Bible in 90 Days

¹⁹ I will plant trees—cedars, myrtle, olive trees, cypress, fir, and pine—on barren land. ²⁰ Everyone will see this miracle and understand that it is God who did it, Israel’s Holy One.

²¹ Can your idols make such claims as these? Let them come and show what they can do, says God, the King of Israel. ²² Let them try to tell us what occurred in years gone by or what the future holds. ²³ Yes, that’s it! If you are gods, tell what will happen in the days ahead! Or do some mighty miracle that makes us stare, amazed. ²⁴ But no! You are less than nothing and can do nothing at all. Anyone who chooses you needs to have his head examined!

²⁵ But I have stirred up Cyrus from the north and east; he will come against the nations and call on my name, and I will give him victory over kings and princes. He will tread them as a potter tramples clay.

²⁶ Who but I have told you this would happen? Who else predicted this, making you admit that he was right? No one else! None other said one word! ²⁷ I was the first to tell Jerusalem, “Look! Look! Help is on the way!” ²⁸ Not one of your idols told you this. Not one gave any answer when I asked. ²⁹ See, they are all foolish, worthless things; your idols are all as empty as the wind.

42 See my servant,^[a] whom I uphold; my Chosen One in whom I delight. I have put my Spirit upon him; he will reveal justice to the nations of the world. ² He will be gentle—he will not shout nor quarrel in the streets. ³ He will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the dimly burning flame. He will encourage the fainthearted, those tempted to despair. He will see full justice given to all who have been wronged. ⁴ He won’t be satisfied^[b] until truth and righteousness prevail throughout the earth, nor until even distant lands beyond the seas have put their trust in him.

⁵ The Lord God who created the heavens and stretched them out, who created the earth and everything in it, who gives life and breath and spirit to everyone in all the world, he is the one who says to his Servant, the Messiah^[c]: ⁶ “I the Lord have called you to demonstrate my righteousness. I will guard and support you, for I have given you to my people as the personal confirmation of my covenant with them.^[d] You shall also be a light to guide the nations unto me. ⁷ You will open the eyes of the blind and release those who sit in prison darkness and despair. ⁸ I am the Lord! That is my name, and I will not give my glory to anyone else; I will not share my praise with carved idols. ⁹ Everything I prophesied came true, and now I will prophesy again. I will tell you the future before it happens.”

¹⁰ Sing a new song to the Lord; sing his praises, all you who live in earth’s remotest corners! Sing, O sea! Sing, all you who live in distant lands beyond the sea! ¹¹ Join in the chorus, you desert cities—Kedar and Sela! And you, too, dwellers in the mountaintops. ¹² Let the western coastlands glorify the Lord and sing his mighty power.

¹³ The Lord will be a mighty warrior, full of fury toward his foes. He will give a great shout and prevail. ¹⁴ Long has he been silent; he has restrained himself. But now he will give full vent to his wrath; he will groan and cry like a woman delivering her child. ¹⁵ He will level the mountains and hills and blight their greenery. He will dry up the rivers and pools. ¹⁶ He will bring blind Israel along a path they have not seen before. He will make the darkness bright before them and smooth and straighten out the road ahead. He will not forsake them. ¹⁷ But those who trust in idols and call them gods will be greatly disappointed; they will be turned away.

¹⁸ Oh, how blind and deaf you are toward God! Why won’t you listen? Why won’t you see? ¹⁹ Who in all the world is as blind as my own people,^[e] who are designed to be my messengers of truth? Who is so blind as my “dedicated one,” the “servant of the Lord”? ²⁰ You see and understand what is right but won’t heed nor do it; you hear, but you won’t listen.

²¹ The Lord has magnified his law and made it truly glorious. Through it he had planned to show the world that he is righteous. ²² But what a sight his people are—these who were to demonstrate to all the world the glory of his law;^[f] for they are robbed, enslaved, imprisoned, trapped, fair game for all, with no one to protect them. ²³ Won’t even one of you apply these lessons from the past and see the ruin that awaits you up ahead? ²⁴ Who let Israel be robbed and hurt? Did not the Lord? It is the Lord they sinned against, for they would not go where he sent them nor listen to his laws. ²⁵ That is why God poured out such fury and wrath on his people and destroyed them in battle. Yet, though set on fire and burned, they will not understand the reason why—that it is God, wanting them to repent.^[g]

43 But now the Lord who created you, O Israel, says: Don’t be afraid, for I have ransomed you; I have called you by name; you are mine. ² When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up—the flames will not consume you. ³ For I am the Lord your God, your Savior, the Holy One of Israel. I gave Egypt and Ethiopia and Seba to Cyrus^[h] in exchange for your freedom, as your ransom. ⁴ Others died that you might live; I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to me and honored, and I love you.

