Beginning

Listen to me, you coastlands.
Pay attention, you faraway peoples!
The Lord called me from the womb.
When I was inside my mother, he mentioned my name.
² He made my mouth like a sharpened sword.
He hid me in the shadow of his hand.
He made me a polished arrow.
He concealed me in his quiver.
³ He said to me, “You are my servant Israel,
in whom I will display my glory.”

⁴ But I said to myself, “I have labored in vain.
I spent my strength and came up empty, with nothing.
Yet a just verdict for me rests with the Lord,
and my reward is with my God.”

⁵ But now the Lord,
who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to turn Jacob back to him,
so that Israel might be gathered to him,
so that I will be honored in the eyes of the Lord,
because my God has been my strength—
⁶ the Lord said:
It is too small a thing that you should just be my servant
    to raise up only the tribes of Jacob
    and to restore the ones I have preserved in Israel,
so I will appoint you to be a light for the nations,
so that my salvation will be known to the end of the earth.

⁷ This is what the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, its Holy One,
says to the one deeply despised,
to the one who is detested by the nation,
to the servant of rulers.
    Kings will see and stand up.
    Officials will see and bow down,
    because of the Lord, who is faithful,
    because of the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.

⁸ This is what the Lord says.
In the time of favor, I will answer you.
In the day of salvation, I will help you.
I will guard you,
and I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people,
to re-establish the land,
to redistribute inheritances that are now deserted,
⁹ to say to the prisoners, “Go forth!”
to those who are in the darkness, “Show yourselves!”
They will graze beside roads,
and they will find pasture on all the barren heights.
¹⁰ They will not hunger, and they will not thirst,
and neither scorching wind nor sun will strike them,
because the one who shows them mercy will lead them.
He will guide them beside springs of water.
¹¹ I will make all my mountains into a smooth road,
and my highways will be raised up.
¹² Look, people will come from far away.
Look, some will come from the north and the west,
and some from the land of Sinim.^[a]
13 Shout for joy, O heavens,
and rejoice, O earth.
Let mountains burst forth with shouts of joy,
because the Lord is comforting his people,
and he is showing mercy to his afflicted ones.

¹⁵ Can a woman forget her nursing child
and not show mercy to the son from her womb?
Even if these women could forget,
I will never forget you.
¹⁶ Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.
Your walls are never out of my sight.
¹⁷ Your children^[b] are hurrying back.
Those who destroyed and devastated you will depart from you.
¹⁸ Lift up your eyes all around and see!
All of them are gathered. They are coming to you.
As surely as I live, declares the Lord,
all of them are like jewelry that you will put on.
You will wear them like a bride.

¹⁹ Though your land was wasted and desolate and devastated,
now it will be too small for its inhabitants.
Then those who are swallowing you will be far from you.
²⁰ The children you lost will say this into your ears once again,
“The place is too small for me.
Make room for me so that I can settle there.”
²¹ Then you will say in your heart,
“Who has given birth to these for me?
I had lost my children and could have no more.
I was exiled and divorced.
So who raised these?
I was left all by myself.
Where did these come from?”

²² This is what God the Lord says.
Look, I will lift up my hand to nations,
and I will raise my signal flag for peoples.
Then they will bring your sons in their embrace,
and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.
²³ Then kings will be your foster fathers,
and their queens will be your nursing mothers.
With their faces to the ground, they will bow down to you.
They will lick the dust at your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord.
Those who wait hopefully for me will not be ashamed.

²⁴ Can plunder be taken from a mighty man?
Can captives be rescued from a tyrant?^[c]
25 This is what the Lord says.
Even from a mighty man captives can be taken,
and the victims of a tyrant can be rescued.
So I myself will contend with the one who contends with you,
and I myself will save your children.
²⁶ I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh.
They will get drunk on the new wine of their own blood.
So all flesh will know that I am the Lord, your Savior
and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

50 This is what the Lord says.
So where are the divorce papers of your mother,
whom I sent away?
To which of my creditors did I sell you?
It was because of your guilt that you were sold.
Because of your rebellions, your mother was sent away.
² When I came, why was no one there?
Why, when I called, was there no one who answered?
Is my arm really too short to redeem?
Do I not have enough power to rescue?
Yes! By my rebuke I can dry up the sea.
I can turn rivers into a wilderness,
so that their fish will stink from having no water,
and they will die of thirst.
³ I can clothe the heavens with blackness,
and I can cover them with sackcloth.

¹⁰ Who among you worships the Lord
and listens to the voice of his servant?
Anyone who walks in darkness
and who has no bright light—
let him trust in the name of the Lord,
and let him lean on his God.
¹¹ Watch out, all of you who are lighting fires
    to arm yourselves with flaming arrows.^[d]
Go ahead, walk by the light of your fires
and by the flaming arrows you lit!
But from my hand you will receive this:
You will lie down in a place of torment.

Listen to me, you people who pursue righteousness,
you people who seek the Lord!
Look confidently to the rock from which you were hewn
and to the quarry from which you were cut.
² Look confidently to Abraham your father,
and to Sarah, who gave birth to you.
Yes, when I called him, Abraham was only one person,
but I blessed him and multiplied him.
³ The Lord is certain to comfort Zion.
He will comfort all her ruins.
Certainly he will make her wilderness like Eden
and her wasteland like the garden of the Lord.
Joy and gladness will be found in her,
thanksgiving and the sound of music.

