Isaiah 52–53

52Wake up! Zion, wake up!

Dress yourself with strength as if it were your clothes.

Holy city of Jerusalem,

put on your clothes of glory.

Those who haven’t been circumcised will never enter you again.

Neither will those who are “unclean.”

²Get up, Jerusalem! Shake off your dust.

Take your place on your throne.

Captured people of Zion,

remove the chains from your neck.

³The Lord says,

“When you were sold as slaves, no one paid anything for you.

Now no one will pay any money to set you free.”

⁴The Lord and King continues,

“Long ago my people went down to Egypt.

They lived there for a while.

Later, Assyria crushed them without any reason.

⁵“Now look at what has happened to them,” announces the Lord.

“Once again my people have been taken away.

And no one paid anything for them.

Those who rule over them brag about it,”

announces the Lord.

“All day long without stopping,

people speak evil things against my name.

⁶So the day will come when my people will really know the meaning of my name.

They will know what kind of God I am.

They will know that I told them ahead of time they would return to their land.

They will know that it was I.”

⁷What a beautiful sight it is

to see messengers coming with good news!

How beautiful to see them coming down from the mountains

with a message about peace!

How wonderful it is when they bring the good news

that we are saved!

How wonderful when they say to Zion,

“Your God rules!”

⁸Listen! Those on guard duty are shouting out the message.

With their own eyes

they see the Lord returning to Zion.

So they shout with joy.

⁹Burst into songs of joy together,

you broken-down buildings in Jerusalem.

The Lord has comforted his people.

He has set Jerusalem free.

¹⁰The Lord will use the power of his holy arm to save his people.

All of the nations will see him do it.

Everyone from one end of the earth to the other will see it.

¹¹You who carry the articles that belong to the Lord’s temple, leave Babylon!

Leave it! Get out of there!

Don’t touch anything that isn’t pure and clean.

Come out of Babylon and be pure.

¹²But this time you won’t have to leave in a hurry.

You won’t have to rush away.

The Lord will go ahead of you and lead you.

The God of Israel will follow behind you and guard you.

The Suffering and Glory of the Lord’s Servant

¹³The Lord says, “My servant will act wisely and accomplish his task.

He will be highly honored. He will be greatly respected.

¹⁴Many people were shocked when they saw him.

He was so scarred that he did not look like a man at all.

His body was so twisted that he did not look like a human being anymore.

¹⁵But many nations will be surprised when they see what he has done.

Kings will be so amazed that they will not be able to say anything.

They will understand things they were never told about.

They will know the meaning of things they never heard about.”

53Who has believed what we’ve been saying?

Who has seen the Lord’s saving power?

²His servant grew up like a tender young plant.

He grew like a root coming up out of dry ground.

He didn’t have any beauty or majesty that made us notice him.

There wasn’t anything special about the way he looked that drew us to him.

³Men looked down on him. They didn’t accept him.

He knew all about sorrow and suffering.

He was like someone people turn their faces away from.

We looked down on him. We didn’t have any respect for him.

⁴He suffered the things we should have suffered.

He took on himself the pain that should have been ours.

But we thought God was punishing him.

We thought God was wounding him and making him suffer.

⁵But the servant was pierced because we had sinned.

He was crushed because we had done what was evil.

He was punished to make us whole again.

His wounds have healed us.

⁶All of us are like sheep. We have wandered away from God.

All of us have turned to our own way.

And the Lord has placed on his servant

the sins of all of us.

⁷He was beaten down and made to suffer.

But he didn’t open his mouth.

He was led away like a sheep to be killed.

Lambs are silent while their wool is being cut off.

In the same way, he didn’t open his mouth.

⁸He was arrested and sentenced to death.

Then he was taken away.

He was cut off from this life.

He was punished for the sins of my people.

Who among those who were living at that time

could have understood those things?

⁹He was given a grave with those who were evil.

But his body was buried in the tomb of a rich man.

He was killed even though he hadn’t harmed anyone.

And he had never lied to anyone.

¹⁰The Lord says, “It was my plan to crush him

and cause him to suffer.

I made his life a guilt offering to pay for sin.

But he will see all of his children after him.

In fact, he will continue to live.

My plan will be brought about through him.

¹¹After he suffers, he will see the light that leads to life.

And he will be satisfied.

My godly servant will make many people godly

because of what he will accomplish.

He will be punished for their sins.

¹²So I will give him a place of honor among those who are great.

He will be rewarded just like others who win the battle.

That is because he was willing to give his life as a sacrifice.

He was counted among those who had committed crimes.

He took the sins of many people on himself.

And he gave his life for those who had done what is wrong.”