Beginning
The Lord's Servant
49 Listen to me, you islands.
Listen carefully, you people who live far away.
The Lord called me to serve him
before I was born.
Before my mother gave birth,
he used my name to speak to me.
2 The message that he gave me to speak
was like a sharp sword.
He kept me safe in his hand.
He made me like a sharp arrow
that he keeps safe and ready to use.
3 He said to me, ‘You are my servant, Israel.
Because of you, I will cause people to know that I am great.’
4 I said, ‘My work has been useless.
I have worked hard with no results.’
But the Lord will do what is right for me.
He will give me what I deserve for my work.
5 The Lord chose me to be his servant, even before I was born. He chose me to bring Jacob's descendants back to himself. He chose me to bring Israel's people together to serve him. As a result, the Lord will honour me. He is the one who makes me strong. The Lord, my God, says,
6 ‘As my servant, I have a greater job for you to do.
It will not only be to make Jacob's tribes strong again.
It will not only be to bring back Israel's people that I have kept safe.
It will also be your job
to bring light to the other nations.
You will show people all over the world
that I have the power to save them.’
7 The Lord is Israel's Redeemer, their Holy God. Nations refuse to accept his servant. Their people hate him and their rulers have made him their slave. The Lord says to his servant,
‘Kings will see you and they will rise up to respect you.
Princes will bend down low in front of you.
They will see that the Lord is faithful.
He is Israel's Holy God,
who has chosen you to serve him.’
8 This is what the Lord says:
‘I will answer your prayers
at the time that I have chosen to help you.
Yes, I will come to save you on that day.
I will keep you safe,
so that I can make a covenant with people through you.
You will make the land safe again.
People will return to live there,
in places that had become empty.
9 You will say to the prisoners,
“Come out!”
You will say to people who are in dark prisons,
“Come outside!”
Then they will be free to find food for themselves.
They will eat along the road and on the tops of the hills.
10 They will not be hungry or thirsty.
The strong heat of the sun will not hurt them.
The one who loves them will be their guide.
He will lead them to drink from springs of water.
11 I will make all my mountains become roads.
I will build good roads for my people to travel on.
12 Look! People will return to the land
from places that are far away.
Yes, some of them will come from the north and from the west.
And some will come from the land of Sinim.’[a]
13 Shout with joy, everything in the sky!
Be happy, everything on the earth!
Sing loudly, you mountains!
Be happy, because the Lord comforts his people.
He will be kind to his people who have trouble and pain.
14 But Zion's people said,
‘The Lord has left us alone.
The Lord God has forgotten about us.’
15 The Lord replies,
‘Can a mother forget the baby
who drinks milk at her breast?
Can she refuse to be kind to the child
that she has given birth to?
Perhaps those mothers might forget their children.
But I would not ever forget you, Zion.[b]
16 Look! I have written your name on my own hand.
I always see the walls of your city in my mind.
17 Your children will hurry back to you,
to build you again.
The enemies who destroyed you will go away.
18 Look all round you!
See all your people as they return together.’
The Lord says, ‘I tell you clearly, as the God who lives,
you will be happy with your people.
They will make you beautiful again,
like a bride with her beautiful jewels.
19 Enemies have destroyed your land.
Its towns have become heaps of stones.
But soon your land will be too small for all your people to live in.
The enemies who destroyed you will be far away from you.
20 The children who were born in a foreign land
will return to you.
You will hear them say,
“This place is too small for us.
Find more room for us to live in.”
21 Then you will think, “Who gave me all these children?
Who is their father?
I was alone, with no husband.
They killed my children
or they took them away to a foreign land.
I could no longer give birth.
So where did all these children come from?” ’
22 The Almighty Lord says,
‘Look! I will lift up my hand,
to call the nations.
I will raise up a flag
as a sign to those people.
Then they will bring back your sons and your daughters.
They will carry them in their arms and on their shoulders.
23 The kings of those nations will take care of your children.
The kings' daughters will feed them.
The rulers will bend down low in front of you,
so that their faces touch the ground.
They will taste the dirt by your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord.
I will not disappoint people who wait for me to help them.
24 Can anyone rob a brave soldier?
Can anyone rescue prisoners from a cruel ruler?’
25 But the Lord says,
‘Yes! One day the brave soldier's prisoners will be free.
One day the cruel ruler will lose the valuable things that he has taken for himself.
I myself will fight against your enemies.
I will rescue your children.
26 I will cause your cruel enemies to destroy themselves.
There will be so much blood that it will seem like wine.
They will seem like people who have become drunk.
Then people everywhere will recognize that I am the Lord.
They will know that I am your Saviour and your Redeemer,
and I am the Mighty One of Jacob.’
50 This is what the Lord says to his people:
‘Did I send your mother away,
like a man sends away his wife?
Where is the paper to say
why I have sent her away?
Did I sell you to pay people that I was in debt to?
Where is the paper that shows
the reason for my debt?
Listen! I sold you because of your sins.
I sent your mother away
because you have not obeyed me.[c]
2 Nobody was there to meet me,
when I came to help you.
When I called out to you,
nobody answered me.
