Isaiah 49-51

Common English Bible

The servant speaks up

49 Listen to me, coastlands;
    pay attention, peoples far away.
The Lord called me before my birth,
    called my name when I was in my mother’s womb.
²He made my mouth like a sharp sword,
    and hid me in the shadow of God’s own hand.
He made me a sharpened arrow,
        and concealed me in God’s quiver,
³    saying to me, “You are my servant,
        Israel, in whom I show my glory.”
⁴But I said, “I have wearied myself in vain.
    I have used up my strength for nothing.”
Nevertheless, the Lord will grant me justice;
    my reward is with my God.
⁵And now the Lord has decided—
    the one who formed me from the womb as his servant—
    to restore Jacob to God,
    so that Israel might return to him.
    Moreover, I’m honored in the Lord’s eyes;
    my God has become my strength.
⁶He said: It is not enough, since you are my servant,
    to raise up the tribes of Jacob
    and to bring back the survivors of Israel.
    Hence, I will also appoint you as light to the nations
    so that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.

⁷The Lord, redeemer of Israel and its holy one,
    says to one despised,
    rejected by nations,
    to the slave of rulers:
    Kings will see and stand up;
    commanders will bow down
    on account of the Lord, who is faithful,
    the holy one of Israel,
    who has chosen you.
⁸The Lord said:
At the right time, I answered you;
    on a day of salvation, I helped you.
    I have guarded you,
    and given you as a covenant to the people, to restore the land,
    and to reassign deserted properties,
⁹    saying to the prisoners, “Come out,”
    and to those in darkness, “Show yourselves.”
Along the roads animals^[a] will graze;
    their pasture will be on every treeless hilltop.
¹⁰They won’t hunger or thirst;
    the burning heat and sun won’t strike them,
    because one who has compassion for them will lead them
    and will guide them by springs of water.
¹¹I will turn all my mountains into roads;
    my highways will be built up.
¹²Look! These will come from far away.
    Look! These from the north and west,
    and these from the southland.^[b]

¹³Sing, heavens! Rejoice, earth!
Break out, mountains, with a song.
The Lord has comforted his people,
and taken pity on those who suffer.

Compassion for Zion

¹⁴But Zion says, “The Lord has abandoned me;
    my Lord has forgotten me.”
¹⁵Can a woman forget her nursing child,
    fail to pity the child of her womb?
        Even these may forget,
        but I won’t forget you.
¹⁶Look, on my palms I’ve inscribed you;
    your walls are before me continually.
¹⁷Your builders^[c] come quickly;
    those who destroy and demolish you will depart from you.
¹⁸Look up all around and see:
    they are all gathered;
    they come to you.
As surely as I live, says the Lord,
    you will put them all on like ornaments,
    bind them on like a bride.

¹⁹As for your ruins and desolate places
    and destroyed land—
    you will soon be crowded with settlers,
    and those who swallowed you will be far away.
²⁰You will again hear the children who were born bereaved say,
    “The place is too crowded for me;
    make room for me to settle.”
²¹And you will think to yourself,
    Who bore me these?
    I was bereaved and desolate, exiled and sent off.
So who raised these?
    I was left behind, I was alone;
    where were these?

²²The Lord God says:
Look, I will raise my hand to the nations,
    and to the peoples I will lift up my signal.
They will bring your sons in their arms,
    and will carry your daughters on their shoulders.
²³Kings will be your attendants,
    and their queens your nursemaids.
With faces to the ground they will bow down to you;
    they will lick the dust from your feet.
You will know that I am the Lord;
    the one who hopes in me won’t be ashamed.
²⁴Can loot be taken from warriors?
    Can a tyrant’s captives escape?
²⁵The Lord says:
Even the captives of warriors will be taken,
    and the tyrant’s loot will escape.
I myself will oppose those who oppose you,
    and I myself will save your children.
²⁶I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh;
    and as with wine, with their own blood they will be drunk,
    so that all flesh will know that I, the Lord, am your savior,
    and the mighty one of Jacob is your redeemer.

50 The Lord says:
Where’s your mother’s divorce decree,
    with which I sent her away?
Or to which lender did I sell you?
    On account of your sins you were sold;
    on account of your transgressions
    your mother was sent away.
²Why did I come and find no one?
    Why did I call when no one answered?
Is my hand too small to redeem you?^[d]
    Don’t I have enough power to save?
With my rebuke I dry up the sea
    and make the rivers into wilderness.
Their fish stink from lack of water;
    they die of thirst.
³I clothe the heavens with darkness
    and cover them with funeral clothing.

