Bible in 90 Days
19 I will plant in the wilderness
the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive tree;
I will set in the desert
the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together,
20 that they may see, and know,
and consider, and understand together,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
and the Holy One of Israel has created it.
The Futility of Idols
21 Present your case, says the Lord.
Bring forth your arguments, says the King of Jacob.
22 Let them bring them forth, and show us
what shall happen;
let them show the former things, what they were,
that we may consider them
and know their outcome,
or declare to us things to come.
23 Show the things that are to come hereafter,
that we may know that you are gods;
do good, or do evil,
that we may be dismayed and see it together.
24 Indeed you are nothing,
and your work amounts to nothing;
he who chooses you is an abomination.
25 I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come;
from the rising of the sun he shall call on My name;
and he shall come on princes as on mortar,
and as the potter treads clay.
26 Who has declared from the beginning, that we may know?
And from former times, that we may say, “He is right!”?
There is no one who shows,
no one who declares,
no one who hears your words.
27 Formerly I said to Zion, “Look, here they are,”
and to Jerusalem, “I will give one who brings good news.”
28 But when I look, there is no man,
even among them, and there is no counselor
who, when I ask of them, could answer a word.
29 See, they all are vanity;
their works are nothing;
their molded images are wind and emptiness.
The Servant of the Lord
42 Here is My servant, whom I uphold,
My chosen one, in whom My soul delights.
I have put My Spirit upon him;
he shall bring forth justice to the nations.
2 He shall not cry out, nor lift up his voice,
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
3 A bruised reed he shall not break,
and the smoking flax he shall not quench;
he shall bring forth justice faithfully.
4 He shall not be disheartened nor be discouraged,
until he has set justice in the earth;
and the coastlands shall wait for his law.
5 Thus says God the Lord,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread forth the earth and that which comes out of it,
who gives breath to the people on it,
and spirit to those who walk in it:
6 I the Lord have called You in righteousness,
and will hold Your hand,
and will keep You and appoint You
for a covenant of the people,
for a light of the nations,
7 to open the blind eyes,
to bring out the prisoners from the prison,
and those who sit in darkness out of the prison house.
8 I am the Lord, that is My name;
and My glory I will not give to another,
nor My praise to graven images.
9 See, the former things have come to pass,
and new things I declare;
before they spring forth
I tell you of them.
A Song of Praise
10 Sing to the Lord a new song,
and His praise from the ends of the earth,
you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,
the coastlands, and the inhabitants.
11 Let the wilderness and the cities lift up their voices,
the villages that Kedar inhabits.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing,
let them shout from the top of the mountains.
12 Let them give glory to the Lord,
and declare His praise in the islands.
13 The Lord shall go forth like a mighty man;
He shall stir up zeal like a man of war.
He shall cry out, yes, raise a war cry;
He shall prevail against His enemies.
The Lord’s Help Is Promised
14 I have for a long time held My peace;
I have been still and refrained Myself.
Now I will cry like a travailing woman;
I will destroy and devour at once.
15 I will lay waste mountains and hills
and dry up all their vegetation,
and I will make the rivers islands,
and I will dry up the pools.
16 I will bring the blind by a way that they did not know;
I will lead them in paths that they have not known.
I will make darkness light before them
and crooked things straight.
These things I will do for them
and not forsake them.
17 They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed,
who trust in graven images,
who say to the molded images, “You are our gods.”
Israel’s Disobedience
18 Hear, you deaf;
look, you blind, that you may see.
19 Who is blind, but My servant?
Or deaf, as My messenger whom I sent?
Who is blind as he who is at peace with Me,
and blind as the servant of the Lord?
20 You have seen many things, but you do not observe them;
your ears are open, but no one hears.
21 The Lord is well pleased
for His righteousness’ sake
to magnify the law and make it honorable.
22 But this is a people robbed and despoiled;
they are all snared in holes,
and they are hidden in prison houses;
they are for a prey,
and no one delivers,
for a spoil,
and no one says, “Restore them.”