⁵ Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. I will gather you from east and west, ⁶ from north and south. I will bring my sons and daughters back to Israel from the farthest corners of the earth. ⁷ All who claim me as their God will come, for I have made them for my glory; I created them. ⁸ Bring them back to me—blind as they are and deaf when I call (although they see and hear!).

⁹ Gather the nations together! Which of all their idols ever has foretold such things? Which can predict a single day ahead? Where are the witnesses of anything they said? If there are no witnesses, then they must confess that only God can prophesy.

¹⁰ But I have witnesses, O Israel, says the Lord! You are my witnesses and my servants, chosen to know and to believe me and to understand that I alone am God. There is no other God; there never was and never will be. ¹¹ I am the Lord, and there is no other Savior. ¹² Whenever you have thrown away your idols, I have shown you my power. With one word I have saved you. You have seen me do it; you are my witnesses that it is true. ¹³ From eternity to eternity I am God. No one can oppose what I do.

¹⁴ The Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, says: For your sakes I will send an invading army against Babylon that will walk in, almost unscathed. The boasts of the Babylonians will turn to cries of fear. ¹⁵ I am the Lord, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator and King. ¹⁶ I am the Lord, who opened a way through the waters, making a path right through the sea. ¹⁷ I called forth the mighty army of Egypt with all its chariots and horses, to lie beneath the waves, dead, their lives snuffed out like candlewicks.

¹⁸ But forget all that—it is nothing compared to what I’m going to do! ¹⁹ For I’m going to do a brand-new thing. See, I have already begun! Don’t you see it? I will make a road through the wilderness of the world for my people to go home, and create rivers for them in the desert! ²⁰ The wild animals in the fields will thank me, the jackals and ostriches too, for giving them water in the wilderness, yes, springs in the desert, so that my people, my chosen ones, can be refreshed. ²¹ I have made Israel for myself, and these my people will some day honor me before the world.

²² But O my people, you won’t ask my help; you have grown tired of me! ²³ You have not brought me the lambs for burnt offerings; you have not honored me with sacrifices. Yet my requests for offerings and incense have been very few! I have not treated you as slaves. ²⁴ You have brought me no sweet-smelling incense nor pleased me with the sacrificial fat. No, you have presented me only with sins and wearied me with all your faults.

²⁵ I, yes, I alone am he who blots away your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again. ²⁶ Oh, remind me of this promise of forgiveness, for we must talk about your sins. Plead your case for my forgiving you. ²⁷ From the very first your ancestors sinned against me—all your forebears transgressed my law. ²⁸ That is why I have deposed your priests and destroyed Israel, leaving her to shame.

44 Listen to me, O my servant Israel, O my chosen ones:

² The Lord who made you, who will help you, says: O servant of mine, don’t be afraid. O Jerusalem, my chosen ones, don’t be afraid. ³ For I will give you abundant water for your thirst and for your parched fields. And I will pour out my Spirit and my blessings on your children. ⁴ They shall thrive like watered grass, like willows on a riverbank. ⁵ “I am the Lord’s,” they’ll proudly^[i] say, or, “I am a Jew,” and tattoo upon their hands the name of God or the honored name of Israel.

⁶ The Lord, the King of Israel, says—yes, it is Israel’s Redeemer, the Lord Almighty, who says it—I am the First and Last; there is no other God. ⁷ Who else can tell you what is going to happen in the days ahead? Let them tell you if they can and prove their power. Let them do as I have done since ancient times. ⁸ Don’t, don’t be afraid. Haven’t I proclaimed from ages past that I would save you^[j]? You are my witnesses—is there any other God? No! None that I know about! There is no other Rock!

