³ “And He said to me,
^(F)‘You are My servant, O Israel,
^(G)In whom I will be glorified.’
^4 (H)Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain;
Yet surely my ^[b]just reward is with the Lord,
And my ^[c]work with my God.’ ”

⁵ “And now the Lord says,
Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To bring Jacob back to Him,
So that Israel ^(I)is ^[d]gathered to Him
(For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord,
And My God shall be My strength),
⁶ Indeed He says,
‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also give You as a ^(J)light to the Gentiles,
That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”

⁷ Thus says the Lord,
The Redeemer of Israel, ^[e]their Holy One,
^(K)To Him ^[f]whom man despises,
To Him whom the nation abhors,
To the Servant of rulers:
^(L)“Kings shall see and arise,
Princes also shall worship,
Because of the Lord who is faithful,
The Holy One of Israel;
And He has chosen You.”

“In an ^(M)acceptable^[g] time I have heard You,
And in the day of salvation I have helped You;
I will ^[h]preserve You ^(N)and give You
As a covenant to the people,
To restore the earth,
To cause them to inherit the desolate ^[i]heritages;
⁹ That You may say ^(O)to the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’
To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’

“They shall feed along the roads,
And their pastures shall be on all desolate heights.
¹⁰ They shall neither ^(P)hunger nor thirst,
^(Q)Neither heat nor sun shall strike them;
For He who has mercy on them ^(R)will lead them,
Even by the springs of water He will guide them.
^11 (S)I will make each of My mountains a road,
And My highways shall be elevated.
¹² Surely ^(T)these shall come from afar;
Look! Those from the north and the west,
And these from the land of Sinim.”

^13 (U)Sing, O heavens!
Be joyful, O earth!
And break out in singing, O mountains!
For the Lord has comforted His people,
And will have mercy on His afflicted.

¹⁵ “Can^(W) a woman forget her nursing child,
^[j]And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
^(X)Yet I will not forget you.
¹⁶ See, ^(Y)I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
Your walls are continually before Me.
¹⁷ Your ^[k]sons shall make haste;
Your destroyers and those who laid you waste
Shall go away from you.
^18 (Z)Lift up your eyes, look around and see;
All these gather together and come to you.
As I live,” says the Lord,
“You shall surely clothe yourselves with them all ^(AA)as an ornament,
And bind them on you as a bride does.

¹⁹ “For your waste and desolate places,
And the land of your destruction,
^(AB)Will even now be too small for the inhabitants;
And those who swallowed you up will be far away.
^20 (AC)The children you will have,
^(AD)After you have lost the others,
Will say again in your ears,
‘The place is too small for me;
Give me a place where I may dwell.’
²¹ Then you will say in your heart,
‘Who has begotten these for me,
Since I have lost my children and am desolate,
A captive, and wandering to and fro?
And who has brought these up?
There I was, left alone;
But these, where were they?’ ”

“Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations,
And set up My ^[l]standard for the peoples;
They shall bring your sons in their ^[m]arms,
And your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders;
^23 (AF)Kings shall be your foster fathers,
And their queens your nursing mothers;
They shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth,
And ^(AG)lick up the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord,
^(AH)For they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.”

^24 (AI)Shall the prey be taken from the mighty,
Or the captives ^[n]of the righteous be delivered?

“Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away,
And the prey of the terrible be delivered;
For I will contend with him who contends with you,
And I will save your children.
²⁶ I will ^(AJ)feed those who oppress you with their own flesh,
And they shall be drunk with their own ^(AK)blood as with sweet wine.
All flesh ^(AL)shall know
That I, the Lord, am your Savior,
And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

³ A fire devours before them,
And behind them a flame burns;
The land is like ^(G)the Garden of Eden before them,
^(H)And behind them a desolate wilderness;
Surely nothing shall escape them.
^4 (I)Their appearance is like the appearance of horses;
And like ^[b]swift steeds, so they run.
^5 (J)With a noise like chariots
Over mountaintops they leap,
Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble,
Like a strong people set in battle array.

⁶ Before them the people writhe in pain;
^(K)All faces ^[c]are drained of color.
⁷ They run like mighty men,
They climb the wall like men of war;
Every one marches in formation,
And they do not break ^(L)ranks.
⁸ They do not push one another;
Every one marches in his own ^[d]column.
Though they lunge between the weapons,
They are not ^[e]cut down.
⁹ They run to and fro in the city,
They run on the wall;
They climb into the houses,
They ^(M)enter at the windows ^(N)like a thief.

^10 (O)The earth quakes before them,
The heavens tremble;
^(P)The sun and moon grow dark,
And the stars diminish their brightness.
^11 (Q)The Lord gives voice before His army,
For His camp is very great;
^(R)For strong is the One who executes His word.
For the ^(S)day of the Lord is great and very terrible;
^(T)Who can endure it?

^15 (AB)Blow the ^[f]trumpet in Zion,
^(AC)Consecrate a fast,
Call a sacred assembly;
¹⁶ Gather the people,
^(AD)Sanctify the congregation,
Assemble the elders,
Gather the children and nursing babes;
^(AE)Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber,
And the bride from her dressing room.
¹⁷ Let the priests, who minister to the Lord,
Weep ^(AF)between the porch and the altar;
Let them say, ^(AG)“Spare Your people, O Lord,
And do not give Your heritage to reproach,
That the nations should ^[g]rule over them.
^(AH)Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’ ”

²⁰ “But ^(AL)I will remove far from you ^(AM)the northern army,
And will drive him away into a barren and desolate land,
With his face toward the eastern sea
And his back ^(AN)toward the western sea;
His stench will come up,
And his foul odor will rise,
Because he has done ^[h]monstrous things.”

²¹ Fear not, O land;
Be glad and rejoice,
For the Lord has done ^[i]marvelous things!
²² Do not be afraid, you beasts of the field;
For ^(AO)the open pastures are springing up,
And the tree bears its fruit;
The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.
²³ Be glad then, you children of Zion,
And ^(AP)rejoice in the Lord your God;
For He has given you the ^[j]former rain faithfully,
And He ^(AQ)will cause the rain to come down for you—
The former rain,
And the latter rain in the first month.
²⁴ The threshing floors shall be full of wheat,
And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.

²⁵ “So I will restore to you the years ^(AR)that the swarming ^[k]locust has eaten,
The crawling locust,
The consuming locust,
And the chewing locust,
My great army which I sent among you.
²⁶ You shall ^(AS)eat in plenty and be satisfied,
And praise the name of the Lord your God,
Who has dealt wondrously with you;
And My people shall never be put to ^(AT)shame.
²⁷ Then you shall know that I am ^(AU)in the midst of Israel:
^(AV)I am the Lord your God
And there is no other.
My people shall never be put to shame.

³⁰ “And ^(BB)I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth:
Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
^31 (BC)The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
^(BD)Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
³² And it shall come to pass
That ^(BE)whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be ^[l]saved.
For ^(BF)in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be ^[m]deliverance,
As the Lord has said,
Among ^(BG)the remnant whom the Lord calls.

⁶ “You have ^(J)sown much, and bring in little;
You eat, but do not have enough;
You drink, but you are not filled with drink;
You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm;
And ^(K)he who earns wages,
Earns wages to put into a bag with holes.”