34:1Come near, you nations, and give ear; take note, you peoples: let the earth and everything in it give ear; the world and all those living in it. 34:2For the Lord is angry with all the nations, and his wrath is burning against all their armies: he has put them to the curse, he has given them to destruction. 34:3Their dead bodies will be thick on the face of the earth, and their smell will come up, and the mountains will be flowing with their blood, and all the hills will come to nothing. 34:4And the heavens will be rolled together like the roll of a book: and all their army will be gone, like a dead leaf from the vine, or a dry fruit from the fig-tree. 34:5For my sword in heaven is full of wrath: see, it is coming down on Edom, in punishment on the people of my curse. 34:6The sword of the Lord is full of blood, it is fat with the best of the meat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the best parts of the sheep: for the Lord has a feast in Bozrah, and much cattle will be put to death in the land of Edom. 34:7And the strong oxen will go down to death together with the smaller cattle. 34:8For it is the day of the Lord's punishment, when he gives payment for the wrongs done to Zion. 34:9And its streams will be turned into boiling oil, and its dust into burning stone, and all the land will be on fire. 34:10It will not be put out day or night; its smoke will go up for ever: it will be waste from generation to generation; no one will go through it for ever. 34:11But the birds of the waste land will have their place there; it will be a heritage for the bittern and the raven: and it will be measured out with line and weight as a waste land. 34:12The jackals will be there, and her great ones will be gone; they will say, There is no longer a kingdom there, and all her chiefs will have come to an end. 34:13And thorns will come up in her fair houses, and waste plants in her strong towers: and foxes will make their holes there, and it will be a meeting-place for ostriches. 34:14And the beasts of the waste places will come together with the jackals, and the evil spirits will be crying to one another, even the night-spirit will come and make her resting-place there. 34:15The arrowsnake will make her hole and put her eggs there, and get her young together under her shade: there the hawks will come together by twos. 34:16See what is recorded in the book of the Lord: all these will be there, not one without the other: the mouth of the Lord has given the order, and his spirit has made them come together. 34:17And he has given them their heritage, and by his hand it has been measured out to them: it will be theirs for ever, their resting-place from generation to generation.
35:1The waste land and the dry places will be glad; the lowland will have joy and be full of flowers. 35:2It will be flowering like the rose; it will be full of delight and songs; the glory of Lebanon will be given to it; the pride of Carmel and Sharon: they will see the glory of the Lord, the power of our God. 35:3Make strong the feeble hands, give support to the shaking knees. 35:4Say to those who are full of fear, Be strong and take heart: see, your God will give punishment; the reward of God will come; he himself will come to be your saviour. 35:5Then the eyes of the blind will see, and the ears which are stopped will be open. 35:6Then will the feeble-footed be jumping like a roe, and the voice which was stopped will be loud in song: for in the waste land streams will be bursting out, and waters in the dry places. 35:7And the burning sand will become a pool, and the dry earth springs of waters: the fields where the sheep take their food will become wet land, and water-plants will take the place of grass. 35:8And a highway will be there; its name will be, The Holy Way; the unclean and the sinner may not go over it, and those who go on it will not be turned out of the way by the foolish. 35:9No lion will be there, or any cruel beast; they will not be seen there; but those for whom the Lord has given a price, 35:10Even those whom he has made free, will come back again; they will come with songs to Zion; on their heads will be eternal joy; delight and joy will be theirs, and sorrow and sounds of grief will be gone for ever.
36:1And it came about in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against all the walled towns of Judah and took them. 36:2And the king of Assyria sent the Rab-shakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a strong force, and he took up his position by the stream of the higher pool, by the highway of the washerman's 36:3And there came out to him Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder. 36:4And the Rab-shakeh said to them, Say now to Hezekiah, These are the words of the great king, the king of Assyria: In what are you placing your hope? 36:5You say you have a design and strength for war, but these are only words: now to whom are you looking for support, that you have gone against my authority? 36:6See, you are basing your hope on that broken rod of Egypt, which will go into a man's hand if he makes use of it for a support; for so is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all who put their faith in him. 36:7And if you say to me, Our hope is in the Lord our God; is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken away, saying to Judah and Jerusalem that worship may only be given before this altar? 36:8And now, take a chance with my master, the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to put horsemen on them. 36:9How then may you put to shame the least of my master's servants? and you have put your hope in Egypt for war-carriages and horsemen: 36:10And have I now come to send destruction on this land without the Lord's authority? It was the Lord himself who said to me, Go up against this land and make it waste. 36:11Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to the Rab-shakeh, Please make use of the Aramaean language in talking to your servants, for we are used to it, and do not make use of the Jews' language in the hearing of the people on the wall. 36:12But the Rab-shakeh said, Is it to your master or to you that my master has sent me to say these words? has he not sent me to the men seated on the wall? for they are the people who will be short of food with you when the town is shut in. 36:13Then the Rab-shakeh got up and said with a loud voice in the Jews' language, Give ear to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria: 36:14This is what the king says: Do not be tricked by Hezekiah, for there is no salvation for you in him. 36:15And do not let Hezekiah make you put your faith in the Lord, saying, The Lord will certainly keep us safe, and this town will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria. 36:16Do not give ear to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says, Make peace with me, and come out to me; and everyone will be free to take the fruit of his vine and of his fig-tree, and the water of his spring; 36:17Till I come and take you away to a land like yours, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vine-gardens. 36:18Give no attention to Hezekiah when he says to you, The Lord will keep us safe. Has any one of the gods of the nations kept his land from falling into the hands of the king of Assyria? 36:19Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim? where are the gods of Samaria? and have they kept Samaria out of my hand? 36:20Who among all the gods of these countries have kept their country from falling into my hand, to give cause for the thought that the Lord will keep Jerusalem from falling into my hand? 36:21But they kept quiet and gave him no answer: for the king's order was, Give him no answer. 36:22Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothing parted as a sign of grief, and gave him an account of what the Rab-shakeh had said.
