Chapter 48

1 Hear this, O house of Jacob,

who are called by the name of Israel,

and who came forth from the loins* of Judah;

who swear by the name of the Lord,

and confess the God of Israel,

but not in truth or right.

2 For they call themselves after the holy city,

and stay themselves on the God of Israel;

the Lord of hosts is his name.

3 “The former things I declared of old,

they went forth from my mouth and I made them known;

then suddenly I did them and they came to pass.

4 Because I know that you are obstinate,

and your neck is an iron sinew

and your forehead brass,

5 I declared them to you from of old,

before they came to pass I announced them to you,

lest you should say, ‘My idol did them,

my graven image and my molten image commanded them.’

6 “You have heard; now see all this;

and will you not declare it?

From this time forth I make you hear new things,

hidden things which you have not known.

7 They are created now, not long ago;

before today you have never heard of them,

lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’

8 You have never heard, you have never known,

from of old your ear has not been opened.

For I knew that you would deal very treacherously,

and that from birth you were called a rebel.

9 “For my name’s sake I defer my anger,

for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,

that I may not cut you off.

10 Behold, I have refined you, but not likej silver;

I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.

11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,

for how should my name* be profaned?

My glory I will not give to another.

12 “Hearken to me, O Jacob,

and Israel, whom I called!

I am He, I am the first,

and I am the last.

13 My hand laid the foundation of the earth,

and my right hand spread out the heavens;

when I call to them, they stand forth together.

14 “Assemble, all of you, and hear!

Who among them has declared these things?

The Lord loves him;

he shall perform his purpose on Babylon,

and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.

15 I, even I, have spoken and called him,

I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.

16 Draw near to me, hear this:

from the beginning I have not spoken in secret,

from the time it came to be I have been there.”

And now the Lord GOD has sent me and his Spirit.

17 Thus says the Lord,

your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

“I am the Lord your God,

who teaches you to profit,

who leads you in the way you should go.

18 O that you had hearkened to my commandments!

Then your peace would have been like a river,

and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;

19 your offspring would have been like the sand,

and your descendants like its grains;

their name would never be cut off

or destroyed from before me.”

20 Go forth from Babylon, flee from Chaldea,

declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it,

send it forth to the end of the earth;

say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!”

21 They thirsted not when he led them through the deserts;

he made water flow for them from the rock;

he cleft the rock and the water gushed out.

22 “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”

Chapter 49

1 Listen 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.

2 He 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.

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

Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”

4 But 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.”

5 And 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—

6 he 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.”

7 Thus 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.”

8 Thus 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;

9 saying 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;

10 they 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.

11 And I will make all my mountains a way,

and my highways shall be raised up.

12 Lo, these shall come from afar,

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

and these from the land of Syene.”*

13 Sing 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.

14 But 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.

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

your walls are continually before me.

17 Your builders outstrip your destroyers,

and those who laid you waste go forth from you.

18 Lift 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.

20 The 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.’

21 Then 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?’ ”

22 Thus 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.

23 Kings 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.”

24 Can the prey be taken from the mighty,

or the captives of a tyrantm be rescued?

25 Surely, 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.

26 I 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

1 Thus 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.

2 Why, 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.

3 I clothe the heavens with blackness,

and make sackcloth their covering.”

4 The 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.

5 The Lord God has opened my ear,

and I was not rebellious,

I turned not backward.

6 I 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.

7 For 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;

8 he 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.

9 Behold, 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.

10 Who 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?

11 Behold, 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.