Isaiah 51:12-23

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

¹² I, I am he who comforts you;
    why then are you afraid of a mere mortal who must die,
    a human being who fades like grass?
¹³ You have forgotten the Lord, your Maker,
    who stretched out the heavens
    and laid the foundations of the earth.
You fear continually all day long
    because of the fury of the oppressor,
who is bent on destruction.
    But where is the fury of the oppressor?
¹⁴ The oppressed shall speedily be released;
    they shall not die and go down to the Pit,
    nor shall they lack bread.
¹⁵ For I am the Lord your God,
    who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
    the Lord of hosts is his name.
¹⁶ I have put my words in your mouth,
    and hidden you in the shadow of my hand,
stretching out^[a] the heavens
    and laying the foundations of the earth,
    and saying to Zion, “You are my people.”

¹⁷ Rouse yourself, rouse yourself!
    Stand up, O Jerusalem,
you who have drunk at the hand of the Lord
    the cup of his wrath,
who have drunk to the dregs
    the bowl of staggering.
¹⁸ There is no one to guide her
    among all the children she has borne;
there is no one to take her by the hand
    among all the children she has brought up.
¹⁹ These two things have befallen you
    —who will grieve with you?—
devastation and destruction, famine and sword—
    who will comfort you?^[b]
20 Your children have fainted,
    they lie at the head of every street
    like an antelope in a net;
they are full of the wrath of the Lord,
    the rebuke of your God.

²¹ Therefore hear this, you who are wounded,^[c]
    who are drunk, but not with wine:
²² Thus says your Sovereign, the Lord,
    your God who pleads the cause of his people:
See, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering;
you shall drink no more
    from the bowl of my wrath.
²³ And I will put it into the hand of your tormentors,
    who have said to you,
    “Bow down, that we may walk on you”;
and you have made your back like the ground
    and like the street for them to walk on.