Isaiah 48:17-51:7

English Standard Version

¹⁷Thus 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^(A)Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments!
    ^(B)Then your peace would have been like a river,
    and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;
¹⁹^(C)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^(D)Go out from Babylon, flee from ^(E)Chaldea,
    declare this ^(F)with a shout of joy, proclaim it,
send it out to the end of the earth;
    say, ^(G)“The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
²¹^(H)They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
    ^(I)he made water flow for them from the rock;
    he split the rock and the water gushed out.

²²^(J)“There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”

The Servant of the Lord

49 Listen to me, ^(K)O coastlands,
    and give attention, you peoples ^(L)from afar.
^(M)The Lord called me from the womb,
    from the body of my mother he named my name.
²^(N)He made my mouth like a sharp sword;
    ^(O)in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow;
    in his quiver he hid me away.
³And he said to me, “You are my servant,
    Israel, ^(P)in whom I will be glorified.”^[a]
⁴^(Q)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^(R)And now the Lord says,
    he ^(S)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 ^(T)I am honored in the eyes of the Lord,
    and my God has become my strength—
⁶he says:
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
    to raise up the tribes of Jacob
    and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
^(U)I will make you ^(V)as a light for the nations,
    that ^(W)my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

⁷Thus says the Lord,
    ^(X)the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
^(Y)to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation,
    the servant of rulers:
^(Z)“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.”

The Restoration of Israel

⁸Thus says the Lord:
^(AA)“In a ^(AB)time of favor I have answered you;
    in a day of salvation I have helped you;
I will keep you ^(AC)and give you
    as a covenant to the people,
to establish the land,
    ^(AD)to apportion the desolate heritages,
⁹^(AE)saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’
    to those who are in darkness, ‘Appear.’
^(AF)They shall feed along the ways;
    on all bare heights shall be their pasture;
¹⁰^(AG)they shall not hunger or thirst,
    neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them,
for he who has pity on them ^(AH)will lead them,
    and by springs of water will guide them.
¹¹^(AI)And I will make all my mountains a road,
    and my highways shall be raised up.
¹²^(AJ)Behold, these shall come from afar,
    and behold, ^(AK)these from the north and from the west,^[b]
    and these from the land of Syene.”^[c]

¹³^(AL)Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;
break forth, O mountains, into singing!
For the Lord ^(AM)has comforted his people
and will have compassion on his afflicted.

¹⁴But Zion said, ^(AN)“The Lord has forsaken me;
my Lord has forgotten me.”

¹⁵^(AO)“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
    that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
    yet I will not forget you.
¹⁶Behold, ^(AP)I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
    your walls are continually before me.
¹⁷Your builders make haste;^[d]
    ^(AQ)your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you.
¹⁸^(AR)Lift up your eyes around and see;
    they all gather, they come to you.
^(AS)As I live, declares the Lord,
    ^(AT)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—
^(AU)surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants,
    and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
²⁰^(AV)The children of your bereavement
    will yet say in your ears:
^(AW)‘The place is too narrow for me;
    make room for me to dwell in.’
²¹Then you will say in your heart:
    ‘Who has borne me these?
^(AX)I was bereaved and barren,
    exiled and put away,
    but who has brought up these?
Behold, I was left alone;
    from where have these come?’”

²²Thus says the Lord God:
“Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations,
    ^(AY)and raise my signal to the peoples;
^(AZ)and they shall bring your sons in their arms,^[e]
    and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
²³^(BA)Kings shall be your foster fathers,
    and their queens your nursing mothers.
^(BB)With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you,
    and ^(BC)lick the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord;
    ^(BD)those who wait for me ^(BE)shall not be put to shame.”

²⁴Can the prey be taken from the mighty,
    or the captives of a tyrant^[f] be rescued?
²⁵For thus says the Lord:
^(BF)“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^(BG)I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,
    and they shall be drunk ^(BH)with their own blood as with wine.
Then all flesh shall know
    that ^(BI)I am the Lord your Savior,
    and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Israel's Sin and the Servant's Obedience

50 Thus says the Lord:
“Where is ^(BJ)your mother's certificate of divorce,
    with which ^(BK)I sent her away?
Or ^(BL)which of my creditors is it
    to whom I have sold you?
^(BM)Behold, for your iniquities you were sold,
    and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
²^(BN)Why, when I came, was there no man;
    why, when I called, was there no one to answer?
^(BO)Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem?
    Or have I no power to deliver?
^(BP)Behold, by my rebuke ^(BQ)I dry up the sea,
    ^(BR)I make the rivers a desert;
^(BS)their fish stink for lack of water
    and die of thirst.
³^(BT)I clothe the heavens with blackness
    and make sackcloth their covering.”

⁴The Lord God has given ^(BU)me
    the tongue of those who are taught,
that ^(BV)I may know how to sustain with a word
    ^(BW)him who is weary.
Morning by morning he awakens;
    he awakens my ear
    to hear as those who are taught.
⁵^(BX)The Lord God has opened my ear,
    ^(BY)and I was not rebellious;
    I turned not backward.
⁶^(BZ)I gave my back to those who strike,
    and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
    from disgrace and spitting.

⁷But the Lord God helps me;
    therefore I have not been disgraced;
^(CA)therefore I have set my face like a flint,
    and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
⁸    ^(CB)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^(CC)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.

¹⁰Who among you fears the Lord
    and obeys ^(CD)the voice of his servant?
^(CE)Let him who walks in darkness
    and has no light
trust in the name of the Lord
    and rely on his God.
¹¹Behold, all you who kindle a fire,
    who equip yourselves with burning torches!
Walk by the light of your fire,
    and by the torches that you have kindled!
^(CF)This you have from my hand:
    you shall lie down in torment.

The Lord's Comfort for Zion

51 ^(CG)“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,
    you who seek the Lord:
look to the rock from which you were hewn,
    and to the quarry from which you were dug.
²Look to Abraham your father
    and to Sarah who bore you;
for ^(CH)he was but one when I called him,
    that I might bless him and multiply him.
³For the Lord ^(CI)comforts Zion;
    he comforts all her waste places
and makes her wilderness like ^(CJ)Eden,
    her desert like ^(CK)the garden of the Lord;
^(CL)joy and gladness will be found in her,
    thanksgiving and the voice of song.

⁴^(CM)“Give attention to me, my people,
    and give ear to me, my nation;
^(CN)for a law^[g] will go out from me,
    and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.
⁵^(CO)My righteousness draws near,
    my salvation has gone out,
    and my arms will judge the peoples;
^(CP)the coastlands hope for me,
    and for my arm they wait.
⁶^(CQ)Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
    and look at the earth beneath;
^(CR)for the heavens vanish like smoke,
    the earth will wear out like a garment,
    and they who dwell in it will die in like manner;^[h]
^(CS)but my salvation will be forever,
    and my righteousness will never be dismayed.

⁷^(CT)“Listen to me, you who know righteousness,
the people ^(CU)in whose heart is my law;
^(CV)fear not the reproach of man,
nor be dismayed at their revilings.

Footnotes

Isaiah 49:3 Or I will display my beauty
Isaiah 49:12 Hebrew from the sea
Isaiah 49:12 Dead Sea Scroll; Masoretic Text Sinim
Isaiah 49:17 Dead Sea Scroll; Masoretic Text Your children make haste
Isaiah 49:22 Hebrew in their bosom
Isaiah 49:24 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac, Vulgate (see also verse 25); Masoretic Text of a righteous man
Isaiah 51:4 Or for teaching; also verse 7
Isaiah 51:6 Or will die like gnats