A watchman prays and calls forth a burning torch

Isaiah 62

Isaiah’s Prayer for Jerusalem

¹ Because I love Zion,
I will not keep still.
Because my heart yearns for Jerusalem,
I cannot remain silent.
I will not stop praying for her
until her righteousness shines like the dawn,
and her salvation blazes like a burning torch.
² The nations will see your righteousness.
World leaders will be blinded by your glory.
And you will be given a new name
by the Lord’s own mouth.
³ The Lord will hold you in his hand for all to see—
a splendid crown in the hand of God.
⁴ Never again will you be called “The Forsaken City”^[a]
or “The Desolate Land.”^[b]
Your new name will be “The City of God’s Delight”^[c]
and “The Bride of God,”^[d]
for the Lord delights in you
and will claim you as his bride.
⁵ Your children will commit themselves to you, O Jerusalem,
just as a young man commits himself to his bride.
Then God will rejoice over you
as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride.
⁶ O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls;
they will pray day and night, continually.
Take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord.
⁷ Give the Lord no rest until he completes his work,
until he makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth.
⁸ The Lord has sworn to Jerusalem by his own strength:
“I will never again hand you over to your enemies.
Never again will foreign warriors come
and take away your grain and new wine.
⁹ You raised the grain, and you will eat it,
praising the Lord.
Within the courtyards of the Temple,
you yourselves will drink the wine you have pressed.”
¹⁰ Go out through the gates!
Prepare the highway for my people to return!
Smooth out the road; pull out the boulders;
raise a flag for all the nations to see.
¹¹ The Lord has sent this message to every land:
“Tell the people of Israel,^[e]
‘Look, your Savior is coming.
See, he brings his reward with him as he comes.’”
¹² They will be called “The Holy People”
and “The People Redeemed by the Lord.”
And Jerusalem will be known as “The Desirable Place”
and “The City No Longer Forsaken.”

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