Isaiah 51

1 “Sh'ma ·Hear obey· to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek Adonai: look to the rock you were cut from, and to the quarry you were dug from.

2 Look to Abraham [Father of a multitude] your father, and to Sarah [Princess] who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him, and made him many.

3 For Adonai has comforted Zion [Mountain ridge, Marking]. He has comforted all her waste places, and has made her wilderness like Eden [Delight], and her desert like the garden of Adonai. Joy and gladness will be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

4 “Listen to me, my people; and hear me, my nation: for the Torah ·Teaching· will go out from me, and I will establish my mishpat ·justice· for a light to the peoples.

5 My righteousness is near. My yesha' ·salvation· has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples. The islands will wait for me, and they will trust my arm.

6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment; and its inhabitants will die in the same way: but my yishu'ah ·salvation· will be forever, and my righteousness will not be abolished.

7 “Sh'ma ·Hear obey· to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my Torah ·Teaching·: Don’t fear the reproach of men, and don’t be dismayed at their insults.

8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but my righteousness will be forever, and my yishu'ah ·salvation· to all generations.”

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

10 Is not it you 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 Those ransomed by Adonai will teshuvah ·completely return·, and come with singing to Zion [Mountain ridge, Marking]; and everlasting joy shall be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

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

13 Have you forgotten Yahweh 'Oseinu [Yahweh our Maker], who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth? Do you live in fear continually all day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he prepares to destroy? Where is the fury of the oppressor?

14 The captive exile will speedily be freed; and he will not die and go down into the pit, and his bread will not fail.

15 For I am Adonai your God, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar: Adonai Tzva'ot [Yahweh Commander of heaven’s armies] is his name.

16 I have put my words in your mouth, and have covered you in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and tell Zion [Mountain ridge, Marking], ‘You are my people.’”

17 Awake, awake! Stand up, Jerusalem [City of peace], you who have drunk from Adonai’s hand the cup of his wrath. You have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.

18 There is no one to guide her among all the sons to whom she has given birth; and there is no one who takes her by the hand among all the sons who she has brought up.

19 These two things have happened to you— who will grieve with you?— desolation and destruction, and famine and the sword. How can I comfort you?

20 Your sons have fainted. They lie at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in a net. They are full of the Adonai’s wrath, the rebuke of your God.

21 Therefore now sh'ma ·hear obey· this, you afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:

22 Thus says your Lord Adonai, your God who pleads the cause of his people, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath. You will not drink it any more:

23 and I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’ and you have laid your back as the ground, like a street to those who walk over.”