23 Who among you will give ear to this?
Who will listen and hear for the time to come?
24 Who gave up Jacob as spoil,
and Israel to the robbers?
Did not the Lord,
against whom we have sinned?
For they would not walk in His ways,
nor were they obedient to His law.
25 Therefore, He has poured on him the fury of His anger
and the strength of battle;
and it has set him on fire all around, yet he did not recognize it;
and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.
The Redeemer of Israel
43 But now, thus says the Lord
who created you, O Jacob,
and He who formed you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name; you are Mine.
2 When you pass through waters,
I will be with you.
And through the rivers,
they shall not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire,
you shall not be burned,
nor shall the flame kindle on you.
3 For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I gave Egypt for your ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba in your place.
4 Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honorable,
and I have loved you;
therefore, I will give men for you,
and people for your life.
5 Do not fear, for I am with you;
I will bring your descendants from the east,
and gather you from the west;
6 I will say to the north, “Give them up,”
and to the south, “Do not keep them back.
Bring My sons from afar,
and My daughters from the ends of the earth,
7 even everyone who is called by My name,
for I have created him for My glory;
I have formed him, and I have made him.”
8 Bring forth the blind people who have eyes,
and the deaf who have ears.
9 Let all the nations be gathered together,
and let the people be assembled.
Who among them can declare this,
and show us former things?
Let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified;
or let them hear and say, “It is true.”
10 You are My witnesses, says the Lord,
and My servant whom I have chosen
that you may know and believe Me,
and understand that I am He.
Before Me there was no God formed,
nor shall there be after Me.
11 I, even I, am the Lord,
and besides Me there is no savior.
12 I have declared, and have saved, and I have shown,
when there was no strange god among you;
therefore, you are My witnesses, says the Lord, that I am God.
13 Indeed, from eternity I am He;
there is no one who can deliver out of My hand;
I act, and who can reverse it?
14 Thus says the Lord,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
For your sake I have sent to Babylon,
and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans,
into the ships in which they rejoice.
15 I am the Lord, your Holy One,
the Creator of Israel, your King.
16 Thus says the Lord,
who makes a way in the sea
and a path in the mighty waters,
17 who brings forth the chariot and horse,
the army and the mighty men
(they shall lie down together, they shall not rise;
they are extinguished, they are quenched like a wick):
18 Do not remember the former things
nor consider the things of old.
19 See, I will do a new thing,
now it shall spring forth; shall you not be aware of it?
I will even make a way in the wilderness,
and rivers in the desert.
20 The beast of the field shall honor Me,
the jackals and the owls,
because I give waters in the wilderness,
and rivers in the desert,
to give drink to My people, My chosen ones.
21 This people I have formed for Myself;
they shall declare My praise.
Pleading With Israel
22 But you have not called upon Me, O Jacob;
but you have been weary of Me, O Israel.
23 You have not brought Me the sheep for your burnt offerings,
nor have you honored Me with your sacrifices.
I have not burdened you with offerings,
nor wearied you with incense.
24 You have bought Me no sweet cane with money,
nor have you filled Me with the fat of your sacrifices;
but you have made Me burdened with your sins;
you have wearied Me with your iniquities.
25 I, even I, am He who blots out
your transgressions for My own sake,
and will not remember your sins.
26 Put Me in remembrance;
let us plead together;
state your cause, that you may be justified.
27 Your first father has sinned,
and your teachers have transgressed against Me.
28 Therefore, I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary,
and have given Jacob to the curse,
and Israel to reproaches.
God’s Blessing on Jacob
44 Yet now listen, O Jacob, My servant,
and Israel, whom I have chosen.
2 Thus says the Lord
who made you, and formed you from the womb,
who will help you:
Do not fear, O Jacob, My servant, and you,
Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.
