God’s Ancient Plan to Redeem Israel

12 “Listen to Me, O Jacob,

And Israel, My called:

I am He, nI am the oFirst,

I am also the Last.

13 Indeed pMy hand has laid the foundation of the earth,

And My right hand has stretched out the heavens;

When qI call to them,

They stand up together.

14 “All of you, assemble yourselves, and hear!

Who among them has declared these things?

rThe Lord loves him;

sHe shall do His pleasure on Babylon,

And His arm shall be against the Chaldeans.

15 I, even I, have spoken;

Yes, tI have called him,

I have brought him, and his way will prosper.

16 “Come near to Me, hear this:

uI have not spoken in secret from the beginning;

From the time that it was, I was there.

And now vthe Lord God and His Spirit

3Have sent Me.”

17 Thus says wthe Lord, your Redeemer,

The Holy One of Israel:

“I am the Lord your God,

Who teaches you to profit,

xWho leads you by the way you should go.

18 yOh, that you had heeded My commandments!

zThen your peace would have been like a river,

And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

19 aYour descendants also would have been like the sand,

And the offspring of your body like the grains of sand;

His name would not have been cut off

Nor destroyed from before Me.”

20 bGo forth from Babylon!

Flee from the Chaldeans!

With a voice of singing,

Declare, proclaim this,

Utter it to the end of the earth;

Say, “The Lord has credeemed

His servant Jacob!”

21 And they ddid not thirst

When He led them through the deserts;

He ecaused the waters to flow from the rock for them;

He also split the rock, and the waters gushed out.

22 “There fis no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”

The Servant, the Light to the Gentiles

49 “Listen, aO coastlands, to Me,

And take heed, you peoples from afar!

bThe Lord has called Me from the womb;

From the 1matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name.

2 And He has made cMy mouth like a sharp sword;

dIn the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me,

And made Me ea polished shaft;

In His quiver He has hidden Me.”

3 “And He said to me,

f‘You are My servant, O Israel,

gIn whom I will be glorified.’

4 hThen I said, ‘I have labored in vain,

I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain;

Yet surely my 2just reward is with the Lord,

And my 3work with my God.’ ”

5 “And now the Lord says,

Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,

To bring Jacob back to Him,

So that Israel iis 4gathered to Him

(For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord,

And My God shall be My strength),

6 Indeed He says,

‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant

To raise up the tribes of Jacob,

And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;

I will also give You as a jlight to the Gentiles,

That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”

7 Thus says the Lord,

The Redeemer of Israel, 5their Holy One,

kTo Him 6whom man despises,

To Him whom the nation abhors,

To the Servant of rulers:

l“Kings shall see and arise,

Princes also shall worship,

Because of the Lord who is faithful,

The Holy One of Israel;

And He has chosen You.”

8 Thus says the Lord:

“In an macceptable 7time I have heard You,

And in the day of salvation I have helped You;

I will 8preserve You nand give You

As a covenant to the people,

To restore the earth,

To cause them to inherit the desolate 9heritages;

9 That You may say oto the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’

To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’

“They shall feed along the roads,

And their pastures shall be on all desolate heights.

10 They shall neither phunger nor thirst,

qNeither heat nor sun shall strike them;

For He who has mercy on them rwill lead them,

Even by the springs of water He will guide them.

11 sI will make each of My mountains a road,

And My highways shall be elevated.

12 Surely tthese shall come from afar;

Look! Those from the north and the west,

And these from the land of Sinim.”

13 uSing, O heavens!

Be joyful, O earth!

And break out in singing, O mountains!

For the Lord has comforted His people,

And will have mercy on His afflicted.

God Will Remember Zion

14 vBut Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,

And my Lord has forgotten me.”

15 “Can wa woman forget her nursing child,

1And not have compassion on the son of her womb?

Surely they may forget,

xYet I will not forget you.

16 See, yI have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;

Your walls are continually before Me.

17 Your 2sons shall make haste;

Your destroyers and those who laid you waste

Shall go away from you.

18 zLift up your eyes, look around and see;

All these gather together and come to you.

As I live,” says the Lord,

“You shall surely clothe yourselves with them all aas an ornament,

And bind them on you as a bride does.

19 “For your waste and desolate places,

And the land of your destruction,

bWill even now be too small for the inhabitants;

And those who swallowed you up will be far away.

20 cThe children you will have,

dAfter you have lost the others,

Will say again in your ears,

‘The place is too small for me;

Give me a place where I may dwell.’

21 Then you will say in your heart,

‘Who has begotten these for me,

Since I have lost my children and am desolate,

A captive, and wandering to and fro?

And who has brought these up?

There I was, left alone;

But these, where were they?’ ”

22 eThus says the Lord God:

“Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations,

And set up My 3standard for the peoples;

They shall bring your sons in their 4arms,

And your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders;

23 fKings shall be your foster fathers,

And their queens your nursing mothers;

They shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth,

And glick up the dust of your feet.

