Isaiah 49:1-6
International Standard Version
The Servant of the Lord
49 “Listen to me, you coastlands!
Pay[a] attention, you people[b] from far away!
The Lord called me from the womb;
while I was still in my mother’s body,
he pronounced my name.
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword;
he hid me in the shadow of his hands.[c]
He made me like a polished arrow
and hid me away in his quivers.[d]
3 He said to me: ‘You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will glorify myself.’
4 “I[e] said: ‘I’ve labored for nothing.
I’ve exhausted my strength on futility and on[f] emptiness.’
Yet surely my recompense is with the Lord,
and my reward is with my God.
5 “And now, says the Lord,
who formed you[g] from the womb as his servant
to bring Jacob back to him
so that Israel might be gathered[h] to him—
and I am honored in the Lord’s sight
and my God has been my help[i]—
6 he says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant,
to raise up the tribes of Israel[j]
and bring back those of Jacob[k] I have preserved.
I’ll also make you as a light to the nations,
to be my salvation to the ends[l] of the earth.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 49:1 So 1QIsaa LXX; 1QIsab MT read and pay
- Isaiah 49:1 Lit. peoples; i.e. non-Israelis then in the land
- Isaiah 49:2 So 1QIsaa; 1QIsab MT LXX read hand
- Isaiah 49:2 So 1QIsaa; 1QIsab 4QIsad MT LXX read quiver
- Isaiah 49:4 So 1QIsaa; 4QIsad MT LXX read But I
- Isaiah 49:4 So 1QIsaa LXX; 1QIsab MT lack on
- Isaiah 49:5 So 1QIsaa; 1QIsab MT LXX me
- Isaiah 49:5 So 1QIsaa MTqere LXX; 4QIsad MT might not be gathered (misspelling)
- Isaiah 49:5 So 1QIsaa; 1QIsab MT LXX strength
- Isaiah 49:6 So 1QIsaa; 1QIsab MT LXX Jacob
- Isaiah 49:6 So 1QIsaa; 1QIsab MT LXX Israel
- Isaiah 49:6 So 1QIsaa; 1QIsab MT LXX end
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