Isaiah 52

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.”