Isaiah 50:2-4

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

² Why was no one there when I came?
    Why did no one answer when I called?
Is my arm powerless to redeem?
    Or have I no strength to deliver?
By my rebuke I dry up the sea;
    I make the rivers a desert,
so that their fish stink for lack of water
    and die of thirst.^[a](A)
3 I clothe the heavens with blackness
    and make sackcloth their covering.^(B)

⁴ The Lord God has given me
    a trained tongue,^[b]
that I may know how to sustain
    the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens,
    wakens my ear
    to listen as those who are taught.^(C)