God’s faithful servant

⁴The Lord God gave me an educated tongue
    to know how to respond to the weary
    with a word that will awaken them in the morning.^[e]
    God awakens my ear in the morning to listen,
    as educated people do.
⁵The Lord God opened my ear;
    I didn’t rebel; I didn’t turn my back.
⁶Instead, I gave my body to attackers,
    and my cheeks to beard pluckers.
I didn’t hide my face
    from insults and spitting.
⁷The Lord God will help me;
    therefore, I haven’t been insulted.
Therefore, I set my face like flint,
    and knew I wouldn’t be ashamed.
⁸The one who will declare me innocent is near.
    Who will argue with me?
Let’s stand up together.
    Who will bring judgment against me?
    Let him approach me.
⁹Look! The Lord God will help me.
    Who will condemn me?
Look, they will wear out like clothing;
    the moth will eat them.

¹⁰Who among you fears the Lord?
    Who listens to the voice of his servant,
    who walks in darkness
    and has no light?
They will trust in the Lord’s name,
    and rely upon their God.
¹¹Look! All of you are kindling fire,
    igniting torches.
    Walk by the light of your fire,
    by the torches you have ignited.
    This is what will happen to you by my hand:
    you will lie down in grief.

Look to Abraham and Sarah

51 Listen to me,
    you who look for righteousness,
    you who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were cut
    and to the quarry where you were dug.
²Look to Abraham your ancestor,
    and to Sarah, who gave you birth.
They were alone when I called them,
    but I blessed them and made them many.
³The Lord will comfort Zion;
    he will comfort all her ruins.
He will make her desert like Eden
    and her wilderness like the Lord’s garden.
Happiness and joy will be found in her—
    thanks and the sound of singing.

Salvation endures forever

⁴Pay attention to me, my people;
    listen to me, my nation,
        for teaching will go out from me,
        my justice, as a light to the nations.
⁵    I will quickly bring my victory.
My salvation is on its way,
    and my arm will judge the peoples.
    The coastlands hope for me;
    they wait for my judgment.^[f]
⁶Look up to the heavens,
        and gaze at the earth beneath.
    The heavens will disappear like smoke,
    the earth will wear out like clothing,
    and its inhabitants will die like gnats.
But my salvation will endure forever,
    and my righteousness will be unbroken.
⁷Listen to me, you who know what is right,
    people who carry my teaching in your heart:
    Don’t fear human scorn,
    and don’t be upset when they abuse you.
⁸The moth will eat them as if they were clothing,
    and the worm will eat them like wool,
    but my righteousness is forever,
    and my salvation for all generations.

Awake, arm of the Lord

⁹Awake, awake, put on strength,
    arm of the Lord.
Awake as in times past,
    generations long ago.
Aren’t you the one who crushed Rahab,
    who pierced the dragon?
¹⁰Didn’t you dry up the sea,
    the waters of the great deep?
    And didn’t you make the redeemed a road to cross
    through the depths of the sea,
    a road for the redeemed to pass?
¹¹Then let those ransomed by the Lord return
    and come to Zion with singing
    and with everlasting joy upon their heads.
Let happiness and joy overwhelm them;
    let grief and groaning flee.

¹²I, I am the one who comforts you.
Why should you fear humans who will die,
    mortals who are treated like grass?
¹³You 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?
¹⁴The imprisoned ones will soon be released;
    they won’t die in the pit
    or even lack bread.
¹⁵I am the Lord your God,
    who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
    the Lord of heavenly forces is his name.
¹⁶I put my words in your mouth
    and hid you in the shadow of my hand,
    stretching out^[g] the heavens, founding the earth,
    and saying to Zion, “You are my people.”

Wake yourself, Jerusalem

¹⁷Wake yourself, wake yourself!
    Rise up, Jerusalem,
    who drank the cup of wrath from the Lord’s hand.
    You drank; you drained the goblet of reeling.
¹⁸    There’s no one to guide her among all the children she bore;
    there’s no one to take her by the hand among all the children she raised.
¹⁹These two things have happened to you—
    Who will be sorry for you?^[h]—
        destruction and devastation,
        famine and sword—
    who will comfort you?^[i]
²⁰Your children passed out;
    they lay at the head of every street like antelope in a net,
    filled with the Lord’s wrath,
    with the rebuke of your God.

²¹Therefore, hear this, suffering one,
    who is drunk, but not from wine.
²²The 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.
²³I 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.”