Isaiah 51

Wycliffe Bible

51 Hear ye me, that follow that that is just, and seek the Lord (Listen ye to me, ye who follow what is right, and seek the Lord). Take ye heed to the stone, from whence ye be hewn down, and to the cave of the pit, from which ye be cut down.

² Take ye heed to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, that childed you (who gave birth to you); for I called him, (when he was but) one, (or without an heir,) and I blessed him, and I multiplied him.

³ Therefore the Lord shall comfort Zion, and he shall comfort all the fallings thereof; and he shall set the desert thereof in delights, and the wilderness thereof as a garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, the doing of thankings and the voice of praising. (And so the Lord shall comfort Zion, and he shall comfort all who live in its fallings, or in its ruins; and he shall turn its desert into an Eden, and its wilderness into a garden of the Lord; joy and happiness shall be found there, and thanksgiving and praising.)

⁴ My people, take ye heed to me, and, my lineage, hear ye me; for why a law shall go out from me, and my doom shall rest into the light of peoples. (My people, take ye heed to me, and, my tribe, listen ye to me; for the Law shall go out from me, and my judgement shall be a light for the peoples, or for the nations.)

⁵ My just man is nigh, my saviour is gone out, and mine arms shall deem peoples; isles shall abide me, and shall suffer mine arm. (My justice is near, my salvation hath gone out, and my arm shall rule the peoples; the islands shall wait for me, and shall have trust in my arm.)

⁶ Raise your eyes to heaven, and see ye under earth beneath; for why heavens shall melt away as smoke, and the earth shall be all-broken as a cloth, and the dwellers thereof shall perish as these things; but mine health shall be without end, and my rightfulness shall not fail. (Raise up your eyes to the heavens, and see ye under the earth beneath; for the heavens shall melt away like smoke, and the earth shall be torn like a cloak, and its inhabitants shall perish like these things; but my deliverance, or my salvation, shall be forever, and my justice, or my judgement, shall not fail.)

⁷ Ye people, that know the just man, hear me, my law is in the heart of them; do not ye dread the shame of men, and dread ye not the blasphemies of them. (Ye people, who know what is just, hear me, for my Law is in your hearts; do not ye fear the shame of men, and fear ye not their blasphemies.)

⁸ For why a worm shall eat them so as a cloth, and a moth shall devour them so as wool; but mine health shall be without end, and my rightfulness into generations of generations. (For a worm shall eat them up like a cloak, and a moth shall devour them like wool; but my deliverance, or my salvation, shall be forever, and my justice, or my victory, for all generations.)

⁹ Rise thou, rise thou, arm of the Lord, be thou clothed in strength; rise thou, as in [the] eld days, in generations of worlds. Whether thou smitedest not the proud man (Strikedest thou not Rahab), woundedest not the dragon?

¹⁰ Whether thou driedest not the sea, the water of the great depth, which settedest the depth of the sea to be a way, that men that were delivered, should pass [over]? (Didest thou not dry up the sea, the water of the great depth, and make the depth of the sea to be a way, so that those who were delivered, or saved, could cross over it?)

¹¹ And now they that be again-bought of the Lord shall turn again, and shall come praising into Zion, and everlasting gladness on the heads of them; they shall hold joy and gladness, and sorrow and wailing shall flee away. (And now they who be redeemed, or who be rescued, by the Lord shall return, and shall come with praising into Zion, and everlasting happiness shall be upon them; they shall hold onto joy and happiness, and sorrow and wailing shall flee away.)

¹² I, I myself, that is, I am he, I am he, that shall comfort you; who art thou, that thou dreadest of a deadly man, and of the son of man, that shall wax dry so as hay? (I, I myself, shall comfort you; so why then fearest thou any mortal, yea, the son of a man, who shall grow as dry as grass, or like straw?)

¹³ And thou hast forgotten the Lord, thy Creator, that stretched abroad (the) heavens, and founded the earth; and thou dreadedest continually all day of the face of his strong vengeance, that did tribulation to thee, and made ready for to lose. Where is now the strong vengeance of the troubler? (But thou hast forgotten the Lord, thy Creator, who stretched abroad the heavens, and founded the earth; and, instead, all day long, thou hast continually feared the strong vengeance of the one who gave thee trials and tribulation, and who is ready to destroy thee. But now, where is the strong vengeance of the troubler?)

¹⁴ Soon he shall come, going for to open; and he shall not slay till to death, neither his bread shall fail. (Yea, he who now is captive of this fear, shall soon be set free; and he shall live a long life, and his food shall not fail.)

¹⁵ Forsooth I am thy Lord God, that trouble the sea, and the waves thereof wax great; the Lord of hosts is my name. (For I am the Lord thy God, who troubleth the sea, and its waves grow great; the Lord of hosts is my name.)

¹⁶ I have put my words in thy mouth, and I defended thee in the shadow of mine hand; that thou plant (the) heavens, and found the earth, and say to Zion, Thou art my people. (I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have hid thee under the shadow of my hand; so that I might firmly plant the heavens, and found, or form, the earth, and say to Zion, Thou art my people.)

¹⁷ Be thou raised (up), be thou raised (up), rise thou, Jerusalem, that hast drunk of the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath (that hast drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his anger); thou hast drunk unto the bottom of the cup of sleep, thou hast drunk of (it) unto the dregs.

¹⁸ None there is that sustaineth it, of all the sons which it engendered; and none there is that taketh the hand thereof, of all the sons which it nourished. (There is no one who sustaineth thee, of all those whom thou hath begat; and there is no one who taketh thy hand, of all those whom thou hath nourished.)

¹⁹ Two things there be that came to thee; who shall be sorry on thee? (There be two things that came to thee; who shall be sorry for thee?) destroying, and defouling, and hunger, and sword. Who shall comfort thee?

²⁰ Thy sons be cast forth, they slept in the head of all (the) ways, as the beast oryx (like the oryx beast, or the antelope), taken with a snare; they be full of [the] indignation of the Lord, of the blaming of thy God.

²¹ Therefore thou poor, and drunken, not of wine, hear these things. (And so O poor and drunken one, but not of wine, listen to these things.)

²² The Lordly Governor, thy Lord, and thy God, that fought for his people, saith these things, Lo! I have taken from thine hand the cup of sleep, the bottom of the cup of mine indignation (yea, the dregs of the cup of my anger); I shall not lay to, that thou drink it any more.

²³ And I shall set it in the hand of them that made thee low, and said to thy soul, Be thou bowed, that we pass; and thou hast set thy body as (the) earth, and as a way to them that go forth. (And I shall put it in the hand of them who made thee low, and who said to thee, Be thou bowed down, so that we can trample upon thee; and thou hast made thy body like the ground, and a way for them to go upon.)