Isa 60 | EE | STEP | Stand up and shine! Do that because your light has come! And the glory of the LORD has risen over you.

Isaiah 60

The first Song of the Messiah

1 Stand up and shine! Do that because your light has come! And the glory of the LORD has risen over you. ^{▼▼60:1 The word ‘light’ here is a name for God’s Messiah. See John 9:5.}

2 Look, because a dark cloud covers the earth. It is very dark over the people. But the LORD will rise up above you and everyone (in the world) will see his glory over you.

3 Then, people will come to your light from foreign countries. Also, kings will come to the bright light that is beginning to shine over you.

4 Open your eyes and look all round you. Everybody is coming together and they are coming to you. Your sons will come from a long way away and you will carry your daughters in your arms.

5 Then you will look and you will shine! And you will feel like your heart is jumping. And it will feel bigger inside you. That will happen because they will bring valuable things from across the seas to you. The valuable things from other countries will come to you.

6 Groups of camels will be in your country. Young camels will come from Midian and from Ephah. And everybody from Sheba will come. They will carry gold and incense. Also, they will talk about how great the LORD is.

7 People will bring to you all the farm-animals from Kedar. They will offer the male sheep from Nebaioth to you. I will accept them when people offer them to me on my altar. So, I will make my great temple beautiful.

8 They are the people who fly along quickly like clouds. They come like birds to their homes.

9 They do that because the islands are looking for me. They are hoping that I will come. The ships from Tarshish are at the front of the people who are coming. They bring your sons from a long way away. And they bring silver and gold. They will come to the place where the name of LORD your God is important. He is the Holy God of Israel. They do that because he has made you beautiful.

10 And the sons of strangers will build your walls again. Also, their kings will be your servants. I hit you when I was angry. But I will be kind to you now that I am not angry with you.

11 Your gates will always be open. People will never close them, during the day or during the night. Then, people can bring in to you valuable things from other countries. Their kings will come with them.

12 Enemies will destroy the country or the kingdom where the people will not be your servant. Enemies will completely destroy those nations.

13 The glory of Lebanon will come to you. Its glory is its pine trees, its fir trees and its cypress trees. They will make my temple beautiful. And I will put my glory where my feet touch the earth.

14 The people who were cruel to you will come to you. They will bend in front of you. And everybody who did not like you will come to you. They will bend on their knees at your feet. And they will call you, ‘The City of the LORD’. And they will say, ‘You are Zion. You belong to the Holy God of Israel.’

15 People have kept away from you and they have not liked you. Nobody travelled through you. But now, everybody will always think that you are great. And now, everybody will always be happy because of you.

16 And you it will be like you are drinking the milk of other countries. And it will be like the breasts of queens are feeding you. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have made you safe. You will know that I am your Redeemer. And you will know that I am the very strong God of Jacob.

17 I will not bring you bronze. But I will bring you gold instead. I will not bring you iron. But I will bring you silver instead. And you will not have wood. You will have bronze instead. I will not bring you stones. But I will bring you iron instead. And I will make peace your ruler and righteousness will rule over you.

18 You will not hear in your country the noise that cruel people make. Nobody will break or destroy anything inside the edges of your country. And you will call your walls ‘A Safe Place’ and you will call your gates ‘Praise’.

19 The sun will not give you light in the day again; neither will the moon shine brightly on you. But instead the LORD will always be your light and your God will be your glory.

20 Your sun will never go down again and your moon will never disappear. That is because the LORD will always be your light. Then your sad days will have an end.

21 Then all your people will be righteous and they will always have the land. They will be like a small plant that I have planted. They will be the work that my hands have made. They will show that I am beautiful.

22 The least person will become a thousand people and the smallest person will become a strong country. I am the LORD. When it happens, I will do it quickly.