Isaiah, starting at chapter 49
{49:1} Listen, islands, 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 nations,
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
he will 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 all
around, 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 you
shall 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 you
will 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. You shall have this 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 cut, 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 islands 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
its waves 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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