Isaiah 51:1–11

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.