Isaiah 61:1-11·~1 min

The Year of the LORD’s Favor

The Spirit of the Lord GOD rests on the anointed speaker, who is sent to proclaim good news to the afflicted, healing to the brokenhearted, liberty to captives, and the opening of confinement to prisoners. His message announces the LORD's favor and vengeance together, comforting Zion's mourners by exchanging ashes for beauty, mourning for gladness, and a faint spirit for praise so that they become oaks of righteousness planted for the LORD's glory.

T¹he Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me, ²to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor ³to console the mourners in Zion —

The restored people rebuild ancient ruins and long-devastated cities while strangers and foreigners serve alongside them, reflecting a reordered world in which God's people are called priests and ministers of the LORD. Shame gives way to double inheritance and everlasting joy because the LORD loves justice, hates robbery and wrong, and establishes an everlasting covenant that makes their descendants openly recognized among the nations as a people the LORD has blessed.

⁴They will rebuild the ancient ruins; ⁵Strangers will stand and feed your flocks, ⁶But you will be called the priests of the LORD; ⁷Instead of shame, My people will have a double portion, ⁸For I, the LORD, love justice; ⁹Their descendants will be known among the nations,

The chapter closes in exultation as the speaker rejoices greatly in the LORD, comparing God's gift of salvation and righteousness to wedding garments and bridal adornment. Just as the earth brings forth growth and a garden sprouts what is sown, so the Lord GOD causes righteousness and praise to spring up before all nations.

¹⁰I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, ¹¹For as the earth brings forth its growth,

Section summaryThe chapter's single movement opens with the Spirit-anointed speaker declaring His mission to bring good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty, and comfort Zion's mourners by replacing grief with beauty and praise. It then describes the rebuilding of ancient ruins, the elevation of God's people into priestly service among the nations, the reversal of shame into everlasting joy, and the LORD's promise of faithful recompense and everlasting covenant, before ending in jubilant celebration that He has clothed His people with salvation and will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all nations.

Role in the chapterThis section unites the mission of the anointed herald with the full social, covenantal, and celebratory renewal that follows the LORD's saving favor.