⁹ What fools they are who manufacture idols for their gods. Their hopes remain unanswered. They themselves are witnesses that this is so, for their idols neither see nor know. No wonder those who worship them are so ashamed. ¹⁰ Who but a fool would make his own god—an idol that can help him not one whit! ¹¹ All that worship these will stand before the Lord in shame, along with all these carpenters—mere men—who claim that they have made a god. Together they will stand in terror. ¹² The metalsmith stands at his forge to make an ax, pounding on it with all his might. He grows hungry and thirsty, weak and faint. ¹³ Then the wood-carver takes the ax and uses it to make an idol. He measures and marks out a block of wood and carves the figure of a man. Now he has a wonderful idol that can’t so much as move from where it is placed. ¹⁴ He cuts down cedars, he selects the cypress and the oak, he plants the ash in the forest to be nourished by the rain. ¹⁵ And after his care, he uses part of the wood to make a fire to warm himself and bake his bread, and then—he really does—he takes the rest of it and makes himself a god—a god for men to worship! An idol to fall down before and praise! ¹⁶ Part of the tree he burns to roast his meat and to keep him warm and fed and well content, ¹⁷ and with what’s left he makes his god: a carved idol! He falls down before it and worships it and prays to it. “Deliver me,” he says. “You are my god!”

¹⁸ Such stupidity and ignorance! God has shut their eyes so that they cannot see and closed their minds from understanding. ¹⁹ The man never stops to think or figure out, “Why, it’s just a block of wood! I’ve burned it for heat and used it to bake my bread and roast my meat. How can the rest of it be a god? Should I fall down before a chunk of wood?” ²⁰ The poor, deluded fool feeds on ashes; he is trusting what can never give him any help at all. Yet he cannot bring himself to ask, “Is this thing, this idol that I’m holding in my hand, a lie?”

²¹ Pay attention, Israel, for you are my servant; I made you, and I will not forget to help you. ²² I’ve blotted out your sins; they are gone like morning mist at noon! Oh, return to me, for I have paid the price to set you free.

²³ Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done this wondrous thing. Shout, O earth; break forth into song, O mountains and forests, yes, and every tree; for the Lord redeemed Jacob and is glorified in Israel! ²⁴ The Lord, your Redeemer who made you, says: All things were made by me; I alone stretched out the heavens. By myself I made the earth and everything in it.

²⁵ I am the one who shows what liars all false prophets are, by causing something else to happen than the things they say. I make wise men give opposite advice to what they should and make them into fools. ²⁶ But what my prophets say, I do; when they say Jerusalem will be delivered and the cities of Judah lived in once again—it shall be done! ²⁷ When I speak to the rivers and say, “Be dry!” they shall be dry. ²⁸ When I say of Cyrus,^[k] “He is my shepherd,” he will certainly do as I say; and Jerusalem will be rebuilt and the Temple restored, for I have spoken it.

45 This is Jehovah’s message to Cyrus, God’s anointed, whom he has chosen to conquer many lands. God shall empower his right hand, and he shall crush the strength of mighty kings. God shall open the gates of Babylon to him; the gates shall not be shut against him anymore. ² I will go before you, Cyrus, and level the mountains and smash down the city gates of brass and iron bars. ³ And I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness, secret riches; and you will know that I am doing this—I, the Lord, the God of Israel, the one who calls you by your name.

⁴ And why have I named you for this work? For the sake of Jacob, my servant—Israel, my chosen. I called you by name when you didn’t know me. ⁵ I am Jehovah; there is no other God. I will strengthen you and send you out to victory even though you don’t know me, ⁶ and all the world from east to west will know there is no other God. I am Jehovah and there is no one else. I alone am God. ⁷ I form the light and make the dark. I send good times and bad. I, Jehovah, am he who does these things. ⁸ Open up, O heavens. Let the skies pour out their righteousness. Let salvation and righteousness sprout up together from the earth. I, Jehovah, created them.

⁹ Woe to the man who fights with his Creator. Does the pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with him who forms it, saying, “Stop, you’re doing it wrong!” or the pot exclaim, “How clumsy can you be!”? ¹⁰ Woe to the baby just being born who squalls to his father and mother, “Why have you produced me? Can’t you do anything right at all?”

¹¹ Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, Israel’s Creator, says: “What right have you to question what I do? Who are you to command me concerning the work of my hands? ¹² I have made the earth and created man upon it. With my hands I have stretched out the heavens and commanded all the vast myriads of stars. ¹³ I have raised up Cyrus^[l] to fulfill my righteous purpose, and I will direct all his paths. He shall restore my city and free my captive people—and not for a reward!”

