Isaiah 49:14-51:3

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

¹⁴ But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,
    my Lord has forgotten me.”
¹⁵ Can a woman forget her nursing child,
    or show no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even these may forget,
    yet I will not forget you.
¹⁶ See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;
    your walls are continually before me.
¹⁷ Your builders outdo your destroyers,^[a]
    and those who laid you waste go away from you.
¹⁸ Lift up your eyes all around and see;
    they all gather, they come to you.
As I live, says the Lord,
    you shall put all of them on like an ornament,
    and like a bride you shall bind them on.

¹⁹ Surely your waste and your desolate places
    and your devastated land—
surely now you will be too crowded for your inhabitants,
    and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
²⁰ The children born in the time of your bereavement
    will yet say in your hearing:
“The place is too crowded for me;
    make room for me to settle.”
²¹ Then you will say in your heart,
    “Who has borne me these?
I was bereaved and barren,
    exiled and put away—
    so who has reared these?
I was left all alone—
    where then have these come from?”

²² Thus says the Lord God:
I will soon lift up my hand to the nations,
    and raise my signal to the peoples;
and they shall bring your sons in their bosom,
    and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
²³ Kings shall be your foster fathers,
    and their queens your nursing mothers.
With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you,
    and lick the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord;
    those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.

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

50 Thus says the Lord:
Where is your mother’s bill of divorce
    with which I put her away?
Or which of my creditors is it
    to whom I have sold you?
No, because of your sins you were sold,
    and for your transgressions your mother was put away.
² Why was no one there when I came?
    Why did no one answer when I called?
Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem?
    Or have I no power to deliver?
By my rebuke I dry up the sea,
    I make the rivers a desert;
their fish stink for lack of water,
    and die of thirst.^[c]
3 I clothe the heavens with blackness,
    and make sackcloth their covering.

⁷ The Lord God helps me;
    therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
    and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
⁸     he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
    Let us stand up together.
Who are my adversaries?
    Let them confront me.
⁹ It is the Lord God who helps me;
    who will declare me guilty?
All of them will wear out like a garment;
    the moth will eat them up.

¹⁰ Who among you fears the Lord
    and obeys the voice of his servant,
who walks in darkness
    and has no light,
yet trusts in the name of the Lord
    and relies upon his God?
¹¹ But all of you are kindlers of fire,
    lighters of firebrands.^[e]
Walk in the flame of your fire,
    and among the brands that you have kindled!
This is what you shall have from my hand:
    you shall lie down in torment.