Isaiah 48:1–50:11

Israel Refined for God’s Glory

48 “Hear this, O house of Jacob,

Who are called by the name of Israel,

And have come forth from the wellsprings of Judah;

Who swear by the name of the Lord,

And make mention of the God of Israel,

But anot in truth or in righteousness;

2 For they call themselves bafter the holy city,

And clean on the God of Israel;

The Lord of hosts is His name:

3 “I have ddeclared the former things from the beginning;

They went forth from My mouth, and I caused them to hear it.

Suddenly I did them, eand they came to pass.

4 Because I knew that you were 1obstinate,

And fyour neck was an iron sinew,

And your brow bronze,

5 Even from the beginning I have declared it to you;

Before it came to pass I proclaimed it to you,

Lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them,

And my carved image and my molded image

Have commanded them.’

6 “You have heard;

See all this.

And will you not declare it?

I have made you hear new things from this time,

Even hidden things, and you did not know them.

7 They are created now and not from the beginning;

And before this day you have not heard them,

Lest you should say, ‘Of course I knew them.’

8 Surely you did not hear,

Surely you did not know;

Surely from long ago your ear was not opened.

For I knew that you would deal very treacherously,

And were called ga transgressor from the womb.

9 “For hMy name’s sake iI will 2defer My anger,

And for My praise I will restrain it from you,

So that I do not cut you off.

10 Behold, jI have refined you, but not as silver;

I have tested you in the kfurnace of affliction.

11 For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it;

For lhow should My name be profaned?

And mI will not give My glory to another.

God’s Ancient Plan to Redeem Israel

12 “Listen to Me, O Jacob,

And Israel, My called:

I am He, nI am the oFirst,

I am also the Last.

13 Indeed pMy hand has laid the foundation of the earth,

And My right hand has stretched out the heavens;

When qI call to them,

They stand up together.

14 “All of you, assemble yourselves, and hear!

Who among them has declared these things?

rThe Lord loves him;

sHe shall do His pleasure on Babylon,

And His arm shall be against the Chaldeans.

15 I, even I, have spoken;

Yes, tI have called him,

I have brought him, and his way will prosper.

16 “Come near to Me, hear this:

uI have not spoken in secret from the beginning;

From the time that it was, I was there.

And now vthe Lord God and His Spirit

3Have sent Me.”

17 Thus says wthe Lord, your Redeemer,

The Holy One of Israel:

“I am the Lord your God,

Who teaches you to profit,

xWho leads you by the way you should go.

18 yOh, that you had heeded My commandments!

zThen your peace would have been like a river,

And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

19 aYour descendants also would have been like the sand,

And the offspring of your body like the grains of sand;

His name would not have been cut off

Nor destroyed from before Me.”

20 bGo forth from Babylon!

Flee from the Chaldeans!

With a voice of singing,

Declare, proclaim this,

Utter it to the end of the earth;

Say, “The Lord has credeemed

His servant Jacob!”

21 And they ddid not thirst

When He led them through the deserts;

He ecaused the waters to flow from the rock for them;

He also split the rock, and the waters gushed out.

22 “There fis no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”

The Servant, the Light to the Gentiles

49 “Listen, aO coastlands, to Me,

And take heed, you peoples from afar!

bThe Lord has called Me from the womb;

From the 1matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name.

2 And He has made cMy mouth like a sharp sword;

dIn the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me,

And made Me ea polished shaft;

In His quiver He has hidden Me.”

3 “And He said to me,

f‘You are My servant, O Israel,

gIn whom I will be glorified.’

4 hThen I said, ‘I have labored in vain,

I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain;

Yet surely my 2just reward is with the Lord,

And my 3work with my God.’ ”

5 “And now the Lord says,

Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,

To bring Jacob back to Him,

So that Israel iis 4gathered to Him

(For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord,

And My God shall be My strength),

6 Indeed He says,

‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant

To raise up the tribes of Jacob,

And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;

I will also give You as a jlight to the Gentiles,

That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”

7 Thus says the Lord,

The Redeemer of Israel, 5their Holy One,

kTo Him 6whom man despises,

To Him whom the nation abhors,

To the Servant of rulers:

l“Kings shall see and arise,

Princes also shall worship,

Because of the Lord who is faithful,

The Holy One of Israel;

And He has chosen You.”

