56
God will bless all the nations
1 Yahweh says to all the people of Judah,
“Do the things that are fair and just,
because will soon come to rescue you.
2 I will bless those who faithfully obey my laws about the Sabbath
and who do not do things that are evil.
I will bless those who keep my Sabbath day sacred
and who do not do any work on the Sabbath
and who refrain from doing anything evil.
3 And foreigners who have accepted your religion should not say,
'Yahweh will surely exclude me from belonging to his people.'
And eunuchs should not say,
'Because I am unable to have children I cannot belong to Yahweh;
I am like a tree that has completely withered.'
4 'Because I, Yahweh, say this to the eunuchs
who obey my laws about the Sabbath
and who choose to do the things that please me
and who obey all the other laws of the agreement that I made with the Israeli people:
5 I will put inside the walls of my temple a monument to them;
it will be a monument that will be much greater than they would have if they had children;
the monument that I will give them will last forever;
it will never disappear.
6 I will also bless those who are not Israelis,
who join themselves to my people
and who serve me and worship me
and who do not disobey my laws about the Sabbath
and who faithfully obeys all the other laws of the agreement I made with the Israeli people.
7 I will bring them to my sacred hill in Jerusalem,
I will cause them to be very joyful in my temple where people pray to me,
I will accept the sacrifices that they completely burn on the altar and other sacrifices that they offer.
I will do those things for them because my temple is to be a building where people of all nations may pray to me.
8 I, Yahweh, the Lord, the one who will bring back the people of Israel who have been scattered/exiled to other countries, say this:
'I will bring bring from other countries many more people to join those Israelis that I have brought back.'
God promised to punish the Israeli leaders
9 You surrounding nations who are like [MET] animals in the forest,
come and attack/destroy Israel!
10 The Israeli leaders should be like watchdogs to protect the people,
but it is as though they are blind.
They are stupid.
They are like dogs that cannot bark.
Good watchdogs bark when there is danger,
but the Israeli leaders do not warn the people about danger.
They just want to lie down and sleep and dream.
11 And they are like greedy dogs;
they never get enough.
They are supposed to lead the people, like good shepherds lead their flocks,
but they are ignorant,
and they each do whatever they want to.
12 They say to each other, “Come, let's go and get some wine and other strong drinks,
and let's get drunk!
And tomorrow we will enjoy drinking even more!”
Note: The Old Testament in this translation is still being worked on, and is in draft form. Updates will be posted at eBible.org/t4t/.