Chronological

49 ¶ Listen, O isles, unto me, and hearken, ye peoples, from far, The LORD has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother he has remembered my name.

² And he has made my mouth like a sharp sword; with the shadow of his hand he has covered me, and made me a clean arrow; in his quiver he has kept me.

³ And he said unto me, Thou art my slave, O Israel; in thee I will glory.

⁴ But I said, I have laboured in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing, and in vain; yet surely my judgment is before the LORD and my recompense with my God.

⁵ And now, saith the LORD, he that formed me from the womb to be his slave, so that Jacob might be converted unto him. But if Israel will not be gathered, even so, yet I shall be esteemed in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength.

⁶ And he said, It is a light thing that thou should be my slave to wake up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the desolations of Israel; I have also given thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou may be my saving health unto the end of the earth.

⁷ ¶ Thus has the LORD said, the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, to him whom man despises, to him whom the Gentiles abhor, to the slave of the tyrants, Kings shall see and be raised up as princes and shall worship because of the LORD, for faithful is the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen thee.

⁸ Thus has the LORD said, In an acceptable time I have heard thee, and in the day of saving health I have helped thee; and I will preserve thee and give thee for a covenant of people, that thou might awaken the earth, that thou might inherit the desolate heritages;

⁹ that thou may say to the prisoners, Go forth; and unto those that are in darkness, Show yourselves. Upon the ways shall they be fed, and upon all the high places shall be their pastures.

¹⁰ They shall never hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that has mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water he shall feed them.

¹¹ And I will turn all my mountains into a way, and my highways shall be exalted.

¹² Behold, these shall come from far; and, behold, these 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 upon his afflicted.

¹⁴ But Zion said, The LORD has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.

¹⁵ Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Even though they may forget, I will not forget thee.

¹⁶ Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.

¹⁷ Thy builders shall come in haste; thy destroyers and those that made thee waste shall go forth of thee.

¹⁸ ¶ Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the LORD, thou shalt surely clothe thyself with them all, as with a garment of honour and shalt be girded by them as a bride.

¹⁹ For thy waste and thy desolate places and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and those that destroyed thee shall be separated far away.

²⁰ Even thy sons which were fatherless, shall say in thine ears, The place is too strait for me; give place to me that I may dwell.

²¹ Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who has begotten me these, seeing I had lost my children and was desolate, a stranger removed from my land? and who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?

²² Thus has the Lord GOD said, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles and raise up my banner as an example to the peoples: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.

²³ And kings shall be thy nursing fathers and their princesses thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for those that wait for me shall not be ashamed.

²⁴ ¶ Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?

²⁵ But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contends with thee, and I will save thy sons.

²⁶ And I will feed those that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.

50 ¶ Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities ye are sold, and for your rebellions was your mother put away,

² for I came, and no one showed himself; I called, and no one answered. Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, 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 wise that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary; he wakes up early, early shall he awaken my ear, that I might hear, as the wise.

⁵ The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.

⁶ I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to those that plucked off the hair: I did not hide my face from shame and spitting.

⁷ For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore, I was not ashamed; therefore, I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.

⁸ He is near that justifies me; who will contend with me? let us stand together; who is my adversary? let him come near to me.

⁹ Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? behold, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.

¹⁰ ¶ Who is among you that fears the LORD? Hearken unto the voice of his slave. He who walked in darkness and had no light; let him trust in the name of the LORD and stay upon his God.

¹¹ Behold, that all of you kindle fire and are compassed about with sparks; walk in the light of your fire and of the sparks that ye have kindled. From my hand has come this; ye shall be buried in sorrow.

51 ¶ Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteous­ness, ye that seek the LORD; look unto the rock from which ye are hewn and to the hole of the pit from which ye are dug.

² Look unto Abraham your father and unto Sarah that bore you; for I called him alone and blessed him and multiplied him.

³ For the LORD shall surely comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of singing.

⁴ ¶ Hearken unto me, my people, and give ear unto me, O my nation: for the law shall proceed from me, and I will uncover my judgment for a light of the peoples.

