Isaiah 51:17-52:12

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

¹⁷Rouse 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.
¹⁸There is none to guide her
    among all the sons she has borne;
there is none to take her by the hand
    among all the sons she has brought up.
¹⁹These two things have befallen you—
    who will condole with you?—
devastation and destruction, famine and sword;
    who will comfort you?^[a]
²⁰Your sons 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.

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

Let Zion Rejoice

52 Awake, awake,
put on your strength, O Zion;
put on your beautiful garments,
    O Jerusalem, the holy city;
for there shall no more come into you
    the uncircumcised and the unclean.
²Shake yourself from the dust, arise,
    O captive^[b] Jerusalem;
loose the bonds from your neck,
    O captive daughter of Zion.

³For thus says the Lord: “You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money. ⁴For thus says the Lord God: My people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there, and the Assyrian oppressed them for nothing. ⁵Now therefore what have I here, says the Lord, seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? Their rulers wail, says the Lord, and continually all the day my name is despised. ⁶Therefore my people shall know my name; therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak; here am I.”

⁷How beautiful upon the mountains
    are the feet of him who brings good tidings,
who publishes peace, who brings good tidings of good,
    who publishes salvation,
    who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
⁸Hark, your watchmen lift up their voice,
    together they sing for joy;
for eye to eye they see
    the return of the Lord to Zion.
⁹Break forth together into singing,
    you waste places of Jerusalem;
for the Lord has comforted his people,
    he has redeemed Jerusalem.
¹⁰The Lord has bared his holy arm
    before the eyes of all the nations;
and all the ends of the earth shall see
    the salvation of our God.

¹¹Depart, depart, go out thence,
    touch no unclean thing;
go out from the midst of her, purify yourselves,
    you who bear the vessels of the Lord.
¹²For you shall not go out in haste,
    and you shall not go in flight,
for the Lord will go before you,
    and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

Footnotes

Isaiah 51:19 One ancient Ms Gk Syr Vg: Heb how may I comfort you
Isaiah 52:2 Cn: Heb sit

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)

The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.