Isaiah 51-55

Common English Bible

¹² I, I am the one who comforts you.
Why should you fear humans who will die,
    mortals who are treated like grass?
¹³ You forgot the Lord your maker,
    the one who stretched out the heavens
    and founded the earth.
    You were continually afraid, all day long,
    on account of the oppressor’s wrath—
    a fear by which they intend to destroy you.
    Where now is the oppressor’s wrath?
¹⁴ The imprisoned ones will soon be released;
    they won’t die in the pit
    or even lack bread.
¹⁵ I am the Lord your God,
    who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
    the Lord of heavenly forces is his name.
¹⁶ I put my words in your mouth
    and hid you in the shadow of my hand,
    stretching out^[b] the heavens, founding the earth,
    and saying to Zion, “You are my people.”

²¹ Therefore, hear this, suffering one,
    who is drunk, but not from wine.
²² The Lord, your Lord and your God,
    who contends for his people, says:
    Look, I have taken the cup of reeling,
    the goblet of my wrath, from your hand.
    You will no longer drink from it.
²³ I will put it in the hand of your tormentors,
    who said to you,
    “Lie down so that we can walk on you.
    Make your back like the ground,
    like a street for those walking on it.”

³ The Lord proclaims:
You were sold for nothing,
    and you will be redeemed without money.
⁴ The Lord God proclaims:
Long ago my people went down
    to reside in Egypt.
    Moreover, Assyria has oppressed them without cause.
⁵ And now what have I here? says the Lord.
    My people are taken away for nothing.
Their rulers wail, says the Lord,
    and continually all day long my name is despised.
⁶ Therefore, my people will know my name on that day;
    I’m the one who promises it; I’m here.

⁹ Break into song together, you ruins of Jerusalem!
The Lord has comforted his people and has redeemed Jerusalem.
¹⁰ The Lord has bared his holy arm in view of all the nations;
    all the ends of the earth have seen our God’s victory.

¹¹ Depart! Depart! Go out from there!
    Unclean! Don’t touch!
    Get out of that place; purify yourselves,
    carriers of the Lord’s equipment!
¹² You won’t go out in a rush,
    nor will you run away,
    because the one going before you is the Lord;
    your rear guard is the God of Israel.

53 Who can believe what we have heard,
    and for whose sake has the Lord’s arm^[f] been revealed?
² He grew up like a young plant before us,^[g]
    like a root from dry ground.
He possessed no splendid form for us to see,
    no desirable appearance.
³ He was despised and avoided by others;
    a man who suffered, who knew sickness well.
Like someone from whom people hid their faces,
    he was despised, and we didn’t think about him.

⁴ It was certainly our sickness that he carried,
    and our sufferings that he bore,
    but we thought him afflicted,
    struck down by God and tormented.
⁵ He was pierced because of our rebellions
    and crushed because of our crimes.
    He bore the punishment that made us whole;
    by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ Like sheep we had all wandered away,
    each going its own way,
    but the Lord let fall on him all our crimes.

⁷ He was oppressed and tormented,
    but didn’t open his mouth.
Like a lamb being brought to slaughter,
    like a ewe silent before her shearers,
    he didn’t open his mouth.

⁸ Due to an unjust ruling he was taken away,
    and his fate—who will think about it?
He was eliminated from the land of the living,
    struck dead because of my people’s rebellion.
⁹ His grave was among the wicked,
    his tomb with evildoers,^[h]
    though he had done no violence,
    and had spoken nothing false.

¹⁰ But the Lord wanted to crush him
    and to make him suffer.
If his life is offered^[i] as restitution,
    he will see his offspring; he will enjoy long life.
    The Lord’s plans will come to fruition through him.
¹¹ After his deep anguish he will see light,^[j] and he will be satisfied.
Through his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant,
    will make many righteous,
    and will bear their guilt.
¹² Therefore, I will give him a share with the great,
    and he will divide the spoil with the strong,
    in return for exposing his life to death
    and being numbered with rebels,
    though he carried the sin of many
    and pleaded on behalf of those who rebelled.

⁴ Don’t fear,
    because you won’t be ashamed;
    don’t be dismayed,
    because you won’t be disgraced.
You will forget the shame of your youth;
    you’ll no longer remember the disgrace of your widowhood.
⁵ The one marrying you is the one who made you—
    the Lord of heavenly forces is his name.
The one redeeming you is the holy one of Israel,
    the one called the God of all the earth.
⁶ As an abandoned and dejected woman the Lord has summoned you;
    as a young wife when she is rejected,
        says your God.
⁷ For a brief moment I abandoned you,
    but with great mercy I will bring you back.
⁸     In an outburst of rage,
    I hid my face from you for a moment,
    but with everlasting love I have consoled you,
    says your redeemer, the Lord.

⁹ These are like the days^[k] of Noah for me,
    when I promised that Noah’s waters would never again cover the earth.
    Likewise I promise not to rage against you or rebuke you.
¹⁰ The mountains may shift,
    and the hills may be shaken,
    but my faithful love won’t shift from you,
    and my covenant of peace won’t be shaken,
    says the Lord, the one who pities you.

¹¹ Suffering one, storm-tossed, uncomforted,
    look, I am setting your gemstones in silvery metal
    and your foundations with sapphires.
¹² I will make your towers of rubies,
    and your gates of beryl,
    and all your walls of precious jewels.
¹³     All your children will be disciples of the Lord—
    I will make peace abound for your children.
¹⁴ You will be firmly founded in righteousness.
    You will stay far from oppression because you won’t fear,
    far from terror because it won’t come near you.
¹⁵ If anyone attacks you, it’s none of my doing.
    Whoever attacks you will fall because of you.
¹⁶ Look, I myself created the metalworker who blows the fire of coal and who produces a tool for his work.
    And I myself created the looter to destroy.
¹⁷ No weapon fashioned against you will succeed,
    and you may condemn every tongue that disputes with you.
This is the heritage of the Lord’s servants,
    whose righteousness comes from me, says the Lord.

⁶ Seek the Lord when he can still be found;
    call him while he is yet near.
⁷ Let the wicked abandon their ways
    and the sinful their schemes.
Let them return to the Lord so that he may have mercy on them,
    to our God, because he is generous with forgiveness.
⁸ My plans aren’t your plans,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
⁹ Just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways,
    and my plans than your plans.
¹⁰ Just as the rain and the snow come down from the sky
        and don’t return there without watering the earth,
        making it conceive and yield plants
        and providing seed to the sower and food to the eater,
¹¹     so is my word that comes from my mouth;
        it does not return to me empty.
        Instead, it does what I want,
        and accomplishes what I intend.

¹² Yes, you will go out with celebration,
    and you will be brought back in peace.
Even the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you;
    all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
¹³ In place of the thorn the cypress will grow;
    in place of the nettle the myrtle will grow.
This will attest to the Lord’s stature,
        an enduring reminder that won’t be removed.