⁵ My righteousness is near; my saving health is gone forth, and my arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me; and on my arm shall they place their hope.

⁶ Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and those that dwell therein shall perish in like manner; but my saving health shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall never perish.

⁷ Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; do not fear the reproach of men, neither 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 for ever, and my saving health from age to age.

⁹ ¶ Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in ages past. Art thou not he who cut off the proud one, and he who smote the dragon?

¹⁰ Art thou not he who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; he who turned the depths of the sea into a way, that the redeemed might pass over?

¹¹ Therefore the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come with singing unto 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 that comforts you. Who art thou that thou should be afraid of man that is mortal and of the son of man which shall be counted as stubble?

¹³ And thou hast already forgotten the LORD thy maker that has stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth and hast feared continually every day the fury of the oppressor when he was ready to destroy. But, where is the fury of the oppressor?

¹⁴ The prisoner is anxious that he may be loosed and that he should not die in the pit nor that his bread should fail.

¹⁵ And I am the LORD thy God that divides the sea and the waves roar; I am thy God; the LORD of the hosts is his name.

¹⁶ That has placed my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee with the shadow of my hand, that thou may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.

¹⁷ ¶ Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling and wrung them out.

¹⁸ There is no one to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth; neither is there any that takes her by the hand of all the sons that she has brought up.

¹⁹ These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword. Who shall comfort thee?

²⁰ Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God.

²¹ Therefore now hear this, thou afflicted and drunken, but not with wine:

²² Thus has thy Lord said, I AM thy God who pleads the cause of his people; Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again:

²³ But I will put it into the hand of those that afflict thee, which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground and as the street to those that went over.

52 ¶ Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for from now on the uncircumcised and the unclean shall no longer come into thee.

² Shake thyself from the dust; arise and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.

³ For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nothing; and ye shall be redeemed without money.

⁴ For thus has the Lord GOD said, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian captured them without cause.

⁵ Now therefore, what have I here, saith the LORD, that my people is taken away for nothing? And those among my people that take rule over them make them to howl, saith the LORD; and my name is continually blasphemed every day.

⁶ Therefore my people shall know my name for this reason in that day: for even I that speak, behold, I shall be present.

⁷ ¶ How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that brings good tidings, that publishes peace, that brings good tidings of good, that publishes saving health, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigns!

⁸ The voice of thy watchmen! They shall lift up the voice; together they shall rejoice: for they shall see eye to eye, how the LORD shall return to bring again Zion.

⁹ Sing praises, rejoice together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.

¹⁰ The LORD has made bare the arm of his holiness before the eyes of all the Gentiles; and all the ends of the earth shall see the saving health of our God.

¹¹ Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from there, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.

¹² For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will gather you together.

¹³ ¶ Behold, my slave shall be prospered; he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.

¹⁴ As many rejected thee, in such manner was his likeness and his beauty, disfigured from the sons of men:

¹⁵ But he shall sprinkle many Gentiles; the kings shall shut their mouths over him: for that which had not been told them they shall see; and that which they had not heard they shall understand.

53 ¶ Who shall believe our report? and upon whom shall the arm of the LORD be manifested?

² With all this he shall grow up before him as a tender sprout and as a root out of a dry ground. There is no outward appearance in him, nor beauty. We shall see him, yet nothing attractive about him that we should desire him.

³ He is despised and rejected among men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with weakness; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

⁴ ¶ Surely he has borne our sicknesses and suffered our pain: and we considered him stricken, smitten of God, and cast down.

⁵ But he was wounded for our rebellions; he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and by his stripes healing was provided for us.

⁶ All we like sheep have become lost; we have turned each one to his own way; and the LORD transposed in him the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he did not open his mouth.

⁸ He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall count his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living; for the rebellion of my people he was smitten.

⁹ And he made his grave with the wicked, and his death with the rich; even though he had never done evil, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰ ¶ With all this the LORD chose to bruise him; subjecting him to grief. When he shall have offered his soul for atonement, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the will of the LORD shall be prospered in his hand.

¹¹ He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. And by his knowledge shall my righteous slave justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.

¹² Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil unto the strong because he has poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the rebellious, having borne the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.