers, closer to a treaty than to a private promise. "The sure mercies of David" translates a phrase meaning the reliable acts of loyal love pledged to David: the standing promise, known to Isaiah's hearers, that David's line would endure. "Sure" here carries its older sense of "firm, guaranteed," not "probable."

4Look, I made him someone who tells the nations the truth about me. I made him a leader and a commander over the peoples.

4Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.

NoteThe Hebrew leaves open who "him" is: David himself, remembered as the one whose reign testified to God before surrounding nations, or a coming ruler of David's line. Translations divide, and the ambiguity is in the text. A "witness" is a legal term, the person who stands up and states publicly what he knows to be true, as in a court case. "Commander" translates a word for one who gives orders, whether a military or civil chief.

5Look, you will call to a nation you do not know, and nations that never knew you will come running to you. This is because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has given you honor.

5Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.

Note"LORD" printed in capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew letters (YHWH) which Jewish readers by this period did not pronounce aloud, saying "my Lord" instead; English versions follow that practice with the capitals. "The Holy One of Israel" is a title for God used more in Isaiah than in the whole rest of the Hebrew Bible; "holy" here means set apart and utterly other, not simply morally good. "Call" means summon, to send for someone the way a ruler sends for a subject.

6Look for the LORD while he can still be found. Call out to him while he is near.

6Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

7Let the evil person leave the way he is living, and let the person who does wrong leave his own way of thinking behind. Let him come back to the LORD, and the LORD will show him pity. Let him come back to our God, who will forgive him completely.

7Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Note"Return" translates the ordinary Hebrew verb for turning around and going back the way you came. It is the standard word for what English Bibles elsewhere call repentance: not primarily a feeling of regret but a change of direction. "His way" and "his thoughts" are a matched pair, conduct and the plans behind it, and the same two words are picked up in verse 8.

8"My thoughts are not like your thoughts, and my ways are not like your ways," says the LORD.

8For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

9"The sky is high above the earth. In the same way, my ways are far above your ways, and my thoughts are far above your thoughts.

9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

10Rain and snow fall from the sky, and they do not go back up there without doing anything. They water the ground and make plants sprout and grow. They give seed to the farmer who plants and food to the person who eats.

10For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

NoteIn the farming year of ancient Israel the rains came in two seasons, and everything depended on them; snow fell on the northern heights and fed the streams. "Give seed to the sower" refers to the fact that a harvest had to supply two things at once: grain to eat now, and grain held back to plant next year.

11My word works the same way when it goes out of my mouth. It will not come back to me empty. It will do what I want it to do, and it will succeed at the task I sent it to do.

11So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

NoteA spoken word is pictured here as a messenger sent out on an errand by a king. Such an envoy would carry out his commission and then come back to report; to "return void" is to come back empty-handed, having failed. The image works because in Hebrew a word once uttered was thought of as something released and active, not merely a sound.

12You will go out with joy, and you will be led out in peace. The mountains and the hills will burst into song in front of you, and all the trees in the fields will clap their hands.

12For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Note"Go out" and "be led forth" are the words used of leaving a place of captivity in procession, the same language used of Israel leaving Egypt. Isaiah's hearers, facing or living in exile in Babylon, would have heard a departure homeward. Trees clapping hands and hills singing belong to a standard Hebrew way of speaking in which the landscape joins in a celebration.

13Where there were thorn bushes, cypress trees will grow. Where there were prickly weeds, myrtle trees will grow. This will bring honor to the LORD's name. It will be a sign that lasts forever and is never wiped out.

13Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

NoteThorn bushes and briers were what grew on land that had gone out of cultivation (the visible sign of abandoned or ruined country. The cypress (KJV "fir") and the myrtle were valued trees: the first tall and useful for building, the second an evergreen with fragrant leaves used at festivals. The contrast is between wasteland and settled, tended ground. "For a name" means as a memorial or monument, something that keeps a reputation alive; a "sign" is a standing marker that points back to what happened. "Cut off" continues the tree imagery) this monument will not be felled.