²¹ But you, Sovereign Lord,
    help me for your name’s sake;
    out of the goodness of your love, deliver me.
²² For I am poor and needy,
    and my heart is wounded within me.
²³ I fade away like an evening shadow;
    I am shaken off like a locust.
²⁴ My knees give way from fasting;
    my body is thin and gaunt.
²⁵ I am an object of scorn to my accusers;
    when they see me, they shake their heads.

²⁶ Help me, Lord my God;
    save me according to your unfailing love.
²⁷ Let them know that it is your hand,
    that you, Lord, have done it.
²⁸ While they curse, may you bless;
    may those who attack me be put to shame,
    but may your servant rejoice.
²⁹ May my accusers be clothed with disgrace
    and wrapped in shame as in a cloak.

³⁰ With my mouth I will greatly extol the Lord;
    in the great throng of worshippers I will praise him.
³¹ For he stands at the right hand of the needy,
    to save their lives from those who would condemn them.

²¹ Therefore hear this, you afflicted one,
    made drunk, but not with wine.
²² This is what your Sovereign Lord says,
    your God, who defends his people:
‘See, I have taken out of your hand
    the cup that made you stagger;
from that cup, the goblet of my wrath,
    you will never drink again.
²³ I will put it into the hands of your tormentors,
    who said to you,
    “Fall prostrate that we may walk on you.”
And you made your back like the ground,
    like a street to be walked on.’

52 Awake, awake, Zion,
    clothe yourself with strength!
Put on your garments of splendour,
    Jerusalem, the holy city.
The uncircumcised and defiled
    will not enter you again.
² Shake off your dust;
    rise up, sit enthroned, Jerusalem.
Free yourself from the chains on your neck,
    Daughter Zion, now a captive.

‘You were sold for nothing,
    and without money you will be redeemed.’

‘At first my people went down to Egypt to live;
    lately, Assyria has oppressed them.

‘For my people have been taken away for nothing,
    and those who rule them mock,’^[b]
declares the Lord.
‘And all day long
    my name is constantly blasphemed.
⁶ Therefore my people will know my name;
    therefore in that day they will know
that it is I who foretold it.
    Yes, it is I.’

⁷ How beautiful on the mountains
    are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
    who bring good tidings,
    who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
    ‘Your God reigns!’
⁸ Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices;
    together they shout for joy.
When the Lord returns to Zion,
    they will see it with their own eyes.
⁹ Burst into songs of joy together,
    you ruins of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people,
    he has redeemed Jerusalem.
¹⁰ The Lord will lay bare his holy arm
    in the sight of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth will see
    the salvation of our God.

¹¹ Depart, depart, go out from there!
    Touch no unclean thing!
Come out from it and be pure,
    you who carry the articles of the Lord’s house.
¹² But you will not leave in haste
    or go in flight;
for the Lord will go before you,
    the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

53 Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

⁴ Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
⁸ By oppression^[f] and judgment he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
    for the transgression of my people he was punished.^[g]
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
    and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰ Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes^[h] his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
¹¹ After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life^[i] and be satisfied;^[j]
by his knowledge^[k] my righteous servant will justify many,
    and he will bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,^[l]
    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,^[m]
because he poured out his life unto death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.

⁴ ‘Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame.
    Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated.
You will forget the shame of your youth
    and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.
⁵ For your Maker is your husband –
    the Lord Almighty is his name –
the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer;
    he is called the God of all the earth.
⁶ The Lord will call you back
    as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit –
a wife who married young,
    only to be rejected,’ says your God.
⁷ ‘For a brief moment I abandoned you,
    but with deep compassion I will bring you back.
⁸ In a surge of anger
    I hid my face from you for a moment,
but with everlasting kindness
    I will have compassion on you,’
    says the Lord your Redeemer.

⁹ ‘To me this is like the days of Noah,
    when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth.
So now I have sworn not to be angry with you,
    never to rebuke you again.
¹⁰ Though the mountains be shaken
    and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
    nor my covenant of peace be removed,’
    says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

¹¹ ‘Afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted,
    I will rebuild you with stones of turquoise,^[n]
    your foundations with lapis lazuli.
¹² I will make your battlements of rubies,
    your gates of sparkling jewels,
    and all your walls of precious stones.
¹³ All your children will be taught by the Lord,
    and great will be their peace.
¹⁴ In righteousness you will be established:
tyranny will be far from you;
    you will have nothing to fear.
Terror will be far removed;
    it will not come near you.
¹⁵ If anyone does attack you, it will not be my doing;
    whoever attacks you will surrender to you.

¹⁶ ‘See, it is I who created the blacksmith
    who fans the coals into flame
    and forges a weapon fit for its work.
And it is I who have created the destroyer to wreak havoc;
¹⁷     no weapon forged against you will prevail,
    and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
    and this is their vindication from me,’
declares the Lord.