¹⁴ Jehovah says: “The Egyptians, Ethiopians, and Sabeans shall be subject to you. They shall come to you with all their merchandise, and it shall all be yours. They shall follow you as prisoners in chains and fall down on their knees before you and say, “The only God there is, is your God!”

¹⁵ Truly, O God of Israel, Savior, you work in strange, mysterious ways. ¹⁶ All who worship idols shall be disappointed and ashamed. ¹⁷ But Israel shall be saved by Jehovah with eternal salvation; they shall never be disappointed in their God through all eternity. ¹⁸ For Jehovah created the heavens and earth and put everything in place, and he made the world to be lived in, not to be an empty chaos. I am Jehovah, he says, and there is no other! ¹⁹ I publicly proclaim bold promises; I do not whisper obscurities in some dark corner so that no one can know what I mean. And I didn’t tell Israel to ask me for what I didn’t plan to give! No, for I, Jehovah, speak only truth and righteousness.

²⁰ Gather together and come, you nations that escape from Cyrus’s hand. What fools they are who carry around the wooden idols and pray to gods that cannot save! ²¹ Consult together, argue your case and state your proofs that idol worship pays! Who but God has said that these things concerning Cyrus would come true? What idol ever told you they would happen? For there is no other God but me—a just God and a Savior—no, not one! ²² Let all the world look to me for salvation! For I am God; there is no other. ²³ I have sworn by myself, and I will never go back on my word, for it is true—that every knee in all the world shall bow to me, and every tongue shall swear allegiance to my name.

²⁴ “In Jehovah is all my righteousness and strength,” the people shall declare. And all who were angry with him shall come to him and be ashamed. ²⁵ In Jehovah all the generations of Israel shall be justified, triumphant.

46 ^1-2 The idols of Babylon, Bel and Nebo,^[m] are being hauled away on ox carts! But look! The beasts are stumbling! The cart is turning over! The gods are falling out onto the ground! Is that the best that they can do? If they cannot even save themselves from such a fall, how can they save their worshipers from Cyrus?

³ “Listen to me, all Israel who are left; I have created you and cared for you since you were born. ⁴ I will be your God through all your lifetime, yes, even when your hair is white with age. I made you and I will care for you. I will carry you along and be your Savior.

⁵ “With what in all of heaven and earth do I compare? Whom can you find who equals me? ⁶ Will you compare me with an idol made lavishly with silver and with gold? They hire a goldsmith to take your wealth and make a god from it! Then they fall down and worship it! ⁷ They carry it around on their shoulders, and when they set it down, it stays there, for it cannot move! And when someone prays to it, there is no answer, for it cannot get him out of his trouble.

⁸ “Don’t forget this, O guilty ones. ⁹ And don’t forget the many times I clearly told you what was going to happen in the future. For I am God—I only—and there is no other like me ¹⁰ who can tell you what is going to happen. All I say will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish. ¹¹ I will call that swift bird of prey from the east—that man Cyrus from far away. And he will come and do my bidding. I have said I would do it and I will. ¹² Listen to me, you stubborn, evil men! ¹³ For I am offering you my deliverance; not in the distant future, but right now! I am ready to save you, and I will restore Jerusalem and Israel, who is my glory.

47 “O Babylon, the unconquered, come sit in the dust; for your days of glory, pomp, and honor are ended. O daughter of Chaldea, never again will you be the lovely princess, tender and delicate. ² Take heavy millstones and grind the corn; remove your veil;^[n] strip off your robe; expose yourself to public view. ³ You shall be in nakedness and shame. I will take vengeance upon you and will not repent.”

⁴ So speaks our Redeemer, who will save Israel from Babylon’s mighty power; the Lord Almighty is his name, the Holy One of Israel.

⁵ Sit in darkness and silence, O Babylon; never again will you be called “The Queen of Kingdoms.” ⁶ For I was angry with my people Israel and began to punish them a little by letting them fall into your hands, O Babylon. But you showed them no mercy. You have made even the old folks carry heavy burdens. ⁷ You thought your reign would never end, Queen Kingdom of the world. You didn’t care a whit about my people or think about the fate of those who do them harm.

⁸ O pleasure-mad kingdom, living at ease, bragging as the greatest in the world—listen to the sentence of my court upon your sins. You say, “I alone am God! I’ll never be a widow; I’ll never lose my children.” ⁹ Well, those two things shall come upon you in one moment, in full measure in one day: widowhood and the loss of your children, despite all your witchcraft and magic.

