Isaiah 49-50

New King James Version

³ “And He said to me,
^(F)‘You are My servant, O Israel,
^(G)In whom I will be glorified.’
^4 (H)Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain;
Yet surely my ^[b]just reward is with the Lord,
And my ^[c]work 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 ^(I)is ^[d]gathered 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 ^(J)light to the Gentiles,
That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”

⁷ Thus says the Lord,
The Redeemer of Israel, ^[e]their Holy One,
^(K)To Him ^[f]whom 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.”

“In an ^(M)acceptable^[g] time I have heard You,
And in the day of salvation I have helped You;
I will ^[h]preserve You ^(N)and give You
As a covenant to the people,
To restore the earth,
To cause them to inherit the desolate ^[i]heritages;
⁹ That You may say ^(O)to 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 ^(P)hunger nor thirst,
^(Q)Neither heat nor sun shall strike them;
For He who has mercy on them ^(R)will lead them,
Even by the springs of water He will guide them.
^11 (S)I will make each of My mountains a road,
And My highways shall be elevated.
¹² Surely ^(T)these shall come from afar;
Look! Those from the north and the west,
And these from the land of Sinim.”

^13 (U)Sing, 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.

¹⁵ “Can^(W) a woman forget her nursing child,
^[j]And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
^(X)Yet I will not forget you.
¹⁶ See, ^(Y)I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
Your walls are continually before Me.
¹⁷ Your ^[k]sons shall make haste;
Your destroyers and those who laid you waste
Shall go away from you.
^18 (Z)Lift 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 ^(AA)as an ornament,
And bind them on you as a bride does.

¹⁹ “For your waste and desolate places,
And the land of your destruction,
^(AB)Will even now be too small for the inhabitants;
And those who swallowed you up will be far away.
^20 (AC)The children you will have,
^(AD)After 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?’ ”

“Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations,
And set up My ^[l]standard for the peoples;
They shall bring your sons in their ^[m]arms,
And your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders;
^23 (AF)Kings shall be your foster fathers,
And their queens your nursing mothers;
They shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth,
And ^(AG)lick up the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord,
^(AH)For they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.”

^24 (AI)Shall the prey be taken from the mighty,
Or the captives ^[n]of the righteous be delivered?

“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 ^(AJ)feed those who oppress you with their own flesh,
And they shall be drunk with their own ^(AK)blood as with sweet wine.
All flesh ^(AL)shall know
That I, the Lord, am your Savior,
And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

“Where is ^(AM)the certificate of your mother’s divorce,
Whom I have put away?
Or which of My ^(AN)creditors is it to whom I have sold you?
For your iniquities ^(AO)you 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 ^(AP)rebuke I dry up the sea,
I make the rivers a wilderness;
Their fish stink because there is no water,
And die of thirst.
^3 (AQ)I clothe the heavens with blackness,
^(AR)And I make sackcloth their covering.”

⁴ “The^(AS) Lord God has given Me
The tongue of the learned,
That I should know how to speak
A word in season to him who is ^(AT)weary.
He awakens Me morning by morning,
He awakens My ear
To hear as the learned.
⁵ The Lord God ^(AU)has opened My ear;
And I was not ^(AV)rebellious,
Nor did I turn away.
^6 (AW)I gave My back to those who struck Me,
And ^(AX)My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard;
I did not hide My face from shame and ^(AY)spitting.

⁷ “For the Lord God will help Me;
Therefore I will not be disgraced;
Therefore ^(AZ)I have set My face like a flint,
And I know that I will not be ashamed.
^8 (BA)He is near who justifies Me;
Who will contend with Me?
Let us stand together.
Who is ^[o]My adversary?
Let him come near Me.
⁹ Surely the Lord God will help Me;
Who is he who will condemn Me?
^(BB)Indeed they will all grow old like a garment;
^(BC)The moth will eat them up.

¹⁰ “Who among you fears the Lord?
Who obeys the voice of His Servant?
Who ^(BD)walks in darkness
And has no light?
^(BE)Let 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—
^(BF)This you shall have from My hand:
You shall lie down ^(BG)in torment.