Isaiah 49–57

Yahweh’s Servant Brings Salvation

49Listen to me, coastlands,

and listen attentively, peoples from far away!

Yahweh called me from the womb;

from the body^a of my mother he made my name known.

²And he made^b my mouth like a sharp sword;

he hid me in the shadow of his hand,

and he made^c me like a sharpened arrow;

he hid me in his quiver.

³And he said to me, “You are my servant,

Israel, in whom I will show my glory.”

⁴But^d I myself said, “I have labored in^e vain;

I have used up my strength for nothing and vanity!

Nevertheless, my justice is with Yahweh,

and my reward is with my God.”

⁵And now Yahweh says,

who formed me from the womb as a servant for him,

to bring Jacob back to him,

and that Israel might not^f be gathered,

for^g I am honored in the eyes of Yahweh,

and my God has become my strength.

⁶And he says, “It is trivial for you to be^h a servant for me,

to raise up the tribes of Jacob

and to bring back the preserved of Israel.

I will give you as a light to the nations,

to be my salvation to the end of the earth.”

⁷Thus says Yahweh, the redeemer of Israel, his holy one,

to the one who despisesⁱ life,

to the one who abhors the nation,

to the slave of rulers:

“Kings shall see and stand up;

princes, and they shall bow down,

for the sake of Yahweh, who is faithful,

the holy one of Israel, and he has chosen you.”

Yahweh Restores the Afflicted

⁸Thus says Yahweh:

“I have answered you in a time of favor,

and helped you on a day of salvation,

and watched over you,

and given you as a covenant of the people,

to raise up the land,

to give the desolate hereditary property as an inheritance,

⁹saying to the prisoners,^j “Come out!”

to those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves!”

they shall feed along^k the ways,

and their pasturage shall be on all the barren heights.

¹⁰They shall not be hungry or thirsty,

and heat and sun shall not strike them,

for he who takes pity on them will lead them,

and he will guide them to springs of water.

¹¹And I will make^l all my mountains like a road,

and my highways shall lead up.^m

¹²Look! These shall come from afar,

And look! These from the north and from the west

and these from the land of Sinim.”

¹³Sing for joy, heavens, and rejoice, earth!

Mountains must break forth in rejoicing!

For Yahweh has comforted his people,

and he will take pity on his afflicted ones.

Yahweh Remembers Zion

¹⁴Butⁿ Zion said, “Yahweh has forsaken me,

and the Lord has forgotten me!”

¹⁵Can a woman forget her suckling,

refrain from having compassion on the child of her womb?

Indeed, these may forget,

but^o I, I will not forget you!

¹⁶Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;

your walls are continually before me.

¹⁷Your children hasten;

your destroyers and those who laid you waste depart^p from you.

¹⁸Lift your eyes up all around and see;

all of them gather; they come to you.

As surely as I live,^q

declares^r Yahweh,

surely you shall put on all of them like an ornament,

and you shall bind them on like a bride.

¹⁹Surely your sites of ruins and desolate places and land of ruins,^s

surely now you will be too cramped for your^t inhabitants,^u

and those who engulfed you will be far away.

²⁰Yet the children born when you were bereaved^v will say in your hearing,^w

“The place is too cramped for me;

make room^x for me so that I can dwell.”

²¹Then^y you will say in your heart,

“Who has borne me these?”

And, “I was bereaved and barren,

exiled and thrust away;

so^z who raised these?

Look at me! I was left alone;

where have these come from?”^a

²²Thus says the Lord Yahweh:

“Look! I will lift my hand up to the nations,

and I will raise my signal to the peoples,

and they shall bring your sons in their bosom,

and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.^b

²³And kings shall be your guardians,^c

and their queens your nurses.

They shall bow down, faces^d to the ground, to you,

and they will lick up the dust of your feet.

Then^e you will know that I am Yahweh;

those who await me shall not be ashamed.

²⁴Can war-booty be taken from the mighty?

or can a captive of a righteous^f person be rescued?

²⁵But thus says Yahweh:

“Indeed a captive of the mighty shall be taken,

and the war-booty of the tyrant shall be rescued,

for^g I myself will dispute with your opponent,

and I myself will save your children.

²⁶And I will feed your oppressors their own flesh,

and they shall be drunk with their blood as with wine.

Then^h all flesh shall know that I am Yahweh,

your savior and redeemer, the strong one of Jacob.”

50Thus says Yahweh:

“Where is this divorce document of your mother’s divorce, with which I dismissed her?

or to whom of my creditors did I sell you?

Look! you were sold because of your sin,

and your mother was dismissed because of your transgressions.

²Why was there no man when I came,

no one who answered when I called?

Do I lack the strength to save?^a

Or is there no power in me to deliver?

Look! by my rebuke I dry up the sea;

I make^b the rivers a desert;

their fish stink because there is no water,

and they^c die because of thirst.

