Isaiah 51:12-53

Complete Jewish Bible

¹² “I, yes I, am the one who comforts you!
Why are you afraid of a man, who must die;
of a human being, who will wither like grass?
¹³ You have forgotten Adonai, your maker,
who stretched out the heavens
and laid the foundations of the earth.
Instead, you are in constant fear all day
because of the oppressor’s rage,
as he prepares to destroy!
But where is the oppressor’s rage?
¹⁴ The captive will soon be set free;
he will not die and go down to Sh’ol;
on the contrary, his food supply will be secure.
¹⁵ For I am Adonai your God,
who stirs up the sea, who makes its waves roar —
Adonai-Tzva’ot is my name.
¹⁶ I have put my words in your mouth
and covered you with the shadow of my hand,
in order to plant the skies [anew],
lay the foundations of the earth [anew]
and say to Tziyon, ‘You are my people.’”

¹⁷ Awake! Awake! Stand up, Yerushalayim!
At Adonai’s hand you drank the cup of his fury;
you have drained to the dregs
the goblet of drunkenness.
¹⁸ There is no one to guide her
among all the sons she has borne.
Not one of all the children she raised
is taking her by the hand.
¹⁹ These two disasters have overcome you —
yet who will grieve with you? —
plunder and destruction, famine and sword;
by whom can I comfort you?
²⁰ Your children lie helpless at every street corner,
like an antelope trapped in a net;
they are full of Adonai’s fury,
the rebuke of your God.
²¹ Therefore, please hear this in your affliction,
you who are drunk, but not with wine;
²² this is what your Lord Adonai says,
your God, who defends his people:
“Here, I have removed from your hand
the cup of drunkenness,
the goblet of my fury.
You will never drink it again.
²³ I will put it in the hands of your tormentors,
who said to you, ‘Bend down, so we can trample you,’
and you flattened your back on the ground
like a street for them to walk on.”

52 Awake! Awake, Tziyon!
Clothe yourself with your strength!
Dress in your splendid garments,
Yerushalayim, the holy city!
For the uncircumcised and the unclean
will enter you no more.
² Shake off the dust! Arise!
Be enthroned, Yerushalayim!
Loosen the chains on your neck,
captive daughter of Tziyon!
³ For thus says Adonai:
“You were sold for nothing,
and you will be redeemed without money.”
⁴ For thus says Adonai Elohim:
“Long ago my people went down to Egypt
to live there as aliens,
and Ashur oppressed them for no reason.
⁵ So now, what should I do here,” asks Adonai,
“since my people were carried off for nothing?
Their oppressors are howling,” says Adonai,
“and my name is always being insulted, daily.
⁶ Therefore my people will know my name;
therefore on that day they will know
that I, the one speaking — here I am!”

⁷ How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news,
proclaiming shalom, bringing good news
of good things, announcing salvation
and saying to Tziyon, “Your God is King!”
⁸ Listen! Your watchmen are raising their voices,
shouting for joy together.
For they will see, before their own eyes,
Adonai returning to Tziyon.

⁹ Break out into joy! Sing together,
you ruins of Yerushalayim!
For Adonai has comforted his people,
he has redeemed Yerushalayim!
¹⁰ Adonai has bared his holy arm
in the sight of every nation,
and all the ends of the earth will see
the salvation of our God.
¹¹ Leave! Leave! Get out of there!
Don’t touch anything unclean!
Get out from inside it, and be clean,
you who carry Adonai’s temple equipment.
¹² You need not leave in haste,
you do not have to flee;
for Adonai will go ahead of you,
and the God of Isra’el will also be behind you.

¹³ “See how my servant will succeed!
He will be raised up, exalted, highly honored!
¹⁴ Just as many were appalled at him,
because he was so disfigured
that he didn’t even seem human
and simply no longer looked like a man,
¹⁵ so now he will startle many nations;
because of him, kings will be speechless.
For they will see what they had not been told,
they will ponder things they had never heard.”

53 Who believes our report?
To whom is the arm of Adonai revealed?
² For before him he grew up like a young plant,
like a root out of dry ground.
He was not well-formed or especially handsome;
we saw him, but his appearance did not attract us.
³ People despised and avoided him,
a man of pains, well acquainted with illness.
Like someone from whom people turn their faces,
he was despised; we did not value him.

⁴ In fact, it was our diseases he bore,
our pains from which he suffered;
yet we regarded him as punished,
stricken and afflicted by God.
⁵ But he was wounded because of our crimes,
crushed because of our sins;
the disciplining that makes us whole fell on him,
and by his bruises* we are healed.

⁶ We all, like sheep, went astray;
we turned, each one, to his own way;
yet Adonai laid on him
the guilt of all of us.

⁷ Though mistreated, he was submissive —
he did not open his mouth.
Like a lamb led to be slaughtered,
like a sheep silent before its shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
⁸ After forcible arrest and sentencing,
he was taken away;
and none of his generation protested
his being cut off from the land of the living
for the crimes of my people,
who deserved the punishment themselves.
⁹ He was given a grave among the wicked;
in his death he was with a rich man.

Although he had done no violence
and had said nothing deceptive,
¹⁰ yet it pleased Adonai to crush him with illness,
to see if he would present himself as a guilt offering.
If he does, he will see his offspring;
and he will prolong his days;
and at his hand Adonai’s desire
will be accomplished.
¹¹ After this ordeal, he will see satisfaction.
“By his knowing [pain and sacrifice],
my righteous servant makes many righteous;
it is for their sins that he suffers.
¹² Therefore I will assign him a share with the great,
he will divide the spoil with the mighty,
for having exposed himself to death
and being counted among the sinners,
while actually bearing the sin of many
and interceding for the offenders.”