¹⁰ You felt secure in all your wickedness. “No one sees me,” you said. Your “wisdom” and “knowledge” have caused you to turn away from me and claim that you yourself are Jehovah. ¹¹ That is why disaster shall overtake you suddenly—so suddenly that you won’t know where it comes from. And there will be no atonement then to cleanse away your sins.

¹² Call out the demon hordes you’ve worshiped all these years. Call on them to help you strike deep terror into many hearts again. ¹³ You have advisors by the ton—your astrologers and stargazers, who try to tell you what the future holds. ¹⁴ But they are as useless as dried grass burning in the fire. They cannot even deliver themselves! You’ll get no help from them at all. Theirs is no fire to sit beside to make you warm! ¹⁵ And all your friends of childhood days shall slip away and disappear, unable to help.

48 ^1-2 Hear me, my people: you swear allegiance to the Lord without meaning a word of it when you boast of living in the Holy City and brag about depending on the God of Israel. ³ Time and again I told you what was going to happen in the future. My words were scarcely spoken when suddenly I did just what I said. ⁴ I knew how hard and obstinate you are. Your necks are as unbending as iron; you are as hardheaded as brass. ⁵ That is why I told you ahead of time what I was going to do, so that you could never say, “My idol did it; my carved image commanded it to happen!” ⁶ You have heard my predictions and seen them fulfilled, but you refuse to agree it is so. Now I will tell you new things I haven’t mentioned before, secrets you haven’t heard.

⁷ Then you can’t say, “We knew that all the time!”

⁸ Yes, I’ll tell you things entirely new, for I know so well what traitors you are, rebels from earliest childhood, rotten through and through. ⁹ Yet for my own sake and for the honor of my name I will hold back my anger and not wipe you out. ¹⁰ I refined you in the furnace of affliction, but found no silver there. You are worthless, with nothing good in you at all. ¹¹ Yet for my own sake—yes, for my own sake—I will save you from my anger and not destroy you lest the heathen say their gods have conquered me. I will not let them have my glory.

¹² Listen to me, my people, my chosen ones! I alone am God. I am the First; I am the Last. ¹³ It was my hand that laid the foundations of the earth; the palm of my right hand spread out the heavens above; I spoke and they came into being.

¹⁴ Come, all of you, and listen. Among all your idols, which one has ever told you this: “The Lord loves Cyrus. He will use him to put an end to the empire of Babylonia. He will utterly rout the armies of the Chaldeans”? ¹⁵ But I am saying it. I have called Cyrus; I have sent him on this errand, and I will prosper him.

¹⁶ Come closer and listen. I have always told you plainly what would happen, so that you could clearly understand. And now the Lord God and his Spirit have sent me (with this message):

¹⁷ The Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, says: I am the Lord your God, who punishes you for your own good and leads you along the paths that you should follow.

¹⁸ Oh, that you had listened to my laws! Then you would have had peace flowing like a gentle river, and great waves of righteousness. ¹⁹ Then you would have become as numerous as the sands along the seashores of the world, too many to count, and there would have been no need for your destruction.

²⁰ Yet even now, be free from your captivity! Leave Babylon, singing as you go; shout to the ends of the earth that the Lord has redeemed his servants, the Jews. ²¹ They were not thirsty when he led them through the deserts; he divided the rock, and water gushed out for them to drink. ²² But there is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked.

49 Listen to me, all of you in far-off lands: The Lord called me before my birth. From within the womb he called me by my name. ² God will make my words of judgment sharp as swords. He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand; I am like a sharp arrow in his quiver.

³ He said to me: “You are my servant, a prince of power^[o] with God, and you shall bring me glory.”

⁴ I replied, “But my work for them seems all in vain; I have spent my strength for them without response. Yet I leave it all with God for my reward.”

⁵ “And now,” said the Lord—the Lord who formed me from my mother’s womb to serve him who commissioned me to restore to him his people Israel, who has given me the strength to perform this task and honored me for doing it!— ⁶ “you shall do more than restore Israel to me. I will make you a Light to the nations of the world to bring my salvation to them too.”

