50 The Lord asks, Did I sell you to my creditors? Is that why you aren’t here? Is your mother gone because I divorced her and sent her away? No, you went away as captives because of your sins. And your mother, too, was taken in payment for your sins. ² Was I too weak to save you? Is that why the house is silent and empty when I come home? Have I no longer power to deliver? No, that is not the reason! For I can rebuke the sea and make it dry! I can turn the rivers into deserts, covered with dying fish. ³ I am the one who sends the darkness out across the skies.

⁴ The Lord God has given me his words of wisdom so that I may know what I should say to all these weary ones. Morning by morning he wakens me and opens my understanding to his will. ⁵ The Lord God has spoken to me, and I have listened; I do not rebel nor turn away. ⁶ I give my back to the whip, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I do not hide from shame—they spit in my face.

⁷ Because the Lord God helps me, I will not be dismayed; therefore, I have set my face like flint to do his will, and I know that I will triumph. ⁸ He who gives me justice is near. Who will dare to fight against me now? Where are my enemies? Let them appear! ⁹ See, the Lord God is for me! Who shall declare me guilty? All my enemies shall be destroyed like old clothes eaten up by moths!

¹⁰ Who among you fears the Lord and obeys his Servant? If such men walk in darkness, without one ray of light, let them trust the Lord, let them rely upon their God. ¹¹ But see here, you who live in your own light and warm yourselves from your own fires and not from God’s; you will live among sorrows.