Isaiah, starting at chapter 49
{49:1} Listen, islands, to me; and listen, you peoples, from far: the
LORD 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 the LORD, and my
recompense with my God. {49:5} Now says the LORD 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 the LORD, 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 the LORD, 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 the LORD who is
faithful, [even] the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.
{49:8} Thus says the LORD, 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 the LORD has comforted
his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted. {49:14}
But Zion said, the LORD 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 the LORD, 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 GOD, 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 the LORD; 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 the
LORD, 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, the LORD, am your
Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
{50:1} Thus says the LORD, 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 GOD 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
GOD 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 GOD 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 GOD 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 the LORD, who obeys the voice of his servant? He
who walks in darkness, and has no light, let him trust in the
name of the LORD, 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
the LORD: 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
the LORD has comforted Zion; he has comforted all her waste
places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert
like the garden of the LORD; 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 the
LORD; 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 the LORD
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 the LORD 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 the LORD your
God, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar: the LORD of
Hosts 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 the LORD 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 the LORD, 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 GOD,
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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