Isaiah 49–57

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.

²And 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.’

^4hThen 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),

⁶Indeed 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.’ ”

⁷Thus 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.”

⁸Thus 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;

⁹That 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.

¹⁰They 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.

^11sI will make each of My mountains a road,

And My highways shall be elevated.

¹²Surely ^tthese shall come from afar;

Look! Those from the north and the west,

And these from the land of Sinim.”

^13uSing, 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

^14vBut 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.

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

Your walls are continually before Me.

¹⁷Your ²sons shall make haste;

Your destroyers and those who laid you waste

Shall go away from you.

^18zLift 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.

^20cThe 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.’

²¹Then 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?’ ”

^22eThus 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;

^23fKings 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.”

²⁴ⁱShall the prey be taken from the mighty,

Or the captives ⁵of the righteous be delivered?

²⁵But 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.

²⁶I 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

50Thus 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.

²Why, 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.

^3eI 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.

⁵The Lord God ⁱhas opened My ear;

And I was not ^jrebellious,

Nor did I turn away.

^6kI 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.

^8oHe is near who justifies Me;

Who will contend with Me?

Let us stand together.

Who is ¹My adversary?

Let him come near Me.

⁹Surely 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.

¹¹Look, 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.

^2bLook to Abraham your father,

And to Sarah who bore you;

^cFor I called him alone,

And ^dblessed him and increased him.”

³For 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.

⁵ⁱMy 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.

^6mLift 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.

⁸For ^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.”

^9tAwake, 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?

¹⁰Are 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?

¹¹So ^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?

¹³And ^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?

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

^hThat he should not die in the pit,

And that his bread should not fail.

¹⁵But I am the Lord your God,

Who ⁱdivided the sea whose waves roared—

The Lord of hosts is His name.

¹⁶And ^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

^17mAwake, 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.

¹⁸There 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.

^19oThese two things have come to you;

Who will be sorry for you?—

Desolation and destruction, famine and sword—

^pBy whom will I comfort you?

^20qYour 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.

²¹Therefore please hear this, you afflicted,

And drunk ^rbut not with wine.

²²Thus 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.

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

Who have said to …