37:1And on hearing it Hezekiah took off his robe and put on haircloth and went into the house of the Lord. 37:2And he sent Eliakim, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and the chief priests, dressed in haircloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. 37:3And they said to him, Hezekiah says, This day is a day of trouble and punishment and shame: for the children are ready to come to birth, but there is no strength to give birth to them. 37:4It may be that the Lord your God will give ear to the words of the Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria, his master, has sent to say evil things against the living God, and will make his words come to nothing: so make your prayer for the rest of the people. 37:5So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 37:6And Isaiah said to them, This is what you are to say to your master: The Lord says, Be not troubled by the words which the servants of the king of Assyria have said against me in your hearing. 37:7See, I will put a spirit into him, and bad news will come to his ears, and he will go back to his land; and there I will have him put to death. 37:8So the Rab-shakeh went back, and when he got there the king of Assyria was making war against Libnah: for it had come to his ears that the king of Assyria had gone away from Lachish. 37:9And when news came to him that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, had made an attack on him, ... And he sent representatives to Hezekiah, king of Judah, saying, 37:10This is what you are to say to Hezekiah, king of Judah: Let not your God, in whom is your faith, give you a false hope, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria. 37:11No doubt the story has come to your ears of what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, putting them to the curse: and will you be kept safe from their fate? 37:12Did the gods of the nations keep safe those on whom my fathers sent destruction, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar? 37:13Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the town of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivva? 37:14And Hezekiah took the letter from the hands of those who had come with it; and after reading it, Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, opening the letter there before the Lord, 37:15And he made prayer to the Lord, saying, 37:16O Lord of armies, the God of Israel, seated between the winged ones, you only are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. 37:17Let your ear be turned to us, O Lord; let your eyes be open, O Lord, and see: take note of all the words of Sennacherib who has sent men to say evil against the living God. 37:18Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have made waste all the nations and their lands, 37:19And have given their gods to the fire: for they were no gods, but wood and stone, the work of men's hands; so they have given them to destruction. 37:20But now, O Lord our God, give us salvation from his hand, so that it may be clear to all the kingdoms of the earth that you, and you only, are the Lord. 37:21Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying, The Lord, the God of Israel, says, The prayer you have made to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, has come to my ears. 37:22This is the word which the Lord has said about him: In the eyes of the virgin daughter of Zion you are shamed and laughed at; the daughter of Jerusalem has made sport of you. 37:23Against whom have you said evil and bitter things? and against whom has your voice been loud and your eyes lifted up? even against the Holy One of Israel. 37:24You have sent your servants with evil words against the Lord, and have said, With all my war-carriages I have come up to the top of the mountains, to the inmost parts of Lebanon; and its tall cedars will be cut down, and the best trees of its woods: I will come up into his highest places, into his thick woods. 37:25I have made water-holes and taken their waters, and with my foot I have made all the rivers of Egypt dry. 37:26Has it not come to your ears how I did it long before, purposing it in times long past? Now I have given effect to my design, so that by you strong towns might be turned into masses of broken walls. 37:27This is why their townsmen had no power, they were broken and put to shame; they were like the grass of the field, or a green plant; like the grass on the house-tops, which a cold wind makes waste. 37:28But I have knowledge of your getting up and your resting, of your going out and your coming in. 37:29Because your wrath against me and your pride have come to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my cord in your lips, and I will make you go back by the way you came. 37:30And this will be the sign to you: you will get your food this year from what comes up of itself, and in the second year from the produce of the same; and in the third year you will put in your seed, and get in the grain, and make vine-gardens, and take of their fruit. 37:31And those of Judah who are still living will again take root in the earth, and give fruit. 37:32For from Jerusalem those who have been kept safe will go out, and those who are still living will go out of Mount Zion: by the fixed purpose of the Lord of armies this will be done. 37:33For this cause the