⁷ The Lord, the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel, says to the One who is despised, rejected by mankind, and kept beneath the heel of the world’s rulers: “Kings shall stand at attention when you pass by; princes shall bow low because the Lord has chosen you; he, the faithful Lord, the Holy One of Israel, chooses you.”

^8-9 The Lord says, “Your request has come at a favorable time. I will keep you from harm and give you as a token and pledge to Israel, proof that I will reestablish the land of Israel and reassign it to its own people again. Through you I am saying to the prisoners of darkness, ‘Come out! I am giving you your freedom!’ They will be my sheep, grazing in green pastures and on the grassy hills. ¹⁰ They shall neither hunger nor thirst; the searing sun and scorching desert winds will not reach them anymore. For the Lord in his mercy will lead them beside the cool waters. ¹¹ And I will make my mountains into level paths for them; the highways shall be raised above the valleys. ¹² See, my people shall return from far away, from north and west and south.”

¹³ Sing for joy, O heavens; shout, O earth. Break forth with song, O mountains, for the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion upon them in their sorrow.

¹⁴ Yet they say, “My Lord deserted us; he has forgotten us.”

¹⁵ “Never! Can a mother forget her little child and not have love for her own son? Yet even if that should be, I will not forget you. ¹⁶ See, I have tattooed your name upon my palm, and ever before me is a picture of Jerusalem’s walls in ruins. ¹⁷ Soon your rebuilders shall come and chase away all those destroying you. ¹⁸ Look and see, for the Lord has vowed that all your enemies shall come and be your slaves. They will be as jewels to display, as bridal ornaments.

¹⁹ “Even the most desolate parts of your abandoned land shall soon be crowded with your people, and your enemies who enslaved you shall be far away. ²⁰ The generations born in exile shall return and say, ‘We need more room! It’s crowded here!’ ²¹ Then you will think to yourself, ‘Who has given me all these? For most of my children were killed, and the rest were carried away into exile, leaving me here alone. Who bore these? Who raised them for me?’”

²² The Lord God says, “See, I will give a signal to the Gentiles, and they shall carry your little sons back to you in their arms, and your daughters on their shoulders. ²³ Kings and queens shall serve you; they shall care for all your needs. They shall bow to the earth before you and lick the dust from off your feet; then you shall know I am the Lord. Those who wait for me shall never be ashamed.”

²⁴ Who can snatch the prey from the hands of a mighty man? Who can demand that a tyrant let his captives go? ²⁵ But the Lord says, “Even the captives of the most mighty and most terrible shall all be freed; for I will fight those who fight you, and I will save your children. ²⁶ I will feed your enemies with their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with rivers of their own blood. All the world shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and Redeemer, the Mighty One of Israel.”

50 The Lord asks, Did I sell you to my creditors? Is that why you aren’t here? Is your mother gone because I divorced her and sent her away? No, you went away as captives because of your sins. And your mother, too, was taken in payment for your sins. ² Was I too weak to save you? Is that why the house is silent and empty when I come home? Have I no longer power to deliver? No, that is not the reason! For I can rebuke the sea and make it dry! I can turn the rivers into deserts, covered with dying fish. ³ I am the one who sends the darkness out across the skies.

⁴ The Lord God has given me his words of wisdom so that I may know what I should say to all these weary ones. Morning by morning he wakens me and opens my understanding to his will. ⁵ The Lord God has spoken to me, and I have listened; I do not rebel nor turn away. ⁶ I give my back to the whip, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I do not hide from shame—they spit in my face.

⁷ Because the Lord God helps me, I will not be dismayed; therefore, I have set my face like flint to do his will, and I know that I will triumph. ⁸ He who gives me justice is near. Who will dare to fight against me now? Where are my enemies? Let them appear! ⁹ See, the Lord God is for me! Who shall declare me guilty? All my enemies shall be destroyed like old clothes eaten up by moths!

¹⁰ Who among you fears the Lord and obeys his Servant? If such men walk in darkness, without one ray of light, let them trust the Lord, let them rely upon their God. ¹¹ But see here, you who live in your own light and warm yourselves from your own fires and not from God’s; you will live among sorrows.

51 ^1-2 Listen to me, all who hope for deliverance, who seek the Lord! Consider the quarry from which you were mined, the rock from which you were cut! Yes, think about your ancestors Abraham and Sarah, from whom you came. You worry at being so small and few, but Abraham was only one when I called him. But when I blessed him, he became a great nation. ³ And the Lord will bless Israel again, and make her deserts blossom; her barren wilderness will become as beautiful as the Garden of Eden. Joy and gladness will be found there, thanksgiving and lovely songs.