⁴ Pay attention to me, O my people.
My nation, listen to me!
For the law^[e] will go out from me,
and I will establish my justice^[f] as a light to the peoples.
⁵ My righteousness is near.
My salvation goes forth,
and my arms will bring justice to the peoples.
The seacoasts will wait for me.
They will have confidence in my arm.
⁶ Lift up your eyes to the heavens.
Look closely at the earth beneath,
because the heavens will vanish like smoke,
and the earth will wear out like a garment,
and its inhabitants will die like gnats.^[g]
But my salvation will remain forever,
and my righteousness will never be abolished.
⁷ Listen to me, you people who know righteousness,
you people who have my law in your hearts.
Do not fear the insults of men,
and do not be discouraged by their abuse.
⁸ Because a moth will consume them like a garment,
and its worm will consume them like wool.
But my righteousness will remain forever,
and my salvation will last for all generations.

⁹ Wake up! Wake up!
Clothe yourself with strength, you arm of the Lord!
Awake as in days of old,
as in generations of long ago.
Was it not you who cut Rahab^[h] to pieces,
and who pierced the sea monster?^[i]
10 Was it not you who dried up the sea,
    the waters of the great deep,
and who made a road through the depths of the sea
    for the redeemed to cross over?
¹¹ Then those ransomed by the Lord will return.
They will enter Zion with a joyful shout,
and everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Happiness and joy will overtake them.
Sorrow and sighing will flee away.

¹² I, even I, am the one who comforts you.
Who are you, Zion,^[j] that you fear humans, who die,
or a child of Adam, who passes away like grass?
¹³ You have forgotten the Lord, your Creator,
who stretches out the heavens,
who makes the earth stand firm.
You tremble continually all day,
because of the rage of the oppressor,
who is preparing to destroy.
But where is the rage of the oppressor now?
¹⁴ The prisoner^[k] will soon be released.
He will not die and go to the pit,
and he will not lack bread.

¹⁵ I am the Lord your God,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar.
The Lord of Armies is his name!
¹⁶ I have placed my words in your mouth,
and with the shadow of my hand I have covered you—
I, who planted the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth,
I, who say to Zion, “You are my people.”

Who will grieve for you?
Devastation and destruction and famine and sword!
Who will comfort you?^[m]
20 Your children faint and collapse at the corner of every street,
    like an antelope in a net.
They are full of the wrath of the Lord,
full of the rebuke of your God.
²¹ Therefore hear this, you afflicted woman,
a woman drunk, but not from wine.
²² This is what the Lord God says,
your God, who will contend for his people.
    Look, I am taking the cup that makes you stagger out of your hand,
    the chalice, the cup filled with my wrath.
    Never again will you drink from it,
²³     because I will place it into the hand of your tormentors,
    who have said to you,
    “Lie down so that we can walk over you.”
    You made your back like the ground
    and like the street for those who walked over you.

Wake, awake!
Clothe yourself with strength, O Zion.
Put on your beautiful garments,
Jerusalem, you holy city,
for never again will the uncircumcised
and the unclean enter you.
² Shake off the dust.
Get up and take your seat, Jerusalem.
Loosen the chains from your neck,
you captive daughter of Zion.

³ Yes, this is what the Lord says.
You were sold for nothing,
and you will be redeemed without money.

⁴ Yes, this is what the Lord God says.
In the beginning, my people went down to Egypt to stay there
    for a while.
Later Assyria oppressed them without cause.

⁵ Now what do I have here? declares the Lord.
Indeed, my people have been taken away for nothing.
Their rulers howl with mockery, declares the Lord.
My name is continually despised all day.
⁶ Therefore my people will know my name.
So on that day they will know that I am the one—
the one who is saying, “Here I am!”

53 

Who has believed our report,
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

² He grew up before him like a tender shoot^[r]
and like a root from dry ground.
He had no attractiveness and no majesty.
When we saw him, nothing about his appearance made us desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by men,
a man who knew grief,
who was well acquainted with suffering.
Like someone whom people cannot bear to look at,
he was despised,
and we thought nothing of him.

⁴ Surely he was taking up our weaknesses,^[s]
and he was carrying our sufferings.
We thought it was because of God
    that he was stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
⁵ but it was because of our rebellion that he was pierced.
He was crushed for the guilt our sins deserved.
The punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all have gone astray like sheep.
Each of us has turned to his own way,
but the Lord has charged all our guilt to him.

⁷ He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth.
Like a lamb he was led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep^[t] that is silent in front of its shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
⁸ He was taken away without a fair trial^[u] and without justice,
and of his generation, who even cared?^[v]
So, he was cut off from the land of the living.
He was struck because of the rebellion of my people.
⁹ They would have assigned him a grave with the wicked,
but he was given a grave with the rich in his death,
because he had done no violence,
and no deceit was in his mouth.

¹⁰ Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him
and to allow him to suffer.
Because you^[w] made his life a guilt offering, he will see offspring.

He will prolong his days,
and the Lord’s gracious plan will succeed in his hand.
¹¹ After his soul experiences anguish, he will see the light of life.^[x]
He will provide satisfaction.^[y]
Through their knowledge of him, my just servant will justify the many,
for he himself carried their guilt.^[z]
12 Therefore I will give him an allotment among the great,^[aa]
and with the strong he will share plunder,
because he poured out his life to death,
and he let himself be counted with rebellious sinners.
He himself carried the sin of many,
and he intercedes for the rebels.