Do you think that my arm is too weak to rescue you?
Am I not strong enough to save you?
Look! I can speak to the sea so that it becomes dry!
I can cause rivers to become deserts.
Then the fish die because they have no water.
3 I can cause the sky to become dark,
as if I have covered it with sackcloth.’
The Lord's Servant
4 ‘The Almighty Lord has given his message to me, his servant.
I speak it on his behalf.
I know what to say to help weak and tired people.
The Lord wakes me up every morning
so that I can learn something.
I listen carefully to him,
as a student listens to his teacher.
5 The Almighty Lord has spoken clearly to me.
I have accepted his message,
and I have not turned back.
6 I offered my back
to the people who hit me.
I offered my face
to the people who pulled out my beard.
When they insulted me and they spat at me,
I did not hide my face from them.
7 The Almighty Lord helps me,
so I will not be ashamed.
I have decided to stand and be strong,
because I know that I will not be ashamed.
8 God is the one who says that I am right,
and he stands beside me.
So who will accuse me that I have done something wrong?
We should meet in court!
Anyone who accuses me should come and speak!
9 Look! The Almighty Lord himself helps me.
So nobody can say that I am guilty.
All the people who accuse me will soon disappear.
They will spoil like old clothes that moths have eaten!’
10 Do any of you respect the Lord with fear?
Do any of you obey his servant's message?
Are you walking in a place that is completely dark,
where there is no light?
Then you should trust in the Lord
as the God who will help you.
11 But no! You have lit your own fires.
You have burned branches to give yourselves light.
So now you must walk in the light of the fires that you have lit.
And this is what I will do for you:
I will punish you with great pain!
The Lord will bless his people
51 ‘Listen to me,
you people who want to do what is right.
You people who want to serve the Lord,
listen to me!
Think about the rock that you are a part of.[d]
Think about the ground that they dug you out from.
2 You all started from your ancestor Abraham,
and his wife Sarah.
When I first spoke to Abraham,
he had no children.
But I blessed him,
so that he had many descendants.’
3 Surely, the Lord will comfort Zion's people.
He will take care of the buildings
that enemies have destroyed.
Zion's land that is now a wilderness
will become like the beautiful Garden of Eden.
It will be the Lord's own garden!
People will be happy again in Zion.
They will sing with joy to thank God.
4 ‘Listen to me, my people.
Listen carefully, my nation.
I will tell all people about my laws.
I will cause my justice to be like a light to all nations.
5 I am ready to do what is right for them.
I am ready to save them.
I will judge all the nations fairly.
Lands that are far away will wait for me to help them.
They wait for me to come and rule them all with power.
6 Look up at the sky!
Look down at the earth below!
One day, the sky will disappear
like smoke that blows away.
The earth will become useless,
like old clothes.
The people who live on it will die.
They will fall like flies.
But I will keep my people safe for ever.
I will always rule with righteousness.
7 Listen to me,
you people who know what is right.
You people who think carefully about my law,
listen to me.
When people speak against you,
do not be afraid.
Do not be upset,
when they insult you.
8 Those people will soon disappear,
like clothes that moths have eaten,
like wool that worms have eaten.
But I will always rule with righteousness.
I will keep my people safe for ever.’
9 Wake up, Lord!
Get ready to show your strength!
Do great things, as you did in past days,
when our ancestors were alive.
Remember how you cut the monster, Rahab, into pieces.[e]
10 You made the sea become dry,
so that there was a path through the deep water.
The slaves that you rescued
could then cross over.[f]
11 The people that the Lord has rescued
will return from exile.
They will sing with joy
while they go into Zion city.
Their joy will be like a crown
that they wear on their heads for ever.
They will continue to be very happy.
They will never be sad or weep again.
12 ‘I am the Lord who comforts you.
You do not need to be afraid of people who are only human.
Remember that they will all die one day,
like grass that only lives for a short time.
13 Do not forget about the Lord who made you!
I hung up the sky like a curtain.
I made the foundation of the earth.
So why are you always shaking with fear?
Do not be afraid when your enemy is angry,
and he is ready to attack you.
Your enemy's anger is useless!
14 The people who have trouble and pain
will soon become free.
They will not stay in the prison of death.
They will have all the food that they need.
15 Remember that I am the Lord your God.
I shake the sea so that its waves roar!
My name is the Lord Almighty.
16 I have given you my message
to speak on my behalf.
I have kept you safe in my hand.
I hung up the sky like a curtain,
and I made the foundation of the earth.
I say to Zion, “You are my people.” ’
17 Wake up, people in Jerusalem! Get ready!
The Lord has been angry with you,
and he has punished you.
You had to receive all of his anger,
like you were drinking strong wine from a cup.
Now that you have drunk it all,
you cannot stand up straight!
18 Among all of Jerusalem's people,
there was nobody left to be your leader.
There was nobody who could take care of you.
19 War and famine have destroyed you.
Both those terrible things have happened to you.
Who feels sorry for you?
Who is there to comfort you?
20 Your children have become weak,
and they lie on the ground at the side of every street.
They are like deer that a trap has caught.
