Isaiah 51

1 Heare me, ye that follow after righteousnes, and ye that seeke the Lord: looke vnto the rocke, whence ye are hewen, and to the hole of the pit, whence ye are digged.

2 Consider Abraham your father, and Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.

3 Surely the Lord shall comfort Zion: he shall comfort all her desolations, and he shall make her desert like Eden, and her wildernes like the garden of the Lord: ioy and gladnesse shalbe founde therein: praise, and the voyce of singing.

4 Hearken ye vnto me, my people, and giue eare vnto me, O my people: for a Law shall proceede from me, and I will bring foorth my iudgement for the light of the people.

5 My righteousnes is neere: my saluation goeth foorth, and mine armes shall iudge the people: the yles shall waite for me, and shall trust vnto mine arme.

6 Lift vp your eyes to the heauens, and looke vpon the earth beneath: for the heauens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall waxe olde like a garment, and they that dwell therein, shall perish in like maner: but my saluation shall be for euer, and my righteousnesse shall not bee abolished.

7 Hearken vnto me, ye that know righteousnesse, the people in whose heart is my Lawe. Feare ye not the reproche of men, neither be ye afraide of their rebukes.

8 For the mothe shall eate them vp like a garment, and the worme shall eate them like wool: but my righteousnesse shalbe for euer, and my saluation from generation to generation.

9 Rise vp, rise vp, and put on strength, O arme of the Lord: rise vp as in the olde time in the generations of the worlde. Art not thou the same, that hath cutte Rahab, and wounded the dragon?

10 Art not thou the same, which hath dried the Sea, euen the waters of the great deepe, making the depth of the Sea a way for the redeemed to passe ouer?

11 Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall returne, and come with ioy vnto Zion, and euerlasting ioy shalbe vpon their head: they shall obtaine ioy, and gladnesse: and sorow and mourning shall flee away.

12 I, euen I am he, that comfort you. Who art thou, that thou shouldest feare a mortall man, and the sonne of man, which shalbe made as grasse?

13 And forgettest the Lord thy maker, that hath spred out the heauens, and layde the foundations of the earth? and hast feared continually all the day, because of the rage of the oppressour, which is readie to destroy? Where is now the rage of the oppressour?

14 The captiue hasteneth to be loosed, and that hee should not die in the pitte, nor that his bread should faile.

15 And I am the Lord thy God that deuided the Sea, when his waues roared: the Lord of hostes is his Name.

16 And I haue put my wordes in thy mouth, and haue defended thee in the shadowe of mine hand, that I may plant the heauens, and lay the foundation of the earth, and say vnto Zion, Thou art my people.

17 Awake, awake, and stande vp, O Ierusalem, which hast drunke at the hande of the Lord the cup of his wrath: thou hast drunken the dregges of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.

18 There is none to guide her among all the sonnes, whome she hath brought foorth: there is none that taketh her by the hand of all the sonnes that she hath brought vp.

19 These two thinges are come vnto thee: who will lament thee? desolation and destruction and famine, and the sworde: by whome shall I comfort thee?

20 Thy sonnes haue fainted, and lye at the head of all the streetes as a wilde bull in a nette, and are full of the wrath of the Lord, and rebuke of thy God.

21 Therefore heare nowe this, thou miserable and drunken, but not with wine.

22 Thus saith thy Lord God, euen God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Beholde, I haue taken out of thine hande the cuppe of trembling, euen the dregges of the cuppe of my wrath: thou shalt drinke it no more.

23 But I will put it into their hande that spoile thee: which haue said to thy soule, Bowe downe, that wee may goe ouer, and thou hast layde thy bodie as the grounde, and as the streete to them that went ouer.