Chapter 53

1 Who has believed what we have heard?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,

and like a root out of dry ground;

he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him,

and no beauty that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected* by men;

a man of sorrows,v and acquainted with grief;w

and as one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he has borne our griefsx

and carried our sorrows;y

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions,

he was bruised for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,

and with his stripes we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned every one to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

yet he opened not his mouth;

like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb,

so he opened not his mouth.

8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;

and as for his generation, who considered

that he was cut off out of the land of the living,

stricken for the transgression of my people?

9 And they made his grave with the wicked

and with a rich man in his death,

although he had done no violence,

and there was no deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to bruise him;

he has put him to grief;z

when he makes himself* an offering for sin,

he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days;

the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand;

11 he shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied;

by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,

make many to be accounted righteous;

and he shall bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great,

and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;

because he poured out his soul to death,

and was numbered with the transgressors;

yet he bore the sin of many,

and made intercession for the transgressors.

Chapter 13

1 The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

2 On a bare hill raise a signal,

cry aloud to them;

wave the hand for them to enter

the gates of the nobles.

3 I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,

have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger,

my proudly exulting ones.

4 Hark, a tumult on the mountains

as of a great multitude!

Hark, an uproar of kingdoms,

of nations gathering together!

The Lord of hosts is mustering

a host for battle.

5 They come from a distant land,

from the end of the heavens,

the Lord and the weapons of his indignation,

to destroy the whole earth.

6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is near;

as destruction from the Almighty it will come!

7 Therefore all hands will be feeble,

and every man’s heart will melt,

8 and they will be dismayed.

Pangs and agony will seize them;

they will be in anguish like a woman in travail.

They will look aghast at one another;

their faces will be aflame.

9 Behold, the day of the Lord comes,

cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,

to make the earth a desolation

and to destroy its sinners from it.

10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations

will not give their light;

the sun will be dark at its rising

and the moon will not shed its light.

11 I will punish the world for its evil,

and the wicked for their iniquity;

I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant,

and lay low the haughtiness of the ruthless.

12 I will make men more rare than fine gold,

and mankind than the gold of Ophir.

13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,

and the earth will be shaken out of its place,

at the wrath of the Lord of hosts

in the day of his fierce anger.

14 And like a hunted gazelle,

or like sheep with none to gather them,

every man will turn to his own people,

and every man will flee to his own land.

15 Whoever is found will be thrust through,

and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.

16 Their infants will be dashed in pieces

before their eyes;

their houses will be plundered

and their wives ravished.

17 Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them,

who have no regard for silver

and do not delight in gold.

18 Their bows will slaughter the young men;

they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;

their eyes will not pity children.

19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,

the splendor and pride of the Chaldeans,

will be like Sodom and Gomorrah

when God overthrew them.

20 It will never be inhabited

or dwelt in for all generations;

no Arab will pitch his tent there,

no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.

21 But wild beasts will lie down there,

and its houses will be full of howling creatures;

there ostriches will dwell,

and there satyrs will dance.

22 Hyenas will cry in its towers,

and jackals in the pleasant palaces;

its time is close at hand

and its days will not be prolonged.

Chapter 14

1 The Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and aliens will join them and will cleave to the house of Jacob. 2 And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the Lord’s land as male and female slaves; they will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them.

3 When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, 4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:

“How the oppressor has ceased, the insolent fury* ceased!

5 The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,

the scepter of rulers,

6 that smote the peoples in wrath

with unceasing blows,

that ruled the nations in anger

with unrelenting persecution.

7 The whole earth is at rest and quiet;

they break forth into singing.

8 The cypresses rejoice at you,

the cedars of Lebanon, saying,

‘Since you were laid low,

no hewer comes up against us.’

9 Sheol beneath is stirred up

to meet you when you come,

it rouses the shades to greet you,

all who were leaders of the earth;

it raises from their thrones

all who were kings of the nations.

10 All of them will speak

and say to you:

‘You too have become as weak as we!

You have become like us!’

11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,

the sound of your harps;

maggots are the bed beneath you,

and worms are your covering.

12 “How you are fallen from heaven,

O Day Star, son of Dawn!

How you are cut down to the ground,

you who laid the nations low!

13 You said in your heart,

‘I will ascend to heaven;

above the stars of God

I will set my throne on high;

I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far north;

14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,

I will make myself like the Most High.’

15 But you are brought down to Sheol,

to the depths of the Pit.

16 Those who see you will stare at you,

and ponder over you:

‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,

who shook kingdoms,

17 who made the world like a desert

and overthrew its cities,

who did not let his prisoners go home?’

18 All the kings of the nations lie in glory,

…