The Servant, Israel’s Hope

50 Thus 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.

2 Why, 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.

3 eI 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.

5 The Lord God ihas opened My ear;

And I was not jrebellious,

Nor did I turn away.

6 kI 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.

8 oHe is near who justifies Me;

Who will contend with Me?

Let us stand together.

Who is 1My adversary?

Let him come near Me.

9 Surely 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.

11 Look, 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.