Isaiah 51-52

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

⁴ “Listen to me, my people,
    and give ear to me, my nation;
for a law will go forth from me,
    and my justice for a light to the peoples.
⁵ My deliverance draws near speedily,
    my salvation has gone forth,
    and my arms will rule the peoples;
the coastlands wait for me,
    and for my arm they hope.
⁶ Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
    and look at the earth beneath;
for the heavens will vanish like smoke,
    the earth will wear out like a garment,
    and they who dwell in it will die like gnats;^[a]
but my salvation will be for ever,
    and my deliverance will never be ended.

⁷ “Hearken to me, you who know righteousness,
    the people in whose heart is my law;
fear not the reproach of men,
    and be not dismayed at their revilings.
⁸ For the moth will eat them up like a garment,
    and the worm will eat them like wool;
but my deliverance will be for ever,
    and my salvation to all generations.”

⁹ Awake, awake, put on strength,
    O arm of the Lord;
awake, as in days of old,
    the generations of long ago.
Was it not thou that didst cut Rahab in pieces,
    that didst pierce the dragon?
¹⁰ Was it not thou that didst dry up the sea,
    the waters of the great deep;
that didst make the depths of the sea a way
    for the redeemed to pass over?
¹¹ And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
    and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
    they shall obtain joy and gladness,
    and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

¹² “I, I am he that comforts you;
    who are you that you are afraid of man who dies,
    of the son of man who is made like grass,
¹³ and have forgotten the Lord, your Maker,
    who stretched out the heavens
    and laid the foundations of the earth,
and fear continually all the day
    because of the fury of the oppressor,
when he sets himself to destroy?
    And where is the fury of the oppressor?
¹⁴ He who is bowed down shall speedily be released;
    he shall not die and go down to the Pit,
    neither shall his bread fail.
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 And I have put my words in your mouth,
    and hid you in the shadow of my hand,
stretching out^[b] 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 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.
¹⁹ These two things have befallen you—
    who will condole with you?—
devastation and destruction, famine and sword;
    who will comfort you?^[c]
20 Your 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.

²¹ Therefore hear this, you who are afflicted,
    who are drunk, but not with wine:
²² Thus 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;
²³ and 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.”

⁷ How 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.”
⁸ Hark, your watchmen lift up their voice,
    together they sing for joy;
for eye to eye they see
    the return of the Lord to Zion.
⁹ Break forth together into singing,
    you waste places of Jerusalem;
for the Lord has comforted his people,
    he has redeemed Jerusalem.
¹⁰ The 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.

¹¹ Depart, 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.
¹² For 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.