Listen, heaven and earth,
for the Lord is speaking:

"The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib.
But my people have rebelled against me.

I am tired of your hypocritical lives,
tired of offerings given with dirty hands.

You are so greedy for profit,
always looking for bribes.

Take your wrong-doing out of my sight.
Stop doing evil. Learn to do good.

Practise justice towards the poor.
Help the oppressed, the orphan and the widow.

Then, though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow."

Lord, please help me "wash my hands" by doing good for poor people

All the nations will come to it and say:
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
that he may teach us his ways
so that we may walk in his paths".

When they learn the ways of the Lord,
then the nations will hammer their swords into ploughshares,
their spears into sickles.

Nation will not lift sword against nation,
there will be no more training for war.

O House of Jacob, come,
let us walk in the light of the Lord!

Lord, please help world leaders do more for peace in our world

Jerusalem's leaders mislead the people
and lead the way in doing wrong.

But soon the Lord will take action.
He will raise up a people who are good.

The Lord will protect these special people.
He will be their refuge and help.

Lord, please help our nation to avoid evil and do good

The Lord expected the people of Israel to produce justice.
But those people have produced only bloodshed and injustice.

Those people have no time to think about the Lord.
They have no interest in what he has done for them.

So they are consigning themselves to ruin.
The vineyard will be trampled on and become a waste.

Invaders will attack Israel.
The people of Israel will be taken into exile.
All because they rejected the Lord.

"I am the true vine. My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that bears no fruit   he cuts away.  Every branch that does bear fruit he prunes to make it bear even more" -  Jesus  (Jn 15.1-2)

Above the Lord were 6 angels who cried out
"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God.
His glory fills the whole earth."

Then I heard a voice asking
"Whom shall I send? Who will be our messenger?"

I answered "Here I am, send me."

Then the Lord sent me to be a prophet to the people

Here I am, Lord, send me.
I'm willing to do anything you want me to do

God told Isaiah to say to the king of Judah:
"Keep calm, have no fear.  You will not be defeated.

The Lord himself  gives you a sign of his protection:
a maiden is with child and will give birth to a son
whom she will call God-with-us."

Lord,  please help me understand how you are God-with-me every day

For the yoke that was weighing on them,
the rod of their oppressor,
you have broken and removed.

For there is a child born for us,
a son given to us
and dominion is laid on his shoulders.

And he will be called Wonder-Counselor, Mighty-God,
Eternal-Father, Prince-of-Peace.

Lord, please help me understand
how the words of this chapter refer to your Son, Jesus

A day of reckoning is coming
when unjust legislators will answer to the Lord.

The Lord will send a good and just king
to rescue the poor.

A shoot will spring from the stock of Jesse,
on him the spirit of the Lord will rest,

a spirit of wisdom and insight,
a spirit of counsel and power,

a spirit of knowledge,
a spirit of love and respect for the Lord.

He will judge justly
and the land will know peace.

The country will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord.
Exiles will return to their homeland.

Then we will draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation,
for great in our midst will be the Holy One of Israel.

Lord, please help governments to do more for poor people

Then people will no longer worship idols made by human hands.
Instead, people will look towards their Creator.

The nations will be converted and know the Lord.
Egypt and Assyria will be blessed like Israel.

The Lord will give his blessing in these words:
"Blessed be my people Egypt,
blessed be Assyria my creation, and blessed be Israel my heritage".

Lord, please help all Middle East countries,
 especially Israel, Egypt, Iran and Iraq, to be friends

Trust in the Lord, not in military might.
Israel is going the wrong way in forgetting God's protection.

It has no thought for its Maker,
no eyes for him who shaped everything long ago.

The reason why the earth is without rain and crops
is that people have forgotten their Creator.

Lord, please increase my trust in you,
and help all nations remember you

On this mountain
he will delete Death.

The Lord will wipe away
the tears from every cheek.

Lord, you are my God,
I extol you, I praise your name.

You, Lord, are a refuge for the poor,
a refuge for the needy in distress.

Lord, please give hope and courage
to people who are sad and troubled in the world today

Lord, we trust in you, we hope in you.
At night our hearts long for you.

Lord, when we shelter under your protection
you give us peace.

Lord, please help us trust you more

They honor me only with lip-service
while their hearts are far from me.

Religion has become just a mental exercise,
just a series of human laws."

The Lord appeals to everyone:
trust in him and cease to do evil.

Salvation is found in conversion and tranquility.
Strength is found in complete trust in the Lord.

Lord, please help us honor you with our hearts as well as our heads

Help and salvation come from the Lord who says:

"Once more I will send the good rain.
Then shall the wilderness be fertile land
and fertile land will become a forest.

In the wilderness justice will come to live
and integrity in the fertile land.
Integrity will bring peace,
and justice will bring security.

My people will live in a peaceful home,
in safe houses, in quiet dwellings."

Lord, please give our world a bit more peace

Strengthen all weary hands,
steady all trembling knees,
and say to all faint hearts
"Courage! Do not be afraid. The Lord is coming to save you."

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
the ears of the deaf unsealed.

Then the lame shall leap like a deer,
and the tongues of the dumb sing for joy.

Exiles will return to Zion shouting for joy,
everlasting joy on their faces.

Joy and gladness will go with them.
Sorrow and lament will be ended.

Lord, please heal the friends I know who are blind, deaf, dumb....

A voice cries out "Prepare in the wilderness a way for the Lord.
Make a straight highway for our God across every desert.

Let every valley be filled in,
every mountain and hill be laid low.

Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed
and all people will see the Lord's glory."

Go up on a high mountain,
joyful messenger to Zion.

Shout with a loud voice,
joyful messenger to Jerusalem.

Shout to the towns of Judah
"Here is your God".

Lord, please help me prepare your way
 into my heart, into  my family, into my world

Stop being anxious and worried.
I am your God. I give you strength and help.

Here is my servant whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom my soul delights.

I have endowed him with my spirit
that he may bring true justice to the nations.

He does not cry out or shout aloud.
He does not extinguish the wavering flame.

I have called him to serve the cause of right,
to open the eyes of the blind,
to free captives from prison".

Lord, please help me understand how "my servant" is Jesus

The Lord says:

Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you.
I have called you by your name, you are mine.

If you travel over the seas, I will be with you.
If you travel on great rivers, I will protect you.

For I am the Lord, your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your savior.

They are ignorant, those who carry around an idol made of wood,
those who pray to a lump of wood that cannot hear.

Turn to me and be saved
all peoples of the world.

Lord, please help me be more aware of your protection
each day and night

The Lord called me before I was born.
From my mother's womb he knew my name.

While I was thinking that I had toiled in vain,
all the while my cause was with the Lord.

The Lord who formed me in the womb
and assigned me to rescue his people,

that same Lord  said to me:

'I will make you the light of the nations,
so that my salvation will reach to the ends of the earth'.

The Lord also says to his people:

"Does a woman forget her baby,
or a mother the child within her womb?
Yet even if these forget, I will never forget you".

Chapter 50

The Lord has opened my ear to hear his message.
The Lord has given me words to proclaim his message.

For my part, I made no resistance,
neither did I turn away.

I offered my back to those who struck me,
my cheeks to those who tore at my beard.

I did not protect my face
from insult and spittle.

I set my face like flint.
The Lord will help me.

Lord, please help me understand how these words refer to Jesus

Chapter 51, 52

Pay attention to me, you peoples.
Listen to me, you nations.

The islands put their hope in the Lord.
They put their trust in his strength.

How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of one who brings good news,
who proclaims peace and salvation,
and tells Zion "Your God is king!"

Break into shouts of joy, you ruins of Jerusalem,
for the Lord is redeeming his people.

All the ends of the earth
shall see the salvation of our God.

Lord, may more and more people in more and more countries
know you and love you.

Chapter 53  (first part from Chapter 52)

See, my servant will prosper,
he shall be lifted up and exalted.

As the crowds were appalled on seeing him
- so disfigured did he look -
so will the crowds be astonished at him,
for they will see something that has never happened before.

Without beauty, without majesty,  we saw him.
He was despised and rejected,
a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering.
He was despised and we took no account of him.

And yet ours were the sufferings he bore,
ours the sorrows he carried.

He was pierced through for our faults,
crushed for our sins.

On him lies a punishment that brings us peace,
and through his wounds we are healed.

We had all gone astray like sheep,
and the Lord burdened him with our sins.

Harshly dealt with, he bore it humbly,
never opening his mouth.

He let himself be taken for a sinner,
and all the time he was suffering and praying for sinners.

Jesus, these words refer to you.
Thank you for all you suffered to redeem the world.

Chapters 54, 55

Though the mountains may fall and the hills turn to dust,
the love of the Lord will never cease.

O come to the water, all you are thirsty,
though you have no money, come.

Why spend your money on what is useless,
your wages on what fails to satisfy?

Seek the Lord while he is to be found.
Call to him while he is near.

Lord,  please help us give more time to things that are important
....and less time to things that are not so important.

Chapter 56

Foreigners who love and serve the Lord
- these I will bring to my holy mountain, says the Lord.

I will make them joyful in my house of prayer,
for my house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations.

Lord, please help all peoples of the world
know that you are their loving Creator

Chapters  57, 58

Tell my people their faults,
tell the House of Jacob its sins.

Tell them that their fasting is a sham.
Fasting and injustice cannot go together.

This is the sort of fast that pleases the Lord:
breaking unjust fetters,
sharing your bread with the hungry
sheltering and clothing the homeless poor.

Do this and you will find healing and peace.
Do this and the Lord will give strength to your bones.

Lord, please help me do more to help poor people

Chapters 59, 60

Arise, shine out, for your light has come.
The glory of the Lord is rising on you,
though the rest of the world is still in darkness.

The nations come to your light
and kings to your dawning brightness.

People from other lands are coming to you,
bringing gold and incense
and singing the praise of the Lord.

No more will the sun give you daylight,
nor moonlight shine on you,

for the Lord himself will be your everlasting light.
Then your days of mourning will be ended.

Lord Jesus, you are the light of the world.
Please give more light to my life.

Chapter 61

The spirit of the Lord has been given to me,
for the Lord has anointed me.

He has sent me to bring good news to the poor,
to bind up broken hearts,

to proclaim liberty to captives,
freedom to those in prison.

to comfort people who mourn,
to replace their sadness with praise.

I exult for joy in the Lord,
my soul rejoices in my God,

for as the earth makes plants to grow,
and as a garden makes seeds spring up,

so the Lord will make integrity and praise
spring up in the sight of the nations.

Chapters  62 - 66

The Lord says:
"My eyes are drawn to the humble and contrite person
who lovingly meditates on my word.

Towards Jerusalem I will send peace,
flowing like a river.

I am going to gather the nations of every language.
All peoples will know and love me

Lord, please give me more love for the Bible. Please give the world more peace.  Please help all peoples know and love you.