< Isaiah 51 >

1 Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek Yahweh: look at the rock from which you were chiseled and to the quarry from which you were cut.
Listen to me, you that follow after righteousness, and seek the Lord: look to the solid rock, which you have hewn, and to the hole of the pit which you have dug.
2 Look at Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who bore you; for when he was a lone individual, I called him. I blessed him and made him many.
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 Yes, Yahweh will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places; her wilderness he made like Eden, and her desert plains beside the Jordan River valley like the garden of Yahweh; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving, and the sound of singing.
And now I will comfort you, 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 “Be attentive to me, my people; and listen to me, my people! For I will issue a decree, and I will make my justice to be a light for the nations.
Hear me, hear me, my people; and you kings, listen 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 will go out, and my arm will judge the nations; the coastlands will wait for me; for my arm they will eagerly wait.
My righteousness speedily draws near, 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 sky, and look at the earth beneath, for the heavens will vanish away like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants will die like flies. But my salvation will continue forever, and my righteousness will never stop working.
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 what is right, you people who have my law in your heart: Do not fear the insults of men, nor be disheartened by their abuse.
Hear me, you 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 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 salvation to all generations.”
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, clothe yourself with strength, arm of Yahweh. Awake as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Is it not you who crushed Rahab, you who pierced the monster?
Awake, awake, O Jerusalem, and put on the strength of your arm; awake as in the early time, as the ancient generation.
10 Did you not dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep, and make the depths of the sea into a way for the redeemed to pass through?
Are you 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 The ransomed of Yahweh will return and come to Zion with cries of joy and with gladness forever on their heads; and gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and mourning will flee 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, I, am he who comforts you. Why are you afraid of men, who will die, the sons of mankind, who are made like grass?
I, [even] I, am he that comforts you: consider who you are, that you were afraid of mortal man, and of the son of man, who are withered as grass.
13 Why have you forgotten Yahweh your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth? You are in constant dread every day because of the hot fury of the oppressor when he decides to destroy. Where is the fury of the oppressor?
And you have forgotten God who made you, who made the sky and founded the earth; and you were continually afraid because of the wrath of him that afflicted you: for [whereas] he counselled to take you away, yet now where is the wrath of him that afflicted you?
14 The one who is bent down, Yahweh will hurry to release; he will not die and go down to the pit, nor will he lack bread.
For in your deliverance he shall not halt, nor wait;
15 For I am Yahweh your God, who churns up the sea so that its waves roar—Yahweh of hosts is his name.
for I am your God, that troubles the sea, and causes the waves thereof to roar: the Lord of hosts is my name.
16 I have placed my words in your mouth, and I have covered you in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, 'You are my people.'”
I will put my words into your mouth, and I will shelter you under the shadow of mine hand, with which I fixed the sky, and founded the earth: and [the Lord] shall say to Sion, You are my people.
17 Awake, awake, stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk out of the hand of Yahweh from the bowl of his anger; you who have drunk out of the bowl, down to the dregs from the cup of staggering.
Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, that have drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury: for you have drunk out and drained the cup of calamity, the cup of wrath:
18 There is no one among all the sons she has born to guide her; there is no one among all the sons that she has raised to take her by the hand.
and there was none to comfort you of all the children whom you bore; and there was none to take hold of your hand, not even of all the children whom you has reared.
19 These two troubles happened to you—who will grieve with you?— desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword. Who will comfort you?
Therefore these things are against you; who shall sympathize with you in your grief? downfall, and destruction, famine, and sword: who shall comfort you?
20 Your sons have fainted; they lie at every street corner, like an antelope in a net; they are filled with the anger of Yahweh, the rebuke of your God.
Your 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 But now hear this, you oppressed one and drunken one, but not drunk with wine:
Therefore hear, you afflicted one, and drunken, [but] not with wine;
22 Your Lord Yahweh, your God, who pleads the cause of his people, says this, “See, I have taken the cup of staggering from your hand— the bowl, which is the cup of my anger—so that you will not drink it again.
thus says the Lord God that judges his people, Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of calamity, the cup of my wrath; and you shall not drink it any more.
23 I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, those who have said to you, 'Lie down, that we may walk over you'; you made your back like the ground and like the street for them to walk on.”
And I will give it into the hands of them that injured you, and them that afflicted you; who said to your soul, Bow down, that we may pass over: and you did level your body with the ground to them passing by without.

< Isaiah 51 >