Then you will know that I am the Lord,

hFor they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.”

24 iShall the prey be taken from the mighty,

Or the captives 5of the righteous be delivered?

25 But thus says the Lord:

“Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away,

And the prey of the terrible be delivered;

For I will contend with him who contends with you,

And I will save your children.

26 I will jfeed those who oppress you with their own flesh,

And they shall be drunk with their own kblood as with sweet wine.

All flesh lshall know

That I, the Lord, am your Savior,

And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

The Servant, Israel’s Hope

50 Thus says the Lord:

“Where is athe certificate of your mother’s divorce,

Whom I have put away?

Or which of My bcreditors is it to whom I have sold you?

For your iniquities cyou have sold yourselves,

And for your transgressions your mother has been put away.

2 Why, when I came, was there no man?

Why, when I called, was there none to answer?

Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem?

Or have I no power to deliver?

Indeed with My drebuke I dry up the sea,

I make the rivers a wilderness;

Their fish stink because there is no water,

And die of thirst.

3 eI clothe the heavens with blackness,

fAnd I make sackcloth their covering.”

4 “The gLord God has given Me

The tongue of the learned,

That I should know how to speak

A word in season to him who is hweary.

He awakens Me morning by morning,

He awakens My ear

To hear as the learned.

5 The Lord God ihas opened My ear;

And I was not jrebellious,

Nor did I turn away.

6 kI gave My back to those who struck Me,

And lMy cheeks to those who plucked out the beard;

I did not hide My face from shame and mspitting.

7 “For the Lord God will help Me;

Therefore I will not be disgraced;

Therefore nI have set My face like a flint,

And I know that I will not be ashamed.

8 oHe is near who justifies Me;

Who will contend with Me?

Let us stand together.

Who is 1My adversary?

Let him come near Me.

9 Surely the Lord God will help Me;

Who is he who will condemn Me?

pIndeed they will all grow old like a garment;

qThe moth will eat them up.

10 “Who among you fears the Lord?

Who obeys the voice of His Servant?

Who rwalks in darkness

And has no light?

sLet him trust in the name of the Lord

And rely upon his God.

11 Look, all you who kindle a fire,

Who encircle yourselves with sparks:

Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled—

tThis you shall have from My hand:

You shall lie down uin torment.

The Lord Comforts Zion

51 “Listen to Me, ayou who 1follow after righteousness,

You who seek the Lord:

Look to the rock from which you were hewn,

And to the hole of the pit from which you were dug.

2 bLook to Abraham your father,

And to Sarah who bore you;

cFor I called him alone,

And dblessed him and increased him.”

3 For the Lord will ecomfort Zion,

He will comfort all her waste places;

He will make her wilderness like Eden,

And her desert flike the garden of the Lord;

Joy and gladness will be found in it,

Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.

4 “Listen to Me, My people;

And give ear to Me, O My nation:

gFor law will proceed from Me,

And I will make My justice rest

hAs a light of the peoples.

5 iMy righteousness is near,

My salvation has gone forth,

jAnd My arms will judge the peoples;

kThe coastlands will wait upon Me,

And lon My arm they will trust.

6 mLift up your eyes to the heavens,

And look on the earth beneath.

For nthe heavens will vanish away like smoke,

oThe earth will grow old like a garment,

And those who dwell in it will die in like manner;

But My salvation will be pforever,

And My righteousness will not be 2abolished.

7 “Listen to Me, you who know righteousness,

You people qin whose heart is My law:

rDo not fear the reproach of men,

Nor be afraid of their insults.

8 For sthe 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 from generation to generation.”

9 tAwake, awake, uput on strength,

O arm of the Lord!

Awake vas in the ancient days,

In the generations of old.

wAre You not the arm that cut xRahab apart,

And wounded the yserpent?

10 Are You not the One who zdried up the sea,

The waters of the great deep;

That made the depths of the sea a road

For the redeemed to cross over?

11 So athe ransomed of the Lord shall return,

And come to Zion with singing,

With everlasting joy on their heads.

They shall obtain joy and gladness;

Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

12 “I, even I, am He bwho comforts you.

Who are you that you should be afraid

cOf a man who will die,

And of the son of a man who will be made dlike grass?

13 And eyou forget the Lord your Maker,

fWho stretched out the heavens

And laid the foundations of the earth;

You have feared continually every day

Because of the fury of the oppressor,

When he has prepared to destroy.

gAnd where is the fury of the oppressor?

14 The captive exile hastens, that he may be loosed,

hThat he should not die in the pit,

And that his bread should not fail.

15 But I am the Lord your God,

Who idivided the sea whose waves roared—

The Lord of hosts is His name.

16 And jI have put My words in your mouth;

kI have covered you with the shadow of My hand,

lThat I may 3plant the heavens,

Lay the foundations of the earth,

And say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’ ”