Isaiah 61

Berean Standard Bible

Chapter summary

The speaker states that the Spirit of the Lord God is upon Him to bring good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, and proclaim liberty to captives. He provides comfort, beauty, and joy to the mourners in Zion so they may rebuild ancient ruins and restore devastated cities. Foreigners will tend the flocks and fields while the people are designated as priests and ministers of God, receiving a double portion instead of shame. The Lord declares His love for justice and promises an everlasting covenant and recompense, making the descendants recognized among the nations as a blessed people. The speaker rejoices greatly in the Lord for clothing Him with garments of salvation and a robe of righteousness. Finally, the chapter concludes by comparing the Lord's provision of righteousness and praise before all nations to the natural growth of a garden.

Summary automatically generated from the Bible text.

Words of Jesus in red

¹The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners, ²to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of our God’s vengeance, to comfort all who mourn, ³to console the mourners in Zion— to give them a crown of beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and a garment of praise for a spirit of despair. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified. ⁴They will rebuild the ancient ruins; they will restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations. ⁵Strangers will stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners will be your plowmen and vinedressers. ⁶But you will be called the priests of the LORD; they will speak of you as ministers of our God; you will feed on the wealth of nations, and you will boast in their riches. ⁷Instead of shame, My people will have a double portion, and instead of humiliation, they will rejoice in their share; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs. ⁸For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity; in My faithfulness I will give them their recompense and make an everlasting covenant with them. ⁹Their descendants will be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the LORD has blessed. ¹⁰I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom wears a priestly headdress, as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. ¹¹For as the earth brings forth its growth, and as a garden enables seed to spring up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.

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Louis Segond 1910 and Berean Standard Bible: public domain. Cross references: open-cross-ref, Creative Commons BY 4.0.