Isaiah 48:10-51:14

English Standard Version

¹⁴ “Assemble, all of you, and listen!
    ^(I)Who among them has declared these things?
The Lord loves him;
    ^(J)he shall perform his purpose on Babylon,
    and his arm shall be against ^(K)the Chaldeans.
^15 (L)I, even I, have spoken and called him;
    I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.
^16 (M)Draw near to me, hear this:
    from the beginning I have not spoken in secret,
    from the time it came to be I have been there.”
And now ^(N)the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit.

¹⁷ Thus says the Lord,
    your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God,
    who teaches you to profit,
    who leads you in the way you should go.
^18 (O)Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments!
    ^(P)Then your peace would have been like a river,
    and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;
^19 (Q)your offspring would have been like the sand,
    and your descendants like its grains;
their name would never be cut off
    or destroyed from before me.”

^20 (R)Go out from Babylon, flee from ^(S)Chaldea,
    declare this ^(T)with a shout of joy, proclaim it,
send it out to the end of the earth;
    say, ^(U)“The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
^21 (V)They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
    ^(W)he made water flow for them from the rock;
    he split the rock and the water gushed out.

^22 (X)“There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”

^5 (AF)And now the Lord says,
    he ^(AG)who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him;
    and that Israel might be gathered to him—
for ^(AH)I am honored in the eyes of the Lord,
    and my God has become my strength—
⁶ he says:
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
    to raise up the tribes of Jacob
    and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
^(AI)I will make you ^(AJ)as a light for the nations,
    that ^(AK)my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

⁷ Thus says the Lord,
    ^(AL)the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
^(AM)to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation,
    the servant of rulers:
^(AN)“Kings shall see and arise;
    princes, and they shall prostrate themselves;
because of the Lord, who is faithful,
    the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

^13 (AZ)Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;
    break forth, O mountains, into singing!
For the Lord ^(BA)has comforted his people
    and will have compassion on his afflicted.

¹⁴ But Zion said, ^(BB)“The Lord has forsaken me;
    my Lord has forgotten me.”

^15 (BC)“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
    that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
    yet I will not forget you.
¹⁶ Behold, ^(BD)I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
    your walls are continually before me.
¹⁷ Your builders make haste;^{[f]
    (BE)}your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you.
^18 (BF)Lift up your eyes around and see;
    they all gather, they come to you.
^(BG)As I live, declares the Lord,
    ^(BH)you shall put them all on as an ornament;
    you shall bind them on as a bride does.

¹⁹ “Surely your waste and your desolate places
    and your devastated land—
^(BI)surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants,
    and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
^20 (BJ)The children of your bereavement
    will yet say in your ears:
^(BK)‘The place is too narrow for me;
    make room for me to dwell in.’
²¹ Then you will say in your heart:
    ‘Who has borne me these?
^(BL)I was bereaved and barren,
    exiled and put away,
    but who has brought up these?
Behold, I was left alone;
    from where have these come?’”

²² Thus says the Lord God:
“Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations,
    ^(BM)and raise my signal to the peoples;
^(BN)and they shall bring your sons in their arms,^[g]
    and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
^23 (BO)Kings shall be your foster fathers,
    and their queens your nursing mothers.
^(BP)With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you,
    and ^(BQ)lick the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord;
    ^(BR)those who wait for me ^(BS)shall not be put to shame.”

²⁴ Can the prey be taken from the mighty,
    or the captives of a tyrant^[h] be rescued?
²⁵ For thus says the Lord:
^(BT)“Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken,
    and the prey of the tyrant be rescued,
for I will contend with those who contend with you,
    and I will save your children.
^26 (BU)I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,
    and they shall be drunk ^(BV)with their own blood as with wine.
Then all flesh shall know
    that ^(BW)I am the Lord your Savior,
    and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

⁴ The Lord God has given ^(CI)me
    the tongue of those who are taught,
that ^(CJ)I may know how to sustain with a word
    ^(CK)him who is weary.
Morning by morning he awakens;
    he awakens my ear
    to hear as those who are taught.
^5 (CL)The Lord God has opened my ear,
    ^(CM)and I was not rebellious;
    I turned not backward.
^6 (CN)I gave my back to those who strike,
    and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
    from disgrace and spitting.

⁷ But the Lord God helps me;
    therefore I have not been disgraced;
^(CO)therefore I have set my face like a flint,
    and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
^{8     (CP)}He who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
    Let us stand up together.
Who is my adversary?
    Let him come near to me.
^9 (CQ)Behold, the Lord God helps me;
    who will declare me guilty?
Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment;
    the moth will eat them up.

¹⁰ Who among you fears the Lord
    and obeys ^(CR)the voice of his servant?
^(CS)Let him who walks in darkness
    and has no light
trust in the name of the Lord
    and rely on his God.
¹¹ Behold, all you who kindle a fire,
    who equip yourselves with burning torches!
Walk by the light of your fire,
    and by the torches that you have kindled!
^(CT)This you have from my hand:
    you shall lie down in torment.

^4 (DA)“Give attention to me, my people,
    and give ear to me, my nation;
^(DB)for a law^[i] will go out from me,
    and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.
^5 (DC)My righteousness draws near,
    my salvation has gone out,
    and my arms will judge the peoples;
^(DD)the coastlands hope for me,
    and for my arm they wait.
^6 (DE)Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
    and look at the earth beneath;
^(DF)for the heavens vanish like smoke,
    the earth will wear out like a garment,
    and they who dwell in it will die in like manner;^[j]
(DG)but my salvation will be forever,
    and my righteousness will never be dismayed.

^7 (DH)“Listen to me, you who know righteousness,
    the people ^(DI)in whose heart is my law;
^(DJ)fear not the reproach of man,
    nor be dismayed at their revilings.
^8 (DK)For the moth will eat them up like a garment,
    and the worm will eat them like wool,
^(DL)but my righteousness will be forever,
    and my salvation to all generations.”

^9 (DM)Awake, awake, ^(DN)put on strength,
    O ^(DO)arm of the Lord;
awake, ^(DP)as in days of old,
    the generations of long ago.
Was it not you who cut ^(DQ)Rahab in pieces,
    who pierced ^(DR)the dragon?
^10 (DS)Was it not 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 (DT)And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
    and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
    they shall obtain gladness and joy,
    and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

¹² “I, I am he ^(DU)who comforts you;
    who are you that you are afraid of ^(DV)man who dies,
    of the son of man who is made ^(DW)like grass,
¹³ and have forgotten the Lord, your Maker,
    ^(DX)who stretched out the heavens
    and ^(DY)laid the foundations of the earth,
and you fear continually all the day
    because of the wrath of ^(DZ)the oppressor,
when he sets himself to destroy?
    And where is the wrath of ^(EA)the oppressor?
^14 (EB)He who is bowed down shall speedily be released;
    he shall not die and go down ^(EC)to the pit,
    neither shall his bread be lacking.