Isaiah, starting at chapter 52
{52:1} Awake, awake, put on your strength, Zion; put on your beautiful
garments, Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall
no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean. {52:2}
Shake yourself from the dust; arise, sit [on your throne],
Jerusalem: loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, captive
daughter of Zion. {52:3} For thus says the LORD, You were sold
for nothing; and you shall be redeemed without money. {52:4}
For thus says the Lord GOD, My people went down at the first
into Egypt to sojourn there: and the Assyrian has oppressed
them without cause. {52:5} Now therefore, what do I here, says
the LORD, seeing that my people is taken away for nothing?
those who rule over them do howl, says the LORD, and my name
continually all the day is blasphemed. {52:6} Therefore my
people shall know my name: therefore [they shall know] in that
day that I am he who does speak; behold, it is I. {52:7} How
beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good
news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of good, who
publishes salvation, who says to Zion, Your God reigns! {52:8}
The voice of your watchmen! they lift up the voice, together do
they sing; for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD returns
to Zion. {52:9} Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste
places of Jerusalem; for the LORD has comforted his people, he
has redeemed Jerusalem. {52:10} The LORD has made bare his holy
arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the
earth have seen the salvation of our God. {52:11} Depart you,
depart you, go you out from there, touch no unclean thing; go
you out of the midst of her; cleanse yourselves, you who bear
the vessels of the LORD. {52:12} For you shall not go out in
haste, neither shall you go by flight: for the LORD will go
before you; and the God of Israel will be your rearward.
{52:13} Behold, my servant shall deal wisely, he shall be
exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. {52:14} Like as
many were astonished at you (his visage was so marred more than
any man, and his form more than the sons of men), {52:15} so
shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths
at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see;
and that which they had not heard shall they understand.
{53:1} Who has believed our message?
To whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
{53:2} For he grew up before him as a tender plant,
and as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form nor comeliness.
When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
{53:3} He was despised,
and rejected by men;
a man of suffering,
and acquainted with disease.
He was despised as one from whom men hide their face;
and we didn't respect him.
{53:4} Surely he has borne our sickness,
and carried our suffering;
yet we considered him plagued,
struck by God, and afflicted.
{53:5} But he was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought our peace was on him;
and by his wounds we are healed.
{53:6} All we like sheep have gone astray.
Everyone has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
{53:7} He was oppressed,
yet when he was afflicted he didn't open his mouth.
As a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and as a sheep that before its shearers is mute,
so he didn't open his mouth.
{53:8} He was taken away by oppression and judgment;
and as for his generation,
who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living
and stricken for the disobedience of my people?
{53:9} They made his grave with the wicked,
and with a rich man in his death;
although he had done no violence,
neither was any deceit in his mouth.
{53:10} Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him.
He has caused him to suffer.
When you make his soul an offering for sin,
he shall see his seed.
He shall prolong his days,
and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
{53:11} After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the [1>]light[<1] and be satisfied.
My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself;
and he will bear their iniquities.
{53:12} Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he poured out his soul to death,
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
{54:1} Sing, barren, you who didn't bear; break forth into singing,
and cry aloud, you who did not travail with child: for more are the
children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, says
the LORD. {54:2} Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch
forth the curtains of your habitations; don't spare: lengthen your
cords, and strengthen your stakes. {54:3} For you shall spread aboard
on the right hand and on the left; and your seed shall possess the
nations, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. {54:4} Don't be
afraid; for you shall not be ashamed: neither be confounded; for you
shall not be disappointed: for you shall forget the shame of your
youth; and the reproach of your widowhood you shall remember no more.
{54:5} For your Maker is your husband; the LORD of Hosts is his name:
and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; the God of the whole
earth shall he be called. {54:6} For the LORD has called you as a wife
forsaken and grieved in spirit, even a wife of youth, when she is cast
off, says your God. {54:7} For a small moment have I forsaken you; but
with great mercies will I gather you. {54:8} In overflowing wrath I
hid my face from you for a moment; but with everlasting loving
kindness will I have mercy on you, says the LORD your Redeemer. {54:9}
For this is [as] the waters of Noah to me; for as I have sworn that
the waters of Noah shall no more go over the earth, so have I sworn
that I will not be angry with you, nor rebuke you. {54:10} For the
mountains may depart, and the hills be removed; but my loving kindness
shall not depart from you, neither shall my covenant of peace be
removed, says the LORD who has mercy on you. {54:11} You afflicted,
tossed with storms, and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones
in beautiful colors, and lay your foundations with sapphires. {54:12}
I will make your pinnacles of rubies, and your gates of sparkling
jewels, and all your walls of precious stones. {54:13} All your
children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of
your children. {54:14} In righteousness you shall be established: you
shall be far from oppression, for you shall not be afraid; and from
terror, for it shall not come near you. {54:15} Behold, they may
gather together, but not by me: whoever shall gather together against
you shall fall because of you. {54:16} Behold, I have created the
smith who blows the fire of coals, and brings forth a weapon for his
work; and I have created the waster to destroy. {54:17} No weapon that
is formed against you shall prosper; and you will condemn every tongue
that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the
servants of the LORD, and their righteousness which is of me, says the
LORD.
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Footnotes:
[1] {53:11} So read the Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint. Masoretic Text
omits "the light".
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