Yesha`yahu, starting at chapter 49
{49:1} Listen, isles, 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; Yisra'el, 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 Ya`akov again to
him, and that Yisra'el 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 Ya`akov, and to restore the preserved of Yisra'el: I
will also give you for a light to the Goyim, that you may be my
salvation to the end of the [1>]eretz[<1]. {49:7} Thus says the LORD,
the Redeemer of Yisra'el, [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 Yisra'el, 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 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, [2>]eretz[<2]; and break forth into singing, mountains: for
the LORD has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his
afflicted. {49:14} But Tziyon 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 round
about, 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 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 GOD,
Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and set up my ensign 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 [3>]eretz[<3], 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 Ya`akov.
{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. 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 the LORD: look to the rock whence you were hewn, and to the hold
of the pit whence you were dug. {51:2} Look to Avraham 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
Tziyon; 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 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 [1>]eretz[<1] beneath; for the heavens
shall vanish away like smoke, and the [2>]eretz[<2] 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 Rachav 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 Tziyon;
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 [3>]eretz[<3]; 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 the waves of
it 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 [4>]eretz[<4], and
tell Tziyon, You are my people. {51:17} Awake, awake, stand up,
Yerushalayim, 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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Footnotes:
[1] {49:6} earth
[2] {49:13} earth
[3] {49:23} earth
[1] {51:6} earth
[2] {51:6} earth
[3] {51:13} earth
[4] {51:16} earth
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