Isaiah 49: 1 - 53: 12
1Listen, islands, to me. |
Listen, you peoples, from afar: |
the LORD has called me from the womb; |
from the inside of my mother, he has mentioned my name. |
2He has made my mouth like a sharp sword. |
He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand. |
He has made me a polished shaft. |
He has kept me close in his quiver. |
3He said to me, “You are my servant, |
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” |
4But I said, “I have laboured in vain. |
I have spent my strength in vain for nothing; |
yet surely the justice due to me is with the LORD, |
and my reward with my God.” |
5Now the LORD, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, |
says to bring Jacob again to him, |
and to gather Israel to him, |
for I am honourable in the LORD’s eyes, |
and my God has become my strength. |
6Indeed, 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 also give you as a light to the nations, |
that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.” |
7The LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, |
says to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers: |
“Kings shall see and rise up, |
princes, and they shall worship, |
because of the LORD who is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.” |
8The LORD says, “I have answered you in an acceptable time. |
I have helped you in a day of salvation. |
I will preserve you and give you for a covenant of the people, |
to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritage, |
9saying to those who are bound, ‘Come out!’; |
to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves!’ |
“They shall feed along the paths, |
and their pasture shall be on all treeless heights. |
10They shall not hunger nor thirst; |
neither shall the heat nor sun strike them: |
for he who has mercy on them will lead them. |
He will guide them by springs of water. |
11I will make all my mountains a road, |
and my highways shall be exalted. |
12Behold, these shall come from afar, |
and behold, these from the north and from the west; |
and these from the land of Sinim.” |
13Sing, heavens, and be joyful, earth! |
Break out into singing, mountains, |
for the LORD has comforted his people, |
and will have compassion on his afflicted. |
14But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, |
and the Lord has forgotten me.” |
15“Can a woman forget her nursing child, |
that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? |
Yes, these may forget, |
yet I will not forget you! |
16Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. |
Your walls are continually before me. |
17Your children hurry. |
Your destroyers and those who devastated you will leave you. |
18Lift up your eyes all around, and see: |
all these gather themselves together, and come to you. |
As I live,” says the LORD, “you shall surely clothe yourself with them all as with an ornament, |
and dress yourself with them, like a bride. |
19“For, as for your waste and your desolate places, |
and your land that has been destroyed, |
surely now that land will be too small for the inhabitants, |
and those who swallowed you up will be far away. |
20The children of your bereavement will say in your ears, |
‘This place is too small for me. |
Give me a place to live in.’ |
21Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has conceived these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children |
and am alone, an exile, and wandering back and forth? |
Who has brought these up? |
Behold, I was left alone. Where were these?’” |
22The Lord GOD says, “Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, |
and lift up my banner to the peoples. |
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. |
They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth, |
and lick the dust of your feet. |
Then you will know that I am the LORD; |
and those who wait for me shall not be disappointed.” |
24Shall the plunder be taken from the mighty, |
or the lawful captives be delivered? |
25But the LORD says, “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, |
and the plunder retrieved from the fierce, |
for I will contend with him who contends with you |
and I will save your children. |
26I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh; |
and they will be drunk on their own blood, as with sweet wine. |
Then all flesh shall know that I, the LORD, am your Saviour |
and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.” |
1The LORD says, “Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, with which I have put her away? |
Or to which of my creditors have I sold you? |
Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, |
and your mother was put away for your transgressions. |
2Why, when I came, was there no one? |
When I called, why was there no one to answer? |
Is my hand shortened at all, that it can’t redeem? |
Or have I no power to deliver? |
Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea. |
I make the rivers a wilderness. |
Their fish stink because there is no water, and die of thirst. |
3I clothe the heavens with blackness. |
I 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 words him who is weary. |
He awakens morning by morning, |
he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. |
5The Lord GOD has opened my ear. |
I was not rebellious. |
I have not turned back. |
6I gave my back to those who beat me, |
and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair. |
I didn’t hide my face from shame and spitting. |
7For the Lord GOD will help me. |
Therefore I have not been confounded. |
Therefore I have set my face like a flint, |
and I know that I won’t be disappointed. |
8He who justifies me is near. |
Who will bring charges against me? |
Let us stand up together. |
Who is my adversary? |
Let him come near to me. |
9Behold, the Lord GOD will help me! |
Who is he who will condemn me? |
Behold, they will all grow old like a garment. |
The moths will eat them up. |
10Who amongst you fears the LORD |
and obeys the voice of his servant? |
He who walks in darkness |
and has no light, |
let him trust in the LORD’s name, |
and rely on his God. |
11Behold, all you who kindle a fire, |
who adorn yourselves with torches around yourselves, |
walk in the flame of your fire, |
and amongst the torches that you have kindled. |
You will have this from my hand: |
you will lie down in sorrow. |
1“Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, |
you who seek the LORD. |
Look to the rock you were cut from, |
and to the quarry you were dug from. |
2Look to Abraham your father, |
and to Sarah who bore you; |
for when he was but one I called him, |
I blessed him, |
and made him many. |
3For the LORD has comforted Zion. |
He has comforted all her waste places, |
and has made her wilderness like Eden, |
and her desert like the garden of the LORD. |
Joy and gladness will be found in them, |
thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. |
4“Listen to me, my people; |
and hear me, my nation, |
for a law will go out from me, |
and I will establish my justice for a light to the peoples. |
5My righteousness is near. |
My salvation has gone out, |
and my arms will judge the peoples. |
The islands will wait for me, |
and they will trust my arm. |
6Lift up your eyes to the heavens, |
and look at the earth beneath; |
for the heavens will vanish away like smoke, |
and the earth will wear out like a garment. |
