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, he has hidden
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 reward 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 has 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, 'Come out!'; 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 nursing 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 yourself with them all as with an ornament, and dress
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, since I have been bereaved of
my children, and am solitary, an exile, and wandering back and
forth? 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 adorn yourselves with torches around yourselves; walk
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 you were cut from, and to the hold
of the pit you were dug from. {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 the same way: 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 fear the reproach of men, neither be
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 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. 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 not 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 walk over you;' and you have laid your
back as the ground, and as the street, to those who walk over."
________________________________________________________________________
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