Isaiah 51

1 Hearken to me, ye who follow after righteousness, ye who seek Jehovah. Look to the rock from where ye were hewn, and to the hold of the pit from where ye were dug.

2 Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you. For when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him, and made him many.

3 For Jehovah has comforted Zion. He has comforted all her waste places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Jehovah. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

4 Attend to me, O my people, and give ear to me, O my nation. For a law shall go forth from me, and I will establish my justice for a light of the peoples.

5 My righteousness is near. My salvation has gone forth, and my arms shall judge the peoples. The isles shall wait for me, and on my arm they shall trust.

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 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 Hearken to me, ye who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law. Fear ye not the reproach of men, nor be ye dismayed at 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 to all generations.

9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of Jehovah. Awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Is it not thou who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster?

10 Is it not thou who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?

11 And the ransomed of Jehovah shall return, and come with singing to Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

12 I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are thou, that thou are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who shall be made as grass,

13 and have forgotten Jehovah thy maker, who stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth, and fear continually all the day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he makes ready to destroy? And where is the fury of the oppressor?

14 The captive exile shall speedily be loosed, and he shall not die in the pit, nor shall his bread fail.

15 For I am Jehovah thy God, who stirs up the sea so that the waves of it roar. Jehovah of hosts is his name.

16 And I have put my words in thy mouth, and have covered thee in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, Thou are my people.

17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, who have drunk at the hand of Jehovah the cup of his wrath. Thou have drunk the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.

18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth, nor is there any who takes her by the hand among all the sons that she has brought up.

19 These two things have befallen thee (Who shall bemoan thee?): Desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword. How shall I comfort thee?

20 Thy sons have fainted. They lie at the head of all the streets, as an antelope in a net. They are full of the wrath of Jehovah, the rebuke of thy God.

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

22 Thus says thy lord Jehovah, and thy God who pleads the cause of his people: Behold, I have taken out of thy hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath. Thou shall no more drink it again.

23 And I will put it into the hand of those who afflict thee, who have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over, and thou have laid thy back as the ground, and as the street, to those who go over.