Its inhabitants will die in the same way, |
but my salvation will be forever, |
and my righteousness will not be abolished. |
7“Listen to me, you who know righteousness, |
the people in whose heart is my law. |
Don’t fear the reproach of men, |
and don’t be dismayed at their insults. |
8For the moth will eat them up like a garment, |
and the worm will eat them like wool; |
but my righteousness will be forever, |
and my salvation to all generations.” |
9Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of the LORD! |
Awake, as in the days of old, |
the generations of ancient times. |
Isn’t it you who cut Rahab in pieces, |
who pierced the monster? |
10Isn’t it you who dried up the sea, |
the waters of the great deep; |
who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? |
11Those ransomed by the LORD will return, |
and come with singing to Zion. |
Everlasting joy shall be on their heads. |
They will obtain gladness and joy. |
Sorrow and sighing shall flee away. |
12“I, even I, am he who comforts you. |
Who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, |
and of the son of man who will be made as grass? |
13Have you forgotten the LORD your Maker, |
who stretched out the heavens, |
and laid the foundations of the earth? |
Do you live in fear continually all day because of the fury of the oppressor, |
when he prepares to destroy? |
Where is the fury of the oppressor? |
14The captive exile will speedily be freed. |
He will not die and go down into the pit. |
His bread won’t fail. |
15For I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea |
so that its waves roar. |
the LORD of Armies is his name. |
16I have put my words in your mouth |
and have covered you in the shadow of my hand, |
that I may plant the heavens, |
and lay the foundations of the earth, |
and tell Zion, ‘You are my people.’” |
17Awake, awake! |
Stand up, Jerusalem, |
you who have drunk from the LORD’s hand the cup of his wrath. |
You have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, |
and drained it. |
18There is no one to guide her amongst all the sons to whom she has given birth; |
and there is no one who takes her by the hand amongst all the sons whom she has brought up. |
19These two things have happened to you— |
who will grieve with you?— |
desolation and destruction, |
and famine and the sword. |
How can I comfort you? |
20Your sons have fainted. |
They lie at the head of all the streets, |
like an antelope in a net. |
They are full of the LORD’s wrath, |
the rebuke of your God. |
21Therefore now hear this, you afflicted, |
and drunken, but not with wine: |
22Your Lord GOD, |
your God who pleads the cause of his people, says, |
“Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, |
even the bowl of the cup of my wrath. |
You will not drink it any more. |
23I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, |
who have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’ |
and you have laid your back as the ground, |
like a street to those who walk over.” |
1Awake, awake! Put on your strength, Zion. |
Put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city: |
for from now on the uncircumcised and the unclean will no more come into you. |
2Shake yourself from the dust! |
Arise, sit up, Jerusalem! |
Release yourself from the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Zion! |
3For the LORD says, “You were sold for nothing; |
and you will be redeemed without money.” |
4For the Lord GOD says: |
“My people went down at the first into Egypt to live there: |
and the Assyrian has oppressed them without cause. |
5“Now therefore, what do I do here,” says the LORD, |
“seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? |
Those who rule over them mock,” says the LORD, |
“and my name is blasphemed continually all day long. |
6Therefore my people shall know my name. |
Therefore they shall know in that day that I am he who speaks. |
Behold, it is I.” |
7How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, |
who publishes peace, |
who brings good news, |
who proclaims salvation, |
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” |
8Your watchmen lift up their voice. |
Together they sing; |
for they shall see eye to eye when the LORD returns to Zion. |
9Break out into joy! |
Sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem; |
for the LORD has comforted his people. |
He has redeemed Jerusalem. |
10The LORD has made his holy arm bare in the eyes of all the nations. |
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. |
11Depart! Depart! Go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! |
Go out from amongst her! |
Cleanse yourselves, you who carry the LORD’s vessels. |
12For you shall not go out in haste, |
neither shall you go by flight: |
for the LORD will go before you; |
and the God of Israel will be your rear guard. |
13Behold, my servant will deal wisely. |
He will be exalted and lifted up, |
and will be very high. |
14Just as many were astonished at you— |
his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men— |
15so he will cleanse many nations. |
Kings will shut their mouths at him; |
for they will see that which had not been told them, |
and they will understand that which they had not heard. |
1Who has believed our message? |
To whom has the LORD’s arm been revealed? |
2For he grew up before him as a tender plant, |
and as a root out of dry ground. |
He has no good looks or majesty. |
When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. |
3He was despised |
and rejected by men, |
a man of suffering |
and acquainted with disease. |
He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; |
and we didn’t respect him. |
4Surely he has borne our sickness |
and carried our suffering; |
yet we considered him plagued, |
struck by God, and afflicted. |
5But he was pierced for our transgressions. |
He was crushed for our iniquities. |
The punishment that brought our peace was on him; |
and by his wounds we are healed. |
6All we like sheep have gone astray. |
Everyone has turned to his own way; |
and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. |
7He was oppressed, |
yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. |
As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, |
and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, |
so he didn’t open his mouth. |
8He was taken away by oppression and judgement. |
As for his generation, |
who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living |
and stricken for the disobedience of my people? |
9They made his grave with the wicked, |
and with a rich man in his death, |
although he had done no violence, |
nor was any deceit in his mouth. |
10Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him. |
He has caused him to suffer. |
When you make his soul an offering for sin, |
he will see his offspring. |
He will prolong his days |
and the LORD’s pleasure will prosper in his hand. |
11After the suffering of his soul, |
he will see the light and be satisfied. |
My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; |
and he will bear their iniquities. |
12Therefore I will give him a portion with the great. |
He will divide the plunder with the strong; |
because he poured out his soul to death |
and was counted with the transgressors; |
yet he bore the sins of many |
and made intercession for the transgressors. |
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