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.

The Lord Comforts Zion

51 “Listen to Me, ayou who 1follow after righteousness,

You who seek the Lord:

Look to the rock from which you were hewn,

And to the hole of the pit from which you were dug.

2 bLook to Abraham your father,

And to Sarah who bore you;

cFor I called him alone,

And dblessed him and increased him.”

3 For the Lord will ecomfort Zion,

He will comfort all her waste places;

He will make her wilderness like Eden,

And her desert flike the garden of the Lord;

Joy and gladness will be found in it,

Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.

4 “Listen to Me, My people;

And give ear to Me, O My nation:

gFor law will proceed from Me,

And I will make My justice rest

hAs a light of the peoples.

5 iMy righteousness is near,

My salvation has gone forth,

jAnd My arms will judge the peoples;

kThe coastlands will wait upon Me,

And lon My arm they will trust.

6 mLift up your eyes to the heavens,

And look on the earth beneath.

For nthe heavens will vanish away like smoke,

oThe earth will grow old like a garment,

And those who dwell in it will die in like manner;

But My salvation will be pforever,

And My righteousness will not be 2abolished.

7 “Listen to Me, you who know righteousness,

You people qin whose heart is My law:

rDo not fear the reproach of men,

Nor be afraid of their insults.

8 For sthe moth will eat them up like a garment,

And the worm will eat them like wool;

But My righteousness will be forever,

And My salvation from generation to generation.”

9 tAwake, awake, uput on strength,

O arm of the Lord!

Awake vas in the ancient days,

In the generations of old.

wAre You not the arm that cut xRahab apart,

And wounded the yserpent?

10 Are You not the One who zdried up the sea,

The waters of the great deep;

That made the depths of the sea a road

For the redeemed to cross over?

11 So athe ransomed of the Lord shall return,

And come to Zion with singing,

With everlasting joy on their heads.

They shall obtain joy and gladness;

Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

12 “I, even I, am He bwho comforts you.

Who are you that you should be afraid

cOf a man who will die,

And of the son of a man who will be made dlike grass?

13 And eyou forget the Lord your Maker,

fWho stretched out the heavens

And laid the foundations of the earth;

You have feared continually every day

Because of the fury of the oppressor,

When he has prepared to destroy.

gAnd where is the fury of the oppressor?

14 The captive exile hastens, that he may be loosed,

hThat he should not die in the pit,

And that his bread should not fail.

15 But I am the Lord your God,

Who idivided the sea whose waves roared—

The Lord of hosts is His name.

16 And jI have put My words in your mouth;

kI have covered you with the shadow of My hand,

lThat I may 3plant the heavens,

Lay the foundations of the earth,

And say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’ ”

God’s Fury Removed

17 mAwake, awake!

Stand up, O Jerusalem,

You who nhave drunk at the hand of the Lord

The cup of His fury;

You have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling,

And drained it out.

18 There is no one to guide her

Among all the sons she has brought forth;

Nor is there any who takes her by the hand

Among all the sons she has brought up.

19 oThese two things have come to you;

Who will be sorry for you?—

Desolation and destruction, famine and sword—

pBy whom will I comfort you?

20 qYour sons have fainted,

They lie at the head of all the streets,

Like an antelope in a net;

They are full of the fury of the Lord,

The rebuke of your God.

21 Therefore please hear this, you afflicted,

And drunk rbut not with wine.

22 Thus says your Lord,

The Lord and your God,

Who spleads the cause of His people:

“See, I have taken out of your hand

The cup of trembling,

The dregs of the cup of My fury;

You shall no longer drink it.

23 tBut I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you,

Who have said to 4you,

‘Lie down, that we may walk over you.’

And you have laid your body like the ground,

And as the street, for those who walk over.”

God Redeems Jerusalem

52 Awake, awake!

Put on your strength, O Zion;

Put on your beautiful garments,

O Jerusalem, the holy city!

For the uncircumcised aand the unclean

Shall no longer come to you.

2 bShake yourself from the dust, arise;

Sit down, O Jerusalem!

cLoose yourself from the bonds of your neck,

O captive daughter of Zion!

3 For thus says the Lord:

d“You have sold yourselves for nothing,

And you shall be redeemed ewithout money.”

4 For thus says the Lord God:

“My people went down at first

Into fEgypt to 1dwell there;

Then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.

5 Now therefore, what have I here,” says the Lord,

“That My people are taken away for nothing?

Those who rule over them

2Make them wail,” says the Lord,

“And My name is gblasphemed continually every day.

6 Therefore My people shall know My name;

Therefore they shall know in that day

That I am He who speaks:

‘Behold, it is I.’ ”

7 hHow beautiful upon the mountains

Are the feet of him who brings good news,

Who proclaims peace,

Who brings glad tidings of good things,

Who proclaims salvation,

Who says to Zion,

i“Your God reigns!”

8 Your watchmen shall lift up their voices,

With their voices they shall sing together;

For they shall see eye to eye

When the Lord brings back Zion.

9 Break forth into joy, sing together,

You waste places of Jerusalem!

For the Lord has comforted His people,

He has redeemed Jerusalem.

10 jThe Lord has 3made bare His holy arm

In the eyes of kall the nations;

And all the ends of the earth shall see

The salvation of our God.

11 lDepart! Depart! Go out from there,

Touch no unclean thing;

Go out from the midst of her,

mBe clean,

You who bear the vessels of the Lord.

12 For nyou shall not go out with haste,

Nor go by flight;

oFor the Lord will go before you,

pAnd the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

The Sin-Bearing Servant

13 Behold, qMy Servant shall 4deal prudently;

rHe shall be exalted and 5extolled and be very high.

14 Just as many were astonished at you,

So His svisage 6was marred more than any man,

And His form more than the sons of men;

15 tSo shall He 7sprinkle many nations.

Kings shall shut their mouths at Him;

For uwhat had not been told them they shall see,

And what they had not heard they shall consider.

53 Who ahas believed our report?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,

And as a root out of dry ground.

He has no 1form or 2comeliness;

And when we see Him,

There is no 3beauty that we should desire Him.

3 bHe is despised and 4rejected by men,

A Man of 5sorrows and cacquainted with 6grief.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;

He was despised, and dwe did not esteem Him.

4 Surely eHe has borne our 7griefs

And carried our 8sorrows;

Yet we 9esteemed Him stricken,

1Smitten by God, and afflicted.

5 But He was fwounded 2for our transgressions,

He was 3bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

And by His gstripes 4we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned, every one, to his own way;

And the Lord 5has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,

Yet hHe opened not His mouth;

iHe was led as a lamb to the slaughter,

And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

So He opened not His mouth.

8 He was jtaken from 6prison and from judgment,

And who will declare His generation?

For kHe was cut off from the land of the living;

For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.

9 lAnd 7they made His grave with the wicked—

But with the rich at His death,

Because He had done no violence,

Nor was any mdeceit in His mouth.

10 Yet it pleased the Lord to 8bruise Him;

He has put Him to grief.

When You make His soul nan offering for sin,

He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,

And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.

11 9He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.

By His knowledge oMy righteous pServant shall qjustify many,

For He shall bear their iniquities.

12 rTherefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,

sAnd He shall divide the 1spoil with the strong,

Because He tpoured out His soul unto death,

And He was unumbered with the transgressors,

And He bore the sin of many,

And vmade intercession for the transgressors.

A Perpetual Covenant of Peace

54 “Sing, O abarren,

You who have not borne!

Break forth into singing, and cry aloud,

You who have not labored with child!

For more are the children of the desolate

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