The anger of the Lord your God has made them helpless.
He has warned them loudly.
21 So listen to this, you people who are in trouble.
You walk like drunk people,
but wine has not done that to you.
22 The Lord God who is your Lord stands beside his people. He says,
‘Look! Now I have taken the cup of my punishment out of your hand.
You will no longer have to drink the strong wine of my anger
that makes you drunk.
23 Instead, I will give it to your cruel enemies
to punish them.
They said to you, “Lie down on the ground,
so that we can walk over you.”
You made your backs become like the ground.
You became like a street for your enemies to walk on.’
God will make Jerusalem safe again[g]
52 Wake up, Zion!
Be ready to show your strength!
Jerusalem, God's holy city,
Put on your beautiful clothes!
Foreign people who do not serve God
will not attack your city again.
2 Shake off the dirt, Jerusalem!
Get up and sit on your throne.
People of Zion, you are no longer prisoners,
so take the chains off your neck.
3 This is what the Lord says to you:
‘I received no money when I sold you.
And I will not pay anything to make you free again.’
4 The Almighty Lord says,
‘Long ago, my people went to live for some time in Egypt.
At a later time, Assyria's army was cruel to them.
5 But now, what is happening?
An enemy has taken my people away as slaves,
for no good reason.[h]
Their leaders boast loudly,
and they insult me all the time.
6 So I will cause my people to know my name.
When all this happens, they will know
that I am the God who speaks to them.
I tell them that I am with them.’
7 Somebody is coming across the mountains
to bring good news to us!
It is a beautiful thing to see him run towards us!
He has come to tell us that there will be peace,
because God will save our city.
He says to Zion,
‘Your God rules as king!’
8 Listen! The guards on the city's walls are shouting!
They all shout together with joy!
They can see for themselves
that the Lord is returning to Zion.
9 Jerusalem, your buildings have become heaps of stones,
but now you can all shout together with joy!
Sing aloud, because the Lord has comforted his people.
He has made Jerusalem safe again.
10 The Lord has shown all the nations how strong he is.
They can all see his holy power.
People all over the world will know
that our God has rescued his people.
11 Leave! Leave! Go out from there.[i]
Do not touch anything that is unclean.
Leave that foreign place!
The people who carry the Lord's special things
must keep themselves pure.
12 But you will not have to hurry and run away.
No, the Lord, Israel's God, will keep you safe.
He will lead you at the front,
and he will be your guard at the back.
The Lord's Servant
13 Look! My servant will do well.
He will move up to a high place
where people will honour him as great.
14 At one time, when people saw him,
they were very upset.
His body became completely spoiled,
so that he no longer seemed to be a man.
He did not seem to have a human body.
15 But now, he will cause the people in many nations
to be very surprised!
Kings will have nothing to say
when they see how great he is.
They will see something new
that nobody had told them about.
They will understand new things
that they had not heard about before.
53 Will anyone believe
the news that we have to tell people?[j]
Will anyone understand
how the Lord has used his great power?
2 God's servant grew up in front of him,
like a young, green plant,
with its roots in dry ground.
He was not handsome.
He did not seem like a great king.
We did not see him as a special person.
There was nothing to see
that would make us want to be with him.
3 People did not respect him.
They refused to accept him.
He was a man who received much pain.
He knew what it felt like to be weak and ill.
People did not even want to look at him.
They did not respect him.
We decided that he was worth nothing.
4 But he took away all our weakness!
He carried our pain for us.
We thought that he was receiving punishment for his own sins.
We thought that God was causing him to suffer.
5 But it was our sins that caused his wounds.
The bad things that we had done crushed him.
The punishment that he received
has brought peace to us.
The wounds that he received
have made us well.
6 We have all turned away,
like sheep that take the wrong path.
Each of us has turned to follow our own way.
But the Lord has taken all our sins
and put the punishment on him.
7 People were cruel to him,
and he received much pain.
But he did not say anything to complain.
He was like a lamb that people were leading away to kill.
He was like a sheep when they are cutting off its wool,
but it makes no noise.
In the same way, he did not say anything.
8 They spoke lies to accuse him in court.
Then they led him away to kill him.
And nobody at that time said that it was wrong.
His life in this world quickly came to an end.
And it was the sins of our own people that caused him to die.
9 They decided to bury him with wicked people.
But his body was put in a rich man's grave.
He had not done anything to hurt anyone.
He had not told lies to deceive people.
10 But it was the Lord who chose to hurt his servant.
He caused his servant to receive much pain.
His servant died to remove people's guilt.
As a result, God will bless him with many descendants,
and he will have a long life.
What the Lord wants will happen,
because of what his servant does.
11 When God's servant sees the result of his pain,
he will understand what he has done.
And he will be happy.
The Lord says,
‘My righteous servant will cause many people to be “not guilty”,
because he will take the punishment for all their sins.
12 So I will put him in a place of honour,
as a great person deserves.
He will share the good things that powerful men receive
when they have won a battle.
He deserves this, because he agreed to die as a sacrifice.
People thought that he himself was a sinner
when he took away the sins of many people.
He prayed that God would forgive sinners.’
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