Isaiah 49–57

Chapter 49

¹Listen to me, O coastlands,

and hearken, you peoples from afar.

The Lord called me from the womb,

from the body of my mother he named my name.

²He made my mouth like a sharp sword,

in the shadow of his hand he hid me;

he made me a polished arrow,

in his quiver he hid me away.

³And he said to me, “You are my servant,

Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”

⁴But I said, “I have labored in vain,

I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;

yet surely my right is with the Lord,

and my recompense with my God.”

⁵And now the Lord says,

who formed me from the womb to be his servant,

to bring Jacob back to him,

and that Israel might be gathered to him,

for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord,

and my God has become my strength—

⁶he says:

“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant

to raise up the tribes of Jacob

and to restore the preserved of Israel;

I will give you as a light to the nations,

that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

⁷Thus says the Lord,

the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,

to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations,

the servant of rulers:

“Kings shall see and arise;

princes, and they shall prostrate themselves;

because of the Lord,

who is faithful,

the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

⁸Thus says the Lord:

“In a time of favor I have answered you,

in a day of salvation I have helped you;

I have kept you and given you

as a covenant to the people,

to establish the land,

to apportion the desolate heritages;

⁹saying to the prisoners, ‘Come forth,’

to those who are in darkness, ‘Appear.’

They shall feed along the ways,

on all bare heights shall be their pasture;

¹⁰they shall not hunger or thirst,

neither scorching wind nor sun shall smite them,

for he who has pity on them will lead them,

and by springs of water will guide them.

¹¹And I will make all my mountains a way,

and my highways shall be raised up.

¹²Lo, these shall come from afar,

and lo, these from the north and from the west,

and these from the land of Syene.”

¹³Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;

break forth, O mountains, into singing!

For the Lord has comforted his people,

and will have compassion on his afflicted.

¹⁴But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,

my Lord has forgotten me.”

¹⁵“Can a woman forget her sucking child,

that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?

Even these may forget,

yet I will not forget you.

¹⁶Behold, I have graven you on the palms of my hands;

your walls are continually before me.

¹⁷Your builders outstrip your destroyers,

and those who laid you waste go forth from you.

¹⁸Lift up your eyes round about and see;

they all gather, they come to you.

As I live, says the Lord,

you shall put them all on as an ornament,

you shall bind them on as a bride does.

¹⁹“Surely your waste and your desolate places

and your devastated land—

surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants,

and those who swallowed you up will be far away.

²⁰The children born in the time of your bereavement

will yet say in your ears:

‘The place is too narrow for me;

make room for me to dwell in.’

²¹Then you will say in your heart:

‘Who has borne me these?

I was bereaved and barren,

exiled and put away,

but who has brought up these?

Behold, I was left alone;

whence then have these come?’ ”

²²Thus says the Lord GOD:

“Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations,

and raise my signal to the peoples;

and they shall bring your sons in their bosom,

and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.

²³Kings shall be your foster fathers,

and their queens your nursing mothers.

With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you,

and lick the dust of your feet.

Then you will know that I am the Lord;

those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.”

²⁴Can the prey be taken from the mighty,

or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?

²⁵Surely, thus says the Lord:

“Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken,

and the prey of the tyrant be rescued,

for I will contend with those who contend with you,

and I will save your children.

²⁶I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,

and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine.

Then all flesh shall know

that I am the Lord your Savior,

and your Redeemer,

the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Chapter 50

¹Thus says the Lord:

“Where is your mother’s bill of divorce,

with which I put her away?

Or which of my creditors is it

to whom I have sold you?

Behold, for your iniquities you were sold,

and for your transgressions your mother was put away.

²Why, when I came, was there no man?

When I called, was there no one to answer?

Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem?

Or have I no power to deliver?

Behold, by my rebuke I dry up the sea,

I make the rivers a desert;

their fish stink for lack of water,

and die of thirst.

³I clothe the heavens with blackness,

and make sackcloth their covering.”

⁴The Lord GOD has given me

the tongue of those who are taught,

that I may know how to sustain with a word

him that is weary.

Morning by morning he wakens,

he wakens my ear

to hear as those who are taught.

⁵The Lord GOD has opened my ear,

and I was not rebellious,

I turned not backward.

⁶I gave my back to the smiters,

and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;

I hid not my face

from shame and spitting.

⁷For the Lord GOD helps me;

therefore I have not been confounded;

therefore I have set my face like a 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 up together.

Who is my adversary?

Let him come near to me.

⁹Behold, the Lord GOD helps me;

who will declare me guilty?

Behold, 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?

¹¹Behold, all you who kindle a fire,

who set brands alight!

Walk by the light of your fire,

and by the brands which you have kindled!

This shall you have from my hand:

you shall lie down in torment.

Chapter 51

¹“Hearken to me,

you who pursue deliverance,

you who seek the Lord;

look to the rock from which you were hewn,

and to the quarry from which you were digged.

²Look to Abraham your father

and to Sarah who bore you;

for when he was but one I called him,

and 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.

⁴“Listen to me, my people,

and give ear to me, my nation;

for a law will go forth from me,

and my justice for a light to the peoples.

⁵My deliverance draws near speedily,

my salvation has gone forth,

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 they who dwell in it will die like gnats;

but my salvation will be for ever,

and my deliverance will never be ended.

⁷“Hearken to me, you who know righteousness,

the people in whose heart is my law;

fear not the reproach of men,

and be not dismayed at their revilings.

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

and the worm will eat them like wool;

but my deliverance will be for ever,

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 thou that didst cut Rahab in pieces,

that didst pierce the dragon?

¹⁰Was it not thou that didst dry up the sea,

the waters of the great deep;

that didst make the depths of the sea a way

for the redeemed to pass over?

¹¹And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,

and come to Zion with singing;

everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;

they shall obtain joy and gladness,

and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

¹²“I, I am he that comforts you;

who are you that you are afraid of man who dies,

of the son of man who is made like grass,

¹³and have forgotten the Lord, your Maker,

who stretched out the heavens

and laid the foundations of the earth,

and fear continually all the day because of the fury of the oppressor,

when he sets himself to destroy?

And where is the fury of the oppressor?

¹⁴He who is bowed down shall speedily be released;

he shall not die and go down to the Pit,

neither shall his bread fail.

¹⁵For I am the Lord your God,

who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—

the Lord of hosts is his name.

¹⁶And I have put my words in your mouth,

and hid you in the shadow of my hand,

stretching out 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 bowl of staggering.

¹⁸There is none to guide her

among all the sons she has borne;

there is none to take her by the hand

among all the sons she has brought up.

¹⁹These two things have befallen you—

who will condole with you? —

devastation and destruction, famine and sword;

who will comfort you?

²⁰Your sons 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 afflicted,

who are drunk, but not with wine:

²²Thus says your Lord, the Lord,

your God who pleads the cause of his people:

“Behold, I have taken from your hand

the cup of staggering;

the bowl of my wrath

you shall drink no more;

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

who have said to you,

‘Bow down, that we may pass over’;

and you have made your back like the ground

and like the street for them to pass over.”

Chapter 52

¹Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments,

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