Isaiah, starting at chapter 49
{49:1} Listen, isles, to me; and listen, you peoples, from far:
Yahweh has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother has
he made mention of my name: {49:2} and he has made my mouth like a
sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand has he hid me: and he has made
me a polished shaft; in his quiver has he kept me close: {49:3} and he
said to me, You are my servant; Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
{49:4} But I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength
for nothing and vanity; yet surely the justice [due] to me is with
Yahweh, and my recompense with my God. {49:5} Now says Yahweh who
formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to
him, and that Israel be gathered to him (for I am honorable in the
eyes of Yahweh, and my God is become my strength); {49:6} yes, he
says, It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise
up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will
also give you for a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my
salvation to the end of the earth. {49:7} Thus says Yahweh, the
Redeemer of Israel, [and] his Holy One, to him whom man despises, to
him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers: Kings shall see
and arise; princes, and they shall worship; because of Yahweh who is
faithful, [even] the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you. {49:8}
Thus says Yahweh, In an acceptable time have I answered you, and in a
day of salvation have I helped you; and I will preserve you, and give
you for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to make them
inherit the desolate heritage: {49:9} saying to those who are bound,
Go forth; to those who are in darkness, Show yourselves. They shall
feed in the ways, and on all bare heights shall be their pasture.
{49:10} They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor
sun strike them: for he who has mercy on them will lead them, even by
springs of water will he guide them. {49:11} I will make all my
mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted. {49:12} Behold,
these shall come from far; and, behold, these from the north and from
the west; and these from the land of Sinim. {49:13} Sing, heavens; and
be joyful, earth; and break forth into singing, mountains: for Yahweh
has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted.
{49:14} But Zion said, Yahweh has forsaken me, and the Lord has
forgotten me. {49:15} Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she
should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yes, these may
forget, yet I will not forget you. {49:16} Behold, I have engraved you
on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.
{49:17} Your children make haste; your destroyers and those who made
you waste shall go forth from you. {49:18} Lift up your eyes round
about, and see: all these gather themselves together, and come to you.
As I live, says Yahweh, you shall surely clothe you with them all as
with an ornament, and gird yourself with them, like a bride. {49:19}
For, as for your waste and your desolate places, and your land that
has been destroyed, surely now shall you be too small for the
inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up shall be far away. {49:20}
The children of your bereavement shall yet say in your ears, The place
is too small for me; give place to me that I may dwell. {49:21} Then
shall you say in your heart, Who has conceived these for me, seeing I
have been bereaved of my children, and am solitary, an exile, and
wandering back and forth? and who has brought up these? Behold, I was
left alone; these, where were they? {49:22} Thus says the Lord Yahweh,
Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and set up my banner to
the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your
daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. {49:23} Kings shall be
your nursing fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers: they
shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust
of your feet; and you shall know that I am Yahweh; and those who wait
for me shall not be disappointed. {49:24} Shall the prey be taken from
the mighty, or the lawful captives be delivered? {49:25} But thus says
Yahweh, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the
prey of the terrible shall be delivered; for I will contend with him
who contends with you, and I will save your children. {49:26} I will
feed those who oppress you with their own flesh; and they shall be
drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall
know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One
of Jacob.
{50:1} Thus says Yahweh, Where is the bill of your mother's divorce,
with which I have put her away? or which of my creditors is it to whom
I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities were you sold, and for
your transgressions was your mother put away. {50:2} Why, when I came,
was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand
shortened at all, that it can't redeem? or have I no power to deliver?
Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness:
their fish stink, because there is no water, and die for thirst.
{50:3} I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their
covering. {50:4} The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of those who
are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is
weary: he wakens morning by morning, he wakens my ear to hear as those
who are taught. {50:5} The Lord Yahweh has opened my ear, and I was
not rebellious, neither turned away backward. {50:6} I gave my back to
the strikers, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair; I
didn't hide my face from shame and spitting. {50:7} For the Lord
Yahweh will help me; therefore I have not been confounded: therefore
have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be
disappointed. {50:8} He is near who justifies me; who will bring
charges against me? Let us stand up together: who is my adversary? Let
him come near to me. {50:9} Behold, the Lord Yahweh will help me; who
is he who shall condemn me? Behold, all they shall wax old as a
garment, the moth shall eat them up. {50:10} Who is among you who
fears Yahweh, who obeys the voice of his servant? He who walks in
darkness, and has no light, let him trust in the name of Yahweh, and
rely on his God. {50:11} Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who gird
yourselves about with firebrands; walk you in the flame of your fire,
and among the brands that you have kindled. This shall you have of my
hand; you shall lie down in sorrow.
{51:1} Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who
seek Yahweh: look to the rock whence you were hewn, and to the hold of
the pit whence you were dug. {51:2} Look to Abraham your father, and
to Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, and I
blessed him, and made him many. {51:3} For Yahweh has comforted Zion;
he has comforted all her waste places, and has made her wilderness
like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Yahweh; joy and gladness
shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. {51:4}
Attend to me, my people; and give ear to me, my nation: for a law
shall go forth from me, and I will establish my justice for a light of
the peoples. {51:5} My righteousness is near, my salvation is gone
forth, and my arms shall judge the peoples; the isles shall wait for
me, and on my arm shall they trust. {51:6} Lift up your eyes to the
heavens, and look on the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish
away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment; and those
who dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be
forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. {51:7} Listen to
me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law;
don't you fear the reproach of men, neither be you dismayed at their
insults. {51:8} For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the
worm shall eat them like wool; but my righteousness shall be forever,
and my salvation to all generations. {51:9} Awake, awake, put on
strength, arm of Yahweh; awake, as in the days of old, the generations
of ancient times. Isn't it you who did cut Rahab in pieces, who
pierced the monster? {51:10} Isn't it you who dried up the sea, the
waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the
redeemed to pass over? {51:11} The ransomed of Yahweh shall return,
and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy shall be on their
heads: they shall obtain gladness and joy; [and] sorrow and sighing
shall flee away. {51:12} I, even I, am he who comforts you: who are
you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man
who shall be made as grass; {51:13} and have forgotten Yahweh your
Maker, who stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of
the earth; and fear continually all the day because of the fury of the
oppressor, when he makes ready to destroy? and where is the fury of
the oppressor? {51:14} The captive exile shall speedily be freed; and
he shall not die [and go down] into the pit, neither shall his bread
fail. {51:15} For I am Yahweh your God, who stirs up the sea, so that
the waves of it roar: Yahweh of Armies is his name. {51:16} I have put
my words in your mouth, and have covered you in the shadow of my hand,
that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth,
and tell Zion, You are my people. {51:17} Awake, awake, stand up,
Jerusalem, that have drunk at the hand of Yahweh the cup of his wrath;
you have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.
{51:18} There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has
brought forth; neither is there any who takes her by the hand among
all the sons who she has brought up. {51:19} These two things have
happened to you. Who will bemoan you? Desolation and destruction, and
the famine and the sword; how shall I comfort you? {51:20} Your sons
have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as an antelope
in a net; they are full of the wrath of Yahweh, the rebuke of your
God. {51:21} Therefore hear now this, you afflicted, and drunken, but
now with wine: {51:22} Thus says your Lord Yahweh, and your God who
pleads the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of your hand
the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath; you shall
no more drink it again: {51:23} and I will put it into the hand of
those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, Bow down, that we
may go over; and you have laid your back as the ground, and as the
street, to those who go over.
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