3 For I will pour water on him who is thirsty,
and floods on the dry ground;
I will pour out My Spirit on your descendants,
and My blessing on your offspring;
4 and they shall spring up as among the grass,
as willows by the water courses.
5 One will say, “I am the Lord’s”;
another will call himself by the name of Jacob;
and another will write on his hand, “Belonging to the Lord,”
and name himself by the name of Israel.
Idolatry Condemned
6 Thus says the Lord the King of Israel,
and his Redeemer the Lord of Hosts:
I am the first, and I am the last;
besides Me there is no God.
7 Who is like Me? Let him proclaim
and declare it, and recount it in order for Me,
since I appointed the ancient people.
And let them declare to them the things that are coming,
and shall come.
8 Do not fear, nor be afraid;
have I not told you from of old, and declared it?
You are My witnesses!
Is there a God besides Me?
There is no Rock; I know not any.
9 Those who make a graven image are, all of them, vain,
and their delectable things shall not profit;
and they are their own witnesses;
they do not see nor know, that they may be ashamed.
10 Who has formed a god or molded a graven image
that is profitable for nothing?
11 All his companions shall be ashamed;
and the workmen, they are mere men.
Let them all be gathered together; let them stand up,
yet they shall fear; they shall be ashamed together.
12 The smith with the tongs
both works in the coals
and fashions it with hammers,
and works it with the strength of his arms.
He becomes hungry, and his strength fails;
He drinks no water and is faint.
13 The carpenter stretches out his measuring line;
he marks it out with a line;
he fits it with planes,
and he marks it out with the compass,
and makes it after the figure of a man,
according to the beauty of a man,
that it may remain in the house.
14 He hews down cedars for himself,
and takes the cypress and the oak,
which he raises for himself among the trees of the forest.
He plants a fir, and the rain makes it grow.
15 Then it shall be for a man to burn,
for he will take some of it and warm himself;
he kindles it and bakes bread;
he also makes a god and worships it;
he makes it a graven image and bows down to it.
16 He burns half of it in the fire;
over this half he eats meat;
he roasts it and is satisfied.
Also he warms himself and says,
“Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire.”
17 And the rest he makes into a god, even his carved image.
He falls down to it, and worships it,
and prays to it, and says,
“Deliver me, for you are my god.”
18 They have not known nor understood;
for He has shut their eyes so that they cannot see,
and their hearts so that they cannot understand.
19 No one considers in his heart,
nor is there knowledge nor understanding to say,
“I have burned part of it in the fire;
I also have baked bread on the coals;
I have roasted meat and eaten it;
and shall I make the rest into an abomination?
Shall I fall down to a block of wood?”
20 He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside
so that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say,
“Is there not a lie in my right hand?”
Israel Not Forgotten
21 Remember these things, O Jacob,
and Israel, for you are My servant;
I have formed you; you are My servant;
O Israel, you shall not be forgotten by Me.
22 I have blotted out, as a thick cloud,
your transgressions, and your sins, as a cloud.
Return to Me,
for I have redeemed you.
23 Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it.
Shout joyfully, you lower parts of the earth;
break forth into singing, you mountains,
O forest, and every tree in it.
For the Lord has redeemed Jacob,
and glorified Himself in Israel.
Jerusalem to Be Inhabited
24 Thus says the Lord,
your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb:
I am the Lord
who makes all things,
who stretches out the heavens alone,
who spreads abroad the earth by Myself,
25 who frustrates the omens of the boasters
and makes fools out of diviners,
who turns wise men backward
and makes their knowledge foolish,
26 who confirms the word of His servant
and performs the counsel of His messengers,
who says to Jerusalem, “You shall be inhabited,”
and to the cities of Judah, “You shall be built.”
And I will raise up her ruins again;
27 it is I who says to the deep, “Be dried up!”
And I will dry up your rivers;
28 it is I who says of Cyrus, “He is My shepherd,
and shall perform all My desire”;
and he declares to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,”
and to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.”
