Isaiah 51

1 “Listen to Me, you pursuing righteousness, Seeking YHWH, Look attentively to the rock—you have been hewn, And to the hole of the pit—you have been dug.

Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, and seek the Lord: look to the solid rock, which ye have hewn, and to the hole of the pit which ye have dug.

2 Look attentively to your father Abraham, And to Sarah—she brings you forth, For—one—I have called him, And I bless him, and multiply him.”

Look to Abraam your father, and to Sarrha that bore you: for he was alone when I called him, and blessed him, and loved him, and multiplied him.

3 For YHWH has comforted Zion, He has comforted all her ruins, And He sets her wilderness as Eden, And her desert as a garden of YHWH, Joy, indeed, gladness is found in her, Confession, and the voice of song.

And now I will comfort thee, O Sion: and I have comforted all her desert places; and I will make her desert places as a garden, and her western places as the garden of the Lord; they shall find in her gladness and exultation, thanksgiving and the voice of praise.

4 “Attend to Me, O My people, And, O My nation, give ear to Me. For a law goes out from Me, And My judgment to the light, I cause peoples to rest.

Hear me, hear me, my people; and ye kings, hearken to me: for a law shall proceed from me, and my judgment [shall be] for a light of the nations.

5 My righteousness [is] near, My salvation has gone out, And My arms judge peoples, Islands wait on Me, Indeed, on My arm they wait with hope.

My righteousness speedily draws nigh, and my salvation shall go forth as light, and on mine arm shall the Gentiles trust: the isles shall wait for me, and on mine arm shall they trust.

6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, And look attentively to the earth beneath, For the heavens have vanished as smoke, And the earth wears out as a garment, And its inhabitants die as gnats, And My salvation is for all time, And My righteousness is not broken.

Lift up your eyes to the sky, and look on the earth beneath: for the sky was darkened like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and the inhabitants shall die in like manner: but my righteousness shall not fail.

7 Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, A people in whose heart [is] My law, Do not fear the reproach of men, And do not be frightened of their reviling,

Hear me, ye that know judgment, the people in whose heart is my law: fear not the reproach of men, and be not overcome by their contempt.

8 For a moth eats them as a garment, And a worm eats them as wool, And My righteousness is for all time, And My salvation from generation to generation.”

For as a garment will be devoured by time, and as wool will be devoured by a moth, [so shall they be consumed]; but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation for all generations.

9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of YHWH, Awake, as [in] days of old, generations of the ages, Are You not it that is hewing down Rahab, Piercing a dragon?

Awake, awake, O Jerusalem, and put on the strength of thine arm; awake as in the early time, as the ancient generation.

10 Are You not it that is drying up a sea, Waters of a great deep? That has made deep places of a sea A way for the passing of the redeemed?

Art thou not it that dried the sea, the water, [even] the abundance of the deep; that made the depths of the sea a way of passage for the delivered and redeemed?

11 And the ransomed of YHWH return, And they have come to Zion with singing, And continuous joy [is] on their head, They attain gladness and joy, Sorrow and sighing have fled away,

for by [the help of] the Lord they shall return, and come to Sion with joy and everlasting exultation, for praise and joy shall come upon their head: pain, and grief, and groaning, have fled away.

12 “I [am] He who comforts you, Who [are] you—and you are afraid of man? He dies! And of the son of man—he is made [like] grass!

I, [even] I, am he that comforts thee: consider who thou art, that thou wast afraid of mortal man, and of the son of man, who are withered as grass.

13 And you forget YHWH your Maker, Who is stretching out the heavens, and founding earth, And you continually fear all the day, Because of the fury of the oppressor, As he has prepared to destroy. And where [is] the fury of the oppressor?

And thou hast forgotten God who made thee, who made the sky and founded the earth; and thou wert continually afraid because of the wrath of him that afflicted thee: for [whereas] he counselled to take thee away, yet now where is the wrath of him that afflicted thee?

14 A wanderer has hurried to be loosed, And he does not die in the pit, And his bread is not lacking.

For in thy deliverance he shall not halt, nor tarry;

15 And I [am] your God YHWH, Quieting the sea when its billows roar, YHWH of Hosts [is] His Name.

for I am thy God, that troubles the sea, and causes the waves thereof to roar: the Lord of hosts is my name.

16 And I put My words in your mouth, And have covered you with the shadow of My hand, To plant the heavens, and to found earth, And to say to Zion, You [are] My people.”

I will put my words into thy mouth, and I will shelter thee under the shadow of mine hand, with which I fixed the sky, and founded the earth: and [the Lord] shall say to Sion, Thou art my people.

17 Stir yourself, stir yourself, rise, Jerusalem, You who have drunk from the hand of YHWH The cup of His fury, The goblet, the cup of trembling, you have drunk, You have wrung out.

Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, that hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury: for thou hast drunk out and drained the cup of calamity, the cup of wrath:

18 There is not a leader to her Out of all the sons she has borne, And there is none laying hold on her hand Out of all the sons she has nourished.

and there was none to comfort thee of all the children whom thou borest; and there was none to take hold of thine hand, not even of all the children whom thou has reared.

19 These two are meeting you, Who is moved for you? Spoiling and destruction, famine and sword! By whom do I comfort you?

Wherefore these things are against thee; who shall sympathize with thee in thy grief? downfall, and destruction, famine, and sword: who shall comfort thee?

20 Your sons have been wrapped up, they have lain down, At the head of all out places, as an antelope [in] a dragnet, They are full of the fury of YHWH, The rebuke of Your God.

Thy sons are the perplexed ones, that sleep at the top of every street as a half-boiled beet; they that are full of the anger of the Lord, caused to faint by the Lord God.

21 Therefore, please hear this, O afflicted and drunken one, and not with wine,

Therefore hear, thou afflicted one, and drunken, [but] not with wine;

22 Thus said your Lord YHWH, and your God, He pleads [for] His people: “Behold, I have taken the cup of trembling out of your hand, The goblet, the cup of My fury, You do not add to drink it anymore.

thus saith the Lord God that judges his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of calamity, the cup of my wrath; and thou shalt not drink it any more.

23 And I have put it into the hand of those afflicting you, Who have said to your soul, Bow down, and we pass over, And you make your body as the earth, And as the street to those passing by!”

And I will give it into the hands of them that injured thee, and them that afflicted thee; who said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may pass over: and thou didst level thy body with the ground to them passing by without.