Isaiah 50–52

⁵⁰Thus says the Lord:

Where is your mother’s bill of divorce

with which I dismissed her?

Or which of my creditors is it

to whom I have sold you?

No, because of your sins you were sold,

and for your transgressions your mother was dismissed.^*

²Why was no one there when I came?

Why did no one answer when I called?

Is my arm powerless to redeem?

Or have I no strength to deliver?

By my rebuke I dry up the sea;

I make the rivers a desert,

so that their fish stink for lack of water

and die of thirst.^z*

³I clothe the heavens with blackness

and make sackcloth their covering.^*

The Servant’s Humiliation and Vindication

⁴The Lord God has given me

a trained tongue,^a

that I may know how to sustain

the weary with a word.

Morning by morning he wakens,

wakens my ear

to listen as those who are taught.^*

⁵The Lord God has opened my ear,

and I was not rebellious;

I did not turn backward.^*

⁶I gave my back to those who struck me

and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;

I did not hide my face

from insult and spitting.^*

⁷The Lord God helps me;

therefore I have not been disgraced;

therefore I have set my face like flint,

and I know that I shall not be put to shame;^*

⁸he who vindicates me is near.

Who will contend with me?

Let us stand in court together.

Who are my adversaries?

Let them confront me.^*

⁹It is the Lord God who helps me;

who will declare me guilty?

All of them will wear out like a garment;

the moth will eat them up.^*

¹⁰Who among you fears the Lord

and obeys the voice of his servant,

who walks in darkness

and has no light,

yet trusts in the name of the Lord

and relies upon his God?^*

¹¹But all of you are kindlers of fire,

lighters of firebrands.^b

Walk in the flame of your fire

and among the brands that you have kindled!

This is what you shall have from my hand:

you shall lie down in torment.^*

Blessings in Store for God’s People

⁵¹Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,

you who seek the Lord.

Look to the rock from which you were hewn

and to the quarry from which you were dug.^*

²Look to Abraham your father

and to Sarah, who bore you,

for he was but one when I called him,

but I blessed him and made him many.^*

³For the Lord will comfort Zion;

he will comfort all her waste places

and will make her wilderness like Eden,

her desert like the garden of the Lord;

joy and gladness will be found in her,

thanksgiving and the voice of song.^*

⁴Listen to me, my people,

and give heed to me, my nation,

for a teaching will go out from me

and my justice for a light to the peoples.^*

⁵I will bring near my deliverance swiftly;

my salvation has gone out,

and my arms will rule the peoples;

the coastlands wait for me,

and for my arm they hope.^*

⁶Lift up your eyes to the heavens

and look at the earth beneath,

for the heavens will vanish like smoke,

the earth will wear out like a garment,

and those who live on it will die like gnats,^c

but my salvation will be forever,

and my deliverance will never be ended.^*

⁷Listen to me, you who know righteousness,

you people who have my teaching in your hearts;

do not fear the reproach of others,

and do not be dismayed when they revile you.^*

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

and the worm will eat them like wool,

but my deliverance will be forever

and my salvation to all generations.^*

⁹Awake, awake, put on strength,

O arm of the Lord!

Awake, as in days of old,

the generations of long ago!

Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces,

who pierced the dragon?^*

¹⁰Was it not you who dried up the sea,

the waters of the great deep;

who made the depths of the sea a way

for the redeemed to cross over?^*

¹¹So the ransomed of the Lord shall return

and come to Zion with rejoicing;

everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;

they shall obtain joy and gladness,

and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.^*

¹²I, I am he who comforts you;

why then are you afraid of a mere mortal who must die,

a human being who fades like grass?^*

¹³You have forgotten the Lord, your Maker,

who stretched out the heavens

and laid the foundations of the earth.

You fear continually all day long

because of the fury of the oppressor,

who is bent on destruction.

But where is the fury of the oppressor?^*

¹⁴The oppressed shall speedily be released;

they shall not die and go down to the Pit,

nor shall they lack bread.^*

¹⁵For I am the Lord your God,

who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—

the Lord of hosts is his name.^*

¹⁶I have put my words in your mouth

and hidden you in the shadow of my hand,

stretching out^d the heavens

and laying the foundations of the earth

and saying to Zion, “You are my people.”^*

¹⁷Rouse yourself, rouse yourself!

Stand up, O Jerusalem,

you who have drunk at the hand of the Lord

the cup of his wrath,

who have drunk to the dregs

the cup of staggering.^*

¹⁸There is no one to guide her

among all the children she has borne;

there is no one to take her by the hand

among all the children she has brought up.^*

¹⁹These two things have befallen you

—who will grieve with you?—

devastation and destruction, famine and sword.

Who will comfort you?^e*

²⁰Your children have fainted;

they lie at the head of every street

like an antelope in a net;

they are full of the wrath of the Lord,

the rebuke of your God.^*

²¹Therefore hear this, you who are wounded,^f

who are drunk but not with wine:^*

²²Thus says your Sovereign, the Lord,

your God who pleads the cause of his people:

See, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering;

you shall drink no more

from the cup of my wrath.^*

²³And I will put it into the hand of your tormentors,

who have said to you,

“Bow down, that we may walk on you,”

and you have made your back like the ground

and like the street for them to walk on.^*

Let Zion Rejoice

⁵²Awake; awake;

put on your strength, O Zion!

Put on your beautiful garments,

O Jerusalem, the holy city,

for the uncircumcised and the unclean

shall enter you no more.^*

²Shake yourself from the dust; rise up,

O captive^g Jerusalem;

loose the bonds from your neck,

O captive daughter Zion!^*

³For thus says the Lord: You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.^{* 4}For thus says the Lord God: Long ago, my people went down into Egypt to reside there as aliens; the Assyrian, too, has oppressed them without cause.^{* 5}Now therefore what am I doing here, says the Lord, seeing that my people are taken away without cause? Their rulers howl, says the Lord, and continually, all day long, my name is despised.^{* 6}Therefore my people shall know my name; on^h that day they shall know that it is I who speak—it is I!^*

⁷How beautiful upon the mountains

are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,

who brings good news,

who announces salvation,

who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”^*

⁸Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices;

together they shout for joy,

for in plain sight they see

the return of the Lord to Zion.^*

⁹Break forth; shout together for joy,

you ruins of Jerusalem,

for the Lord has comforted his people;

he has redeemed Jerusalem.^*

¹⁰The Lord has bared his holy arm

before the eyes of all the nations,

and all the ends of the earth shall see

the salvation of our God.^*

¹¹Depart, depart, go out from there!

Touch no unclean thing;

go out from the midst of it; purify yourselves,

you who carry the vessels of the Lord.^*

¹²For you shall not go out in haste,

and you shall not go in flight,

for the Lord will go before you,

and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.^*

The Suffering Servant

¹³See, my servant shall prosper;

he shall be exalted and lifted up

and shall be very high.^*

¹⁴Just as there were many who were astonished at himⁱ

—so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance,

and his form beyond that of mortals—^*

¹⁵so he shall startle^j many nations;

kings shall shut their mouths because of him,

for that which had not been told them they shall see,

and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate.^*