Cyrus, God’s Anointed
45 Thus says the Lord to Cyrus, His anointed,
whose right hand I have held—
to subdue nations before him
and to loosen the loins of kings,
to open doors before him
so that the gates will not be shut:
2 I will go before you
and make the crooked places straight;
I will break in pieces the gates of bronze
and shatter the bars of iron.
3 And I will give you the treasures of darkness
and hidden riches of secret places
so that you may know that I, the Lord,
who calls you by your name, am the God of Israel.
4 For Jacob My servant’s sake
and Israel My chosen one,
I have even called you by your name;
I have named you,
though you have not known Me.
5 I am the Lord and there is no other;
there is no God besides Me.
I strengthen you,
though you have not known Me,
6 so that they may know from the rising of the sun
and from the west
that there is no one besides Me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other;
7 I form the light and create darkness;
I make peace and create calamity;
I, the Lord, do all these things.
8 Drip down, O heavens, from above,
and let the clouds pour down righteousness;
let the earth open up,
and let them bring forth salvation,
and let righteousness spring up together.
I, the Lord, have created it.
9 Woe to him who strives with his Maker,
the potsherd with the potsherds of the earth!
Shall the clay say to the potter,
“What are you making?”
Or the thing you are making say,
“He has no hands”?
10 Woe to him who says to his father,
“What are you begetting?”
Or to the woman,
“To what are you giving birth?”
11 Thus says the Lord,
the Holy One of Israel and his Maker:
Ask Me of things to come
concerning My sons,
and you shall commit to Me the work of My hands.
12 I have made the earth
and created man on it.
I, even My hands, have stretched out the heavens,
and I have ordained all their host.
13 I have raised him up in righteousness,
and I will direct all his ways;
he shall build My city,
and he shall let My captives go,
neither for price nor reward,
says the Lord of Hosts.
The Only Savior
14 Thus says the Lord:
The products of Egypt and merchandise of Ethiopia
and of the Sabeans—men of stature—
shall come over to you,
and they shall be yours;
they shall come after you;
in chains they shall come over,
and they shall fall down before you.
They shall make supplication to you, saying,
“Surely God is with you, and there is no other;
there is no other God.”
15 Truly You are a God who hides Yourself,
O God of Israel, the Savior.
16 They shall be ashamed and also humiliated, all of them;
the craftsmen of idols shall go away in confusion together,
17 but Israel shall be saved by the Lord
with an everlasting salvation;
you shall not be ashamed nor humiliated
to all eternity.
18 For thus says the Lord,
who created the heavens,
who is God,
who formed the earth and made it,
who has established it,
who did not create it in vain,
who formed it to be inhabited:
I am the Lord,
and there is no other.
19 I have not spoken in secret
in a dark place of the earth;
I did not say to the descendants of Jacob,
“Seek Me in a waste place”;
I, the Lord, speak righteousness;
I declare things that are right.
20 Assemble yourselves and come;
draw near together, you fugitives of the nations.
They have no knowledge who set up the wood of their carved image,
and pray to a god that cannot save.
21 Declare and set forth your case;
let them take counsel together.
Who has declared this from ancient times?
Who has told it from that time?
Have not I, the Lord?
And there is no God besides Me,
a righteous God and Savior;
there is no other besides Me.
22 Turn to Me and be saved,
all the ends of the earth.
For I am God, and there is no other.
23 I have sworn by Myself,
the word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness
and shall not return,
that to Me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall take an oath.
24 Surely, one shall say, “Only in the Lord
are righteousness and strength.”
Men shall come to him,
and all who are incensed at Him shall be ashamed.
25 In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel
be justified and shall glory.
The Idols of Babylon
46 Bel bows down, Nebo stoops,
their idols are appointed to the beasts and the cattle.
The things that you carry are burdensome;
they are a burden to the weary beast.
2 They stoop, they bow down together;
they could not deliver the burden,
but themselves have gone into captivity.
