Isaiah 55 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

"Come, everyone who is thirsty — come to the water! You who have no money — come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money, without cost."

Why spend money on what isn't bread? Why work so hard for what never satisfies? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is truly good — let your whole being feast on richness.

Turn your ear and come to me; listen, and you will truly live. I will make an unbreakable agreement with you — the same faithful, enduring love I promised David.

Look — I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander of nations.

Look — you will call out to nations you don't know, and nations that don't know you will come running to you, because of Yahweh your God, the One set apart over Israel — because he has made you radiant.

Seek Yahweh while he can be found; call out to him while he is near.

Let the corrupt abandon their way of life, and the destructive person their schemes. Let them return to Yahweh — he will have compassion on them — and to our God, because he forgives over and over and over.

"My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts, and your ways are nothing like my ways," declares Yahweh.

"As high as the sky is above the earth — that's how far my ways are above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts."

Rain and snow fall from the sky and don't return there without first soaking the earth, making it sprout and bloom, giving seed to the farmer and bread to the hungry.

That's exactly how my word works — when it goes out from my mouth it doesn't come back to me empty. It accomplishes what I want and succeeds in what I sent it to do.

You will go out with joy and be led forward in wholeness. The mountains and hills will burst into singing in front of you, and all the trees in the open country will clap their hands.

Instead of thornbushes, cypress trees will grow. Instead of nettles, myrtle trees will rise. This will stand as a legacy for Yahweh, an everlasting sign that will never be erased.