Isaiah 50–52

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 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

52Awake, 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.

^2bShake yourself from the dust, arise;

Sit down, O Jerusalem!

^cLoose yourself from the bonds of your neck,

O captive daughter of Zion!

³For thus says the Lord:

^d“You have sold yourselves for nothing,

And you shall be redeemed ^ewithout money.”

⁴For thus says the Lord God:

“My people went down at first

Into ^fEgypt to ¹dwell there;

Then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.

⁵Now 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.

⁶Therefore My people shall know My name;

Therefore they shall know in that day

That I am He who speaks:

‘Behold, it is I.’ ”

^7hHow 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!”

⁸Your 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.

⁹Break forth into joy, sing together,

You waste places of Jerusalem!

For the Lord has comforted His people,

He has redeemed Jerusalem.

^10jThe 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.

^11lDepart! 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.

¹²For 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

¹³Behold, ^qMy Servant shall ⁴deal prudently;

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

¹⁴Just as many were astonished at you,

So His ^svisage ⁶was marred more than any man,

And His form more than the sons of men;

^15tSo 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.