³I clothe the heavens with darkness,

and I make^d their covering sackcloth.”

The Servant’s Vindication

⁴The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of a pupil,

to know how to help the weary with a word.

He awakens morning by morning,^e

awakens an ear for me to listen as do the pupils.

⁵The Lord Yahweh has opened an ear for me,

and I, I was not rebellious.

I did not turn backwards;

⁶I gave my back to those who struck me,

and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;^f

I did not hide my face from insults and spittle.

⁷And the Lord Yahweh helps me,

therefore I have not been put to shame;

therefore I have set my face like flint.

And I know that I shall not be ashamed;

⁸he who obtains rights for me is near.

Who will contend with me? Let us stand together.

Who is the master of my judgment? Let him approach me.

⁹Look! The Lord Yahweh helps me.

Who is the one who will declare me guilty?

Look! All of them will be worn out like a garment;

the moth will eat them.

¹⁰Who among you is in fear of Yahweh,

obeys^g the voice of his servant?

Who walks in darkness

and has no light,

trusts in the name of Yahweh

and depends on his God?

¹¹Look! All of you are kindlers of fire,

who gird yourselves with flaming arrows.

Walk in the light of your fire,

and among the flaming arrows you have kindled!

You shall have this from my hand:

you shall lie down in^h a place of torment.

Yahweh Comforts Zion

51“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,

who seek Yahweh.

Look to the rock from which you were hewn,

and to the excavation of the pit from which you were quarried.

²Look to Abraham your father,

and to Sarah; she brought you forth.

For I called him alone,^a

but^b I blessed him and made him numerous.”

³For Yahweh will comfort Zion;

he will comfort all its sites of ruins.

And he will make^c its wilderness like Eden,

and its desert like the garden of Yahweh.

Joy and gladness will be found in it,

thanksgiving and the sound^d of song.

⁴“Listen attentively to me, my people,

and my nation, listen to me!

For a teaching will go out from me,

and I will cause my justice to rest for a light to the peoples.

⁵My righteousness is near; my salvation has gone out,

and my arms will judge the peoples.

The coastlands wait for me,

and for my arm they wait.

⁶Lift up your eyes to the heavens

and look to the earth beneath,

for the heavens will be torn to pieces like smoke,

and the earth will be worn out like a garment,

and those who inhabit her will die like gnats.

But^e my salvation will be forever,

and my righteousness will not be broken to pieces.

⁷Listen to me, you who know righteousness,

people who have my teaching in their heart;

you must not fear the reproach of men,

or be terrified because of their abuse.

⁸For a moth will eat them like garments;

a moth will devour^f them like wool,

but^g my righteousness will be forever,

and my salvation for generation after generation.^h”

⁹Awake! Awake; put on strength, O arm of Yahweh!

Awake as in days of long ago,

the generations of a long time back!

Are you not the one who cut Rahab in pieces,

the one who pierced the sea-dragon?

¹⁰Are you not the one who dried up the sea,

the waters of the great deep,

the one who madeⁱ the depths of the sea a way

for those who are redeemed to cross over?

¹¹So^j the redeemed ones of Yahweh shall return,

and they shall come to Zion with singing,

and everlasting joy shall be on their heads.^k

Joy and gladness shall appear;^l

sorrow and sighing shall flee away!

¹²“I, I am he who comforts you;

who are you that^m you are afraid of man? He dies!

And of the son of humankind? He is sacrificedⁿ as grass!

¹³And you have forgotten Yahweh, your maker,

who stretched out the heavens,

and founded the earth.

And you tremble continually, all day,

because of the wrath of the oppressor

when he takes aim^o to destroy.

But^p where is the wrath of the oppressor?

¹⁴The fettered one shall make haste to be freed.

And he shall not die in^q the pit,

and he shall not lack his bread.

¹⁵For^r I am Yahweh, your God,

who stirs up^s the sea, so that^t its waves roar;

Yahweh of hosts is his name.

¹⁶And I have put my words in your mouth,

and I have covered you in the shadow of my hand,

to plant the heavens

and to found the earth,

saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’ ”

¹⁷Rouse yourself! Rouse yourself!

Stand up, Jerusalem, who have drunk from the hand of Yahweh the cup of his wrath;

you have drunk the goblet, the cup of staggering;

you have drained it out.

¹⁸There is no one who guides her among^u all the children she has borne,

and there is no one who grasps her by the hand among^v all the children she raised.

¹⁹Two things here have happened to you—who will show sympathy^w for you?—

devastation and destruction, famine and sword—who will comfort you?

²⁰Your children have fainted;

they lie at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in^x a snare,

those who are full of the wrath of Yahweh,

the rebuke of your God.

²¹Therefore hear now this afflicted one

and drunken one but^y not from wine.

²²Thus says your…