3 Listen to Me, O house of Jacob,
and all the remnant of the house of Israel,
who are borne by Me from birth
and are carried from the womb:
4 And even to your old age I am He,
and even to your graying years I will carry you;
I have done it, and I will bear you;
even I will carry, and will deliver you.
5 To whom will you liken Me, and make Me equal,
and compare Me that we may be alike?
6 They lavish gold out of the bag,
and weigh silver on the scales;
they hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god;
they fall down and worship it.
7 They lift it on the shoulder, they carry it,
and they set it in its place, and it stands;
from its place it does not move.
If one shall cry to it, it cannot answer
nor save him out of his trouble.
8 Remember this, and show yourselves men;
bring it to mind again, O transgressors.
9 Remember the former things of old,
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,
10 declaring the end from the beginning,
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying,
“My counsel shall stand,
and I will do all My good pleasure,”
11 calling a ravenous bird from the east,
the man who executes My counsel from a far country.
Indeed, I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass.
I have purposed it; I will also do it.
12 Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted,
who are far from righteousness;
13 I bring My righteousness near;
it shall not be far off,
and My salvation shall not tarry.
And I will grant salvation in Zion,
and My glory for Israel.
The Fall of Babylon
47 Come down, and sit in the dust,
O virgin daughter of Babylon;
sit on the ground; there is no throne,
O daughter of the Chaldeans.
For you shall no more be called
tender and delicate.
2 Take the millstones and grind meal.
Uncover your veil,
strip off the skirt, uncover the leg,
pass over the rivers.
3 Your nakedness shall be uncovered,
and your shame shall be seen;
I will take vengeance,
and I will not meet you as a man.
4 As for our Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts is His name,
the Holy One of Israel.
5 Sit silently, and go into darkness,
O daughter of the Chaldeans;
for you shall no more be called
the queen of kingdoms.
6 I was angry with My people;
I have polluted My inheritance
and given them into your hand.
You did not show them mercy;
on the aged
you have laid your yoke very heavily.
7 You said, “I shall be a queen forever,”
but you did not take these things to heart,
nor remember the outcome of them.
8 Therefore, now hear this, you who are given to pleasures,
who dwell carelessly,
who say in your heart,
“I am, and there is no one besides me;
I shall not sit as a widow,
nor shall I know the loss of children”;
9 but these two things shall come to you
in a moment, in one day,
the loss of children and widowhood.
They shall come upon you in their fullness
because of the multitude of your sorceries
and for the great abundance of your enchantments.
10 For you have trusted in your wickedness;
you have said, “No one sees me”;
your wisdom and your knowledge have perverted you;
and you have said in your heart,
“I am, and there is no one besides me.”
11 Therefore, evil shall come upon you,
which you shall not know from where it rises.
And disaster shall fall upon you,
for which you shall not be able to atone.
And desolation shall come upon you suddenly,
which you shall not know.
12 Stand fast now with your enchantments,
and with the multitude of your sorceries
in which you have labored from your youth.
Perhaps you shall be able to profit,
perhaps you may cause trembling.
13 You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels;
let now the astrologers, the stargazers,
the monthly prognosticators stand up
and save you from these things that shall come upon you.
14 Surely they shall be as stubble,
the fire shall burn them;
they shall not deliver themselves
from the power of the flame;
it shall not be coal to be warmed by
nor a fire to sit before.
15 Thus those shall be to you
with whom you have labored,
even your merchants, from your youth;
they shall wander, everyone to his quarter.
No one shall save you.
Israel Refined for God’s Glory
48 Hear this, O house of Jacob,
who are called by the name of Israel,
and have come forth from the waters of Judah;
who swear by the name of the Lord,
and invoke the God of Israel,
but not in truth or in righteousness;
2 for they call themselves after the holy city,
and lean on the God of Israel;
the Lord of Hosts is His name:
3 I have declared the former things from the beginning;
and they went forth from My mouth, and I announced them.
Suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.