8 Thus says the Lord:

“In an macceptable 7time I have heard You,

And in the day of salvation I have helped You;

I will 8preserve You nand give You

As a covenant to the people,

To restore the earth,

To cause them to inherit the desolate 9heritages;

9 That You may say oto the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’

To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’

“They shall feed along the roads,

And their pastures shall be on all desolate heights.

10 They shall neither phunger nor thirst,

qNeither heat nor sun shall strike them;

For He who has mercy on them rwill lead them,

Even by the springs of water He will guide them.

11 sI will make each of My mountains a road,

And My highways shall be elevated.

12 Surely tthese shall come from afar;

Look! Those from the north and the west,

And these from the land of Sinim.”

13 uSing, O heavens!

Be joyful, O earth!

And break out in singing, O mountains!

For the Lord has comforted His people,

And will have mercy on His afflicted.

God Will Remember Zion

14 vBut Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,

And my Lord has forgotten me.”

15 “Can wa woman forget her nursing child,

1And not have compassion on the son of her womb?

Surely they may forget,

xYet I will not forget you.

16 See, yI have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;

Your walls are continually before Me.

17 Your 2sons shall make haste;

Your destroyers and those who laid you waste

Shall go away from you.

18 zLift up your eyes, look around and see;

All these gather together and come to you.

As I live,” says the Lord,

“You shall surely clothe yourselves with them all aas an ornament,

And bind them on you as a bride does.

19 “For your waste and desolate places,

And the land of your destruction,

bWill even now be too small for the inhabitants;

And those who swallowed you up will be far away.

20 cThe children you will have,

dAfter you have lost the others,

Will say again in your ears,

‘The place is too small for me;

Give me a place where I may dwell.’

21 Then you will say in your heart,

‘Who has begotten these for me,

Since I have lost my children and am desolate,

A captive, and wandering to and fro?

And who has brought these up?

There I was, left alone;

But these, where were they?’ ”

22 eThus says the Lord God:

“Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations,

And set up My 3standard for the peoples;

They shall bring your sons in their 4arms,

And your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders;

23 fKings shall be your foster fathers,

And their queens your nursing mothers;

They shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth,

And glick up the dust of your feet.

Then you will know that I am the Lord,

hFor they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.”

24 iShall the prey be taken from the mighty,

Or the captives 5of the righteous be delivered?

25 But thus says the Lord:

“Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away,

And the prey of the terrible be delivered;

For I will contend with him who contends with you,

And I will save your children.

26 I will jfeed those who oppress you with their own flesh,

And they shall be drunk with their own kblood as with sweet wine.

All flesh lshall know

That I, the Lord, am your Savior,

And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

The Servant, Israel’s Hope

50 Thus says the Lord:

“Where is athe certificate of your mother’s divorce,

Whom I have put away?

Or which of My bcreditors is it to whom I have sold you?

For your iniquities cyou have sold yourselves,

And for your transgressions your mother has been put away.

2 Why, when I came, was there no man?

Why, when I called, was there none to answer?

Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem?

Or have I no power to deliver?

Indeed with My drebuke I dry up the sea,

I make the rivers a wilderness;

Their fish stink because there is no water,

And die of thirst.

3 eI clothe the heavens with blackness,

fAnd I make sackcloth their covering.”

4 “The gLord God has given Me

The tongue of the learned,

That I should know how to speak

A word in season to him who is hweary.

He awakens Me morning by morning,

He awakens My ear

To hear as the learned.

5 The Lord God ihas opened My ear;

And I was not jrebellious,

Nor did I turn away.

6 kI gave My back to those who struck Me,

And lMy cheeks to those who plucked out the beard;

I did not hide My face from shame and mspitting.

7 “For the Lord God will help Me;

Therefore I will not be disgraced;

Therefore nI have set My face like a flint,

And I know that I will not be ashamed.

8 oHe is near who justifies Me;

Who will contend with Me?

Let us stand together.

Who is 1My adversary?

Let him come near Me.

9 Surely the Lord God will help Me;

Who is he who will condemn Me?

pIndeed they will all grow old like a garment;

qThe moth will eat them up.

10 “Who among you fears the Lord?

Who obeys the voice of His Servant?

Who rwalks in darkness

And has no light?

sLet him trust in the name of the Lord

And rely upon his God.

11 Look, all you who kindle a fire,

Who encircle yourselves with sparks:

Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled—

tThis you shall have from My hand:

You shall lie down uin torment.