The Lord's Invitation
1 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.
2 Why 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 foods.
3 Pay close attention!
Come to me and live.
I will promise you
the eternal love and loyalty
that I promised David.
4 I made him the leader and ruler
of the nations;
he was my witness to them.
5 You 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
6 Turn to the Lord!
He can still be found.
Call out to God! He is near.
7 Give up your evil ways
and your evil thoughts.
Return to the Lord our God.
He will be merciful
and forgive your sins.
8 The Lord says:
“My thoughts and my ways
are not like yours.
9 Just 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.
11 That's how it is with my words.
They don't return to me
without doing everything
I send them to do.”
God's People Will Celebrate
12 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.
13 Cypress and myrtle trees
will grow in fields
once covered by thorns.
And then those trees will stand
as a lasting witness
to the glory of the Lord.
1 Ho, euery one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and ye that haue no siluer, come, bye and eate: come, I say, bye wine and milke without siluer and without money. 2 Wherefore doe ye lay out siluer and not for bread? and your labour without being satisfied? hearken diligently vnto me, and eate that which is good, and let your soule delite in fatnes. 3 Encline your eares, and come vnto me: heare, and your soule shall liue, and I will make an euerlasting couenant with you, euen the sure mercies of Dauid. 4 Beholde, I gaue him for a witnes to the people, for a prince and a master vnto the people. 5 Beholde, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and a nation that knew not thee, shall runne vnto thee, because of the Lord thy God, and the holy one of Israel: for hee hath glorified thee. 6 Seeke ye the Lord while he may be found: call ye vpon him while he is neere. 7 Let the wicked forsake his wayes, and the vnrighteous his owne imaginations, and returne vnto the Lord, and he wil haue mercy vpon him: and to our God, for hee is very ready to forgiue. 8 For my thoughtes are not your thoughts, neither are your wayes my wayes, sayth the Lord. 9 For as ye heauens are higher then the earth, so are my wayes higher then your wayes, and my thoughtes aboue your thoughts. 10 Surely as the raine commeth downe and the snow from heauen, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth and maketh it to bring forth and bud, that it may giue seede to the sower, and bread vnto him that eateth, 11 So shall my worde be, that goeth out of my mouth: it shall not returne vnto me voyde, but it shall accomplish that which I will, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. 12 Therefore ye shall go out with ioy, and be led forth with peace: the mountaines and the hilles shall breake foorth before you into ioye, and all the trees of the fielde shall clap their handes. 13 For thornes there shall grow firre trees: for nettles shall growe the myrrhe tree, and it shalbe to the Lord for a name, and for an euerlasting signe that shall not be taken away.