4 Because I knew that you are obstinate,
and your neck is an iron sinew,
and your brow bronze;
5 I have even from the beginning declared it to you;
before it came to pass I announced it to you,
lest you should say,
“My idol has done them,
and my carved image and my molded image has commanded them.”
6 You have heard; see all this.
And will you not declare it?
I have shown you new things from this time,
even hidden things, and you did not know them.
7 They are created now and not from the beginning;
even before the day when you did not hear them,
lest you should say,
“Yes, I knew them.”
8 You have not heard, you have not known,
indeed, from long ago your ear has not been open.
For I knew that you would deal very treacherously,
and that from birth you have been called a rebel.
9 For My name’s sake I will defer My anger,
and for My praise I will restrain it for you
so that you are not cut off.
10 See, I have refined you, but not with silver;
I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.
11 For My own sake, even for My own sake, I will do it;
for how can My name be polluted?
And I will not give My glory to another.
The Lord’s Call to Israel
12 Listen to Me, O Jacob
and Israel, whom I called:
I am He;
I am the First, and I am the Last.
13 My hand also has laid the foundation of the earth,
and My right hand has spanned the heavens;
when I call to them,
they stand up together.
14 Assemble, all of you, and listen.
Who among them has declared these things?
The Lord has loved him;
he will do His pleasure on Babylon,
and His arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
15 I, even I, have spoken,
and I have called him;
I have brought him,
and his way will prosper.
16 Come near to Me, hear this:
I have not spoken in secret from the beginning;
from the time that it was, there I am.
And now the Lord God has sent me
and His Spirit.
17 Thus says the Lord,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you to profit,
who leads you in the way you should go.
18 Oh, that you had listened to My commandments!
Then your peace would have been as a river
and your righteousness as the waves of the sea.
19 Your descendants also would have been as the sand
and your offspring like grains of sand;
their name would not have been cut off
nor destroyed from before Me.
20 Go forth from Babylon!
Flee from the Chaldeans!
With a voice of singing declare,
proclaim this,
utter it even to the ends of the earth;
say, “The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob.”
21 They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts;
He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them;
He also split the rock,
and the waters gushed out.
22 “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”
The Servant of the Lord
49 Listen to me, O coastlands,
and pay attention, you peoples from afar.
The Lord called me from the womb;
from the body of my mother He named me.
2 He has made my mouth like a sharp sword;
in the shadow of His hand He has hidden me
and made me a select arrow;
in His quiver He has hidden me.
3 He said to me, “You are My servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
4 Then I said, “I have labored in vain;
I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity,
yet surely the justice due to me is with the Lord,
and my reward with my God.”
5 Now says the Lord,
who formed me from the womb to be His servant,
to bring Jacob back to Him,
so that Israel might be gathered to Him
(yet I am honored in the eyes of the Lord,
and my God is my strength),
6 He says,
“It is a light thing that you should be My servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also make you a light to the nations
so that My salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”
7 Thus says the Lord,
the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One,
to the despised one, to the one whom the nation abhors,
to the servant of rulers:
“Kings shall see and arise,
princes also shall worship,
because of the Lord who is faithful
and the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”
The Restoration of Israel
8 Thus says the Lord:
In an acceptable time I have heard you,
and in a day of salvation I have helped you;
and I will preserve you, and give you
as a covenant of the people,
to restore the earth,
to make them inherit the desolate heritages,
9 saying to the prisoners, “Go forth,”
to those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves.”
They shall feed along the paths,
and their pastures shall be in all desolate heights;
10 they shall not hunger nor thirst,
neither shall the heat nor sun strike them;
for He who has mercy on them shall lead them,
even by the springs of water He shall guide them.
11 I will make all My mountains a road,
and My highways shall be raised up.
12 See, these shall come from afar;
and these will come from the north and from the west,
and these from the land of Sinim.
13 Sing, O heavens!
And be joyful, O earth!
And break forth into singing, O mountains!
