Old/New Testament

^{1     [a]}Thus says the Lord:
    Where is your mother’s bill of divorce
    by which I repudiated her?
Or which creditor of mine was it
    to whom I sold you?
No, you were sold because of your sins,
    and your mother was repudiated,
    because of your rebellious acts.
² Why was no one there when I came?
    Why did no one answer when I called?
Is my hand too short to redeem?
    Have I no power to deliver?
By my rebuke I can dry up the sea
    and turn the rivers into a desert.
Their fish rot for lack of water
    and die of thirst.
³ Did I not clothe the heavens in black
    and cover them with sackcloth?
^{4     [b]}The Lord God has given me
    the tongue of one who has been well taught
so that I am able to console the weary
    with a message of encouragement.
Morning after morning he opens my ears
    so that I may listen to their concerns.
⁵ And I have not rebelled,
    I have not turned away.
⁶ I offered my back to those who struck me,
    my cheeks to those who plucked my beard.
I did not shield my face
    from insults and spitting.
⁷ The Lord God is my help;
    therefore I have not been disgraced.
Rather, I have set my face like flint,
    knowing that I will not be put to shame.
⁸ He who upholds me is near;
    thus, if anyone wishes to oppose me,
    let us confront each other.
Is there anyone who has a case against me?
    Let him come forward.
⁹ The Lord God is my defender;
    who then will dare to condemn me?
All of them will wear out like a garment
    the moth will devour them.
¹⁰ Who among you fears the Lord
    and obeys his servant’s voice?
Who among you walks in darkness
    without any light?
Let him trust in the name of the Lord
    and rely on his God.
¹¹ But all of you kindle a fire
    and arm yourselves with firebrands.
Walk by the light of your fire
    and the firebrands that you have set ablaze.
This is what you will receive from my hand:
    you will lie down in torment.

¹ Listen to me, you who pursue justice,
    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 gave birth to you.
When I called him, he was but one,
    but I blessed him and made him many.
³ The Lord will comfort Zion
    and have pity on all her ruins.
He will make her deserts like Eden
    and her wastelands into the garden of the Lord.
Joy and gladness will resound in her,
    thanksgiving and the sound of music.
⁴ Listen attentively to me, my people,
    and pay heed to me, my nation.
For the law will issue forth from me,
    and my justice will serve as a light to the nations.
⁵ My justice will issue forth swiftly,
    my salvation will appear,
    and I will judge the nations with my arm.
The coastlands and the islands
    will place their hope in me
    and trust in my protection.
⁶ Raise your eyes to the heavens
    and gaze down on the earth below.
For the heavens will vanish like smoke,
    and the earth will wear out like a garment
    as its inhabitants die like flies.
But my salvation will be everlasting
    and my justice will never cease.
⁷ Listen to me,
    you who truly comprehend the meaning of justice
    and who have my teaching in your hearts.
Do not fear the reproach of others
    or allow their reviling to dismay you.
⁸ For they will be like a garment eaten away by moths,
    like wool devoured by grubs.
But my saving justice will be everlasting
    and my deliverance for all generations.
⁹ Awake, awake, O arm of the Lord!
    Clothe yourself in strength.
Awake as in the days of old,
    in ages long past.
Was it not you who hacked Rahab^[d] to pieces
    and pierced the dragon through?
¹⁰ Was it not you who dried up the sea,
    the waters of the great deep,
and turned the depths of the sea into a path
    for the redeemed to pass over?
¹¹ Therefore, those whom the Lord has redeemed will return
    and enter Zion singing,
    their heads crowned with everlasting joy.
They shall experience joy and gladness,
    while sorrow and mourning will disappear.
¹² I, I alone, am the one who comforts you.
    Why then do you fear mortal men who must die,
    human beings who must perish like grass?
¹³ You have forgotten the Lord, your maker,
    who stretched out the heavens
    and laid the foundations of the earth.
You are in constant fear every moment of the day,
    dreading the fury of the oppressor
    who is bent on your destruction.
But where now is the oppressor’s fury?
¹⁴     The oppressed will soon be set free;
they will not die in the dungeon,
    nor will they be without food.
¹⁵ For I am the Lord, your God
    who stirs up the sea and makes its waves roar;
    the Lord of hosts is my name.
¹⁶ I have put my words into your mouth
    and sheltered you in the shadow of my hand,
I who stretched out the heavens
    and laid the foundations of the earth,
and who say to Zion,
    You are my people.

¹⁷ Awake, awake!
    Rise up, O Jerusalem!
You have drunk from the Lord’s hand
    the cup of his wrath;
and have drained to the dregs
    the goblet that causes men to become inebriated.
¹⁸ Of all the sons you have brought forth,
    there is no one to guide you;
of all the sons you have reared,
    there is no one to take you by the hand.
¹⁹ Who is there to grieve with you
    about the twofold disaster you have suffered?
Devastation and destruction, famine and sword:
    who can comfort you?
²⁰ Your children are lying helpless
    at the corner of every street
    like antelopes trapped in a net.
They are filled with the wrath of the Lord,
    with the rebuke of your God.
²¹ Therefore, hear this, you who are afflicted,
    you who are drunk although not with wine.
²² Thus says your sovereign Lord,
    your God who defends his people:
I have taken from your hand
    the cup of inebriation;
    you will never again drink
    from the bowl of my wrath.
²³ I will hand it over to your tormentors,
    those who said to you,
“Lie on the ground
    so that we may walk over you.”
And you flattened your back
    like ground beneath their feet,
    like a road for them to walk on.^[e]

¹ Awake, awake!
    Clothe yourself in strength, O Zion.
Put on your glorious garments,
    O Jerusalem, the holy city.
For the uncircumcised and the unclean
    will no longer enter you.
² Shake off the dust from yourself and rise up
    O captive Jerusalem.
Remove the chains from your neck,
    O captive daughter of Zion.
³ For thus says the Lord:
    You were sold for nothing
    and you will be redeemed without money.
⁴ Then the Lord God continues:
    Long ago my people went down to Egypt
and settled there as aliens;
    the Assyrians also oppressed them without cause.
⁵ Therefore, says the Lord,
    what should now be done?
My people have been carried off without cause;
    their rulers boast triumphantly,
and my name is constantly reviled
    throughout the day, declares the Lord.
⁶ Therefore, on that day,
    my people will know my name
and understand that it is I who say:
    Here I am!
⁷ How beautiful upon the mountains
    are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
who bears good news and proclaims glad tidings,
    announcing salvation and saying to Zion,
    “Your God is king.”
⁸ Listen! Your watchmen raise a cry
    and together they shout for joy,
for with their own eyes they clearly behold
    the return of the Lord to Zion.
⁹ Burst forth together with songs of joy,
    you ruins of Jerusalem.
For the Lord has comforted his people;
    he has redeemed Jerusalem.
¹⁰ The Lord has bared his holy arm
    in the sight of all the nations.
All the ends of the earth will see
    the salvation of our God.
¹¹ Depart, depart! Leave that place behind!
    Touch nothing that is unclean.
Go forth from its midst and purify yourselves,
    you who carry the vessels of the Lord.^[f]
12 But you need not rush forth in haste,
    nor should you take flight like fugitives.
For the Lord will go before you,
    and your rear guard will be the God of Israel.

¹³ Behold, my servant will prosper;
    he will be exalted and raised to great heights.
¹⁴ Just as many people recoiled at the sight of him—
    he was so disfigured
    that he no longer appeared to be human—
¹⁵ so will he startle many nations,
    and kings will be speechless before him.
For they will see what they had not been told,
    and they will contemplate
    what they had not previously heard.