⁴ Listen to me, my people; listen, O Israel, for I will see that right prevails. ⁵ My mercy and justice are coming soon; your salvation is on the way. I will rule the nations; they shall wait for me and long for me to come. ⁶ Look high in the skies and watch the earth beneath, for the skies shall disappear like smoke, the earth shall wear out like a garment, and the people of the earth shall die like flies. But my salvation lasts forever; my righteous rule will never die nor end.

⁷ Listen to me, you who know the right from wrong and cherish my laws in your hearts: don’t be afraid of people’s scorn or their slanderous talk. ⁸ For the moth shall destroy them like garments; the worm shall eat them like wool; but my justice and mercy shall last forever, and my salvation from generation to generation.

⁹ Awake, O Lord! Rise up and robe yourself with strength. Rouse yourself as in the days of old when you slew Egypt, the dragon^[p] of the Nile. ¹⁰ Are you not the same today, the mighty God who dried up the sea, making a path right through it for your ransomed ones? ¹¹ The time will come when God’s redeemed will all come home again. They shall come with singing to Jerusalem, filled with joy and everlasting gladness; sorrow and mourning will all disappear.

¹² I, even I, am he who comforts you and gives you all this joy. So what right have you to fear mere mortal men, who wither like the grass and disappear? ¹³ And yet you have no fear of God, your Maker—you have forgotten him, the one who spread the stars throughout the skies and made the earth. Will you be in constant dread of men’s oppression, and fear their anger all day long? ¹⁴ Soon, soon you slaves shall be released; dungeon, starvation, and death are not your fate. ¹⁵ For I am the Lord your God, the Lord Almighty, who dried a path for you right through the sea, between the roaring waves. ¹⁶ And I have put my words in your mouth and hidden you safe within my hand. I planted the stars in place and molded all the earth. I am the one who says to Israel, “You are mine.”

¹⁷ Wake up, wake up, Jerusalem! You have drunk enough from the cup of the fury of the Lord. You have drunk to the dregs the cup of terror and squeezed out the last drops. ¹⁸ Not one of her sons is left alive to help or tell her what to do. ¹⁹ These two things have been your lot: desolation and destruction. Yes, famine and the sword. And who is left to sympathize? Who is left to comfort you? ²⁰ For your sons have fainted and lie in the streets, helpless as wild goats caught in a net. The Lord has poured out his fury and rebuke upon them. ²¹ But listen now to this, afflicted ones—full of troubles and in a stupor (but not from being drunk)— ²² this is what the Lord says, the Lord your God who cares for his people: “See, I take from your hands the terrible cup; you shall drink no more of my fury; it is gone at last. ²³ But I will put that terrible cup into the hands of those who tormented you and trampled your souls to the dust and walked upon your backs.”

52 Wake up, wake up, Jerusalem, and clothe yourselves with strength from God.^[q] Put on your beautiful clothes, O Zion, Holy City; for sinners—those who turn from God—will no longer enter your gates. ² Rise from the dust, Jerusalem; take off the slave bands from your neck, O captive daughter of Zion. ³ For the Lord says: When I sold you into exile, I asked no fee from your oppressors; now I can take you back again and owe them not a cent! ⁴ My people were tyrannized without cause by Egypt and Assyria, and I delivered them.

⁵ And now, what is this? asks the Lord. Why are my people enslaved again and oppressed without excuse? Those who rule them shout in exultation, and my name is constantly blasphemed day by day. ⁶ Therefore I will reveal my name to my people, and they shall know the power in that name. Then at last they will recognize that it is I, yes, I, who speaks to them.

⁷ How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who bring the happy news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns. ⁸ The watchmen shout and sing with joy, for right before their eyes they see the Lord God bring his people home again. ⁹ Let the ruins of Jerusalem break into joyous song, for the Lord has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem. ¹⁰ The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations; the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

¹¹ Go now, leave your bonds and slavery. Put Babylon and all it represents far behind you—it is unclean to you. You are the holy people of the Lord; purify yourselves, all you who carry home the vessels of the Lord. ¹² You shall not leave in haste, running for your lives; for the Lord will go ahead of you, and he, the God of Israel, will protect you from behind.