For the Lord has comforted His people
and will have mercy on His afflicted.
14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,
and the Lord has forgotten me.”
15 Can a woman forget her nursing child,
and have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget.
16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
your walls are continually before Me;
17 your builders hurry;
your destroyers and those who devastated you shall depart from you.
18 Lift up your eyes and look all around;
all these gather themselves together and come to you.
As I live, says the Lord,
you shall surely put on all of them as ornaments
and bind them on you as a bride does.
19 For your waste and your desolate places,
and the land of your destruction,
shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants,
and those who swallowed you up shall be far away.
20 The children whom you shall have,
after you have lost the others,
shall say again in your ears,
“The place is too cramped for me;
make room for me that I may dwell here.”
21 Then you shall say in your heart,
“Who bore these for me,
since I have lost my children and am barren,
a captive and a wanderer?
And who has brought these up?
I was left alone;
from where did these come?”
22 Thus says the Lord God:
See, I will lift up My hand to the nations
and set up My standard to the peoples;
and they shall bring your sons in their arms,
and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders;
23 kings shall be your foster fathers
and their queens your nursing mothers;
they shall bow down to you with their faces toward the ground
and lick up the dust of your feet.
And you shall know that I am the Lord,
for those who wait for Me shall not be ashamed.
24 Can the prey be taken from the mighty
or the captives of a tyrant be delivered?
25 For thus says the Lord:
Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away,
and the prey of the tyrant shall be delivered;
for I will contend with him who contends with you,
and I will save your sons.
26 I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh,
and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine.
And all flesh shall know
that I, the Lord, am your Savior
and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
The Servant, Hope of Israel
50 Thus says the Lord:
Where is the certificate of divorce
by which I sent your mother away?
Or to which of My creditors
did I sell you?
For your iniquities you were sold,
and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
2 Why, when I came, was there no man?
When I called, was there no one to answer?
Is My hand so short that it cannot redeem?
Or have I no power to deliver?
Indeed, at My rebuke I dry up the sea,
I make the rivers a wilderness;
Their fish stink because there is no water,
and die for thirst.
3 I clothe the heavens with blackness,
and I make sackcloth their covering.
4 The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned,
that I may know how to sustain him who is weary with a word;
He awakens me morning by morning;
He awakens my ear to listen as the learned.
5 The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious,
nor did I turn back.
6 I gave my back to those who struck me,
and my cheeks to those who plucked out my beard;
I did not cover my face
from shame and spitting.
7 For the Lord God will help me;
therefore, I shall not be disgraced;
therefore, I have set my face like a flint,
and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
8 He who vindicates me is near;
who will contend with me?
Let us stand up to each other.
Who is my adversary?
Let him come near to me.
9 Certainly the Lord God will help me;
who is he who condemns me?
Indeed they all shall grow old as a garment;
the moth shall eat them up.
10 Who among you fears the Lord,
who obeys the voice of His servant,
who walks in darkness
and has no light?
Let him trust in the name of the Lord,
and rely upon his God.
11 But now, all you who kindle a fire,
who encompass yourselves with sparks:
Walk in the light of your fire
and among the sparks that you have ignited.
This you shall have from My hand:
You shall lie down in sorrow.
The Eternal Salvation of Zion
51 Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness,
you who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were hewn
and to the quarry from which you were dug.
2 Look to Abraham your father
and to Sarah who bore you;
for I called him alone,
and blessed him, and multiplied him.
3 For the Lord shall comfort Zion,
He will comfort all her waste places;
He will make her wilderness like Eden,
and her desert like the garden of the Lord;
joy and gladness shall be found in it,
thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
4 Listen to Me, O My people;
and give ear to Me, O My nation:
for a law shall proceed from Me,
and I will set My justice as a light of the peoples.
5 My righteousness is near,
My salvation has gone forth,
and My arms shall judge the peoples;
the coastlands shall wait for Me,
and for My arm they shall expectantly wait.
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and look on the earth beneath.
For the heavens shall vanish away like smoke,
and the earth shall grow old like a garment,
and those who dwell in it shall die in like manner;
but My salvation shall be forever,
and My righteousness shall not be abolished.
7 Listen to Me, you who know righteousness,
the people in whose heart is My law;
do not fear the reproach of men
nor be afraid of their revilings.
8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment,
and the worm shall eat them like wool;
but My righteousness shall be forever
and My salvation from generation to generation.
9 Awake, awake, put on strength,
O arm of the Lord.
Awake as in the ancient days,
in the generations of old.
Was it not You who cut Rahab to pieces
and wounded the dragon?
10 Was it not You who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep,
who made the depths of the sea a pathway
for the ransomed to pass over?
11 Therefore, the redeemed of the Lord shall return
and come with singing to Zion,
and everlasting joy shall be upon their head.
They shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
12 I, even I, am He who comforts you.
Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who shall die,
and of the son of man who shall be made as grass,
13 and forget the Lord your maker
who has stretched out the heavens
and laid the foundations of the earth?
And have feared continually every day
because of the fury of the oppressor
as he makes ready to destroy?
Yet where is the fury of the oppressor?
14 The exile shall soon be freed,
and shall not die in the dungeon,
nor will his bread be lacking.
15 But I am the Lord your God
who divided the sea whose waves roared;
the Lord of Hosts is His name.
16 I have put My words in your mouth,
and I have covered you in the shadow of My hand
that I may plant the heavens,
and lay the foundations of the earth,
and say to Zion, “You are My people.”
The Wrath of God Ceases
17 Awake, awake,
stand up, O Jerusalem,
you who have drunk at the hand of the Lord
the cup of His fury;
the cup of reeling
you have drained to the dregs.
18 There is no one to guide her
among all the sons she has brought forth;
nor is there anyone to take hold of her hand
of all the sons that she has brought up.
19 These two things have befallen you;
who shall be mournful for you?
Desolation, and destruction, and famine, and sword—
how shall I comfort you?
20 Your sons have fainted;
they lie at the head of all the streets
as an antelope in a net;
they are full of the fury of the Lord,
the rebuke of your God.
21 Therefore please hear this,
you afflicted who are drunk but not with wine.
22 Thus says your Lord, the Lord,
and your God who pleads the cause of His people:
See, I have taken out of your hand
the cup of reeling,
even the dregs of the cup of My fury;
you will never drink it again.
23 But I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you,
who have said to you,
“Lie down that we may walk over you.”
And you have laid your back as the ground
and as the street for those who walk on it.
52 Awake, awake!
Put on your strength, O Zion;
put on your beautiful garments,
O Jerusalem, the holy city.
For the uncircumcised and the unclean
will no longer enter you.
2 Shake yourself from the dust;
arise, O captive Jerusalem.
Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck,
O captive daughter of Zion.
3 For thus says the Lord:
You were sold for nothing,
and you shall be redeemed without money.
4 For thus says the Lord God:
My people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there;
then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.
5 Now therefore, what do I have here, says the Lord,
seeing that My people have been taken away for nothing?
Those who rule over them make them wail,
says the Lord,
and My name is continually blasphemed
all day long.
6 Therefore, My people shall know My name;
therefore, they shall know in that day
that I am He who does speak:
Here I am.
7 How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news,
who proclaims peace,
who brings good news of happiness,
who proclaims salvation,
who says to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”
8 Your watchmen lift up their voices;
they sing joyfully together;
for they shall see with their own eyes
when the Lord brings Zion back.
9 Break forth into joy, sing together,
you waste places of Jerusalem.
For the Lord has comforted His people;
He has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord has bared His holy arm
in 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 from there,
touch no unclean thing;
go out of the midst of her; be clean,
you who bear the vessels of the Lord.
12 For you shall not go out with haste
nor go by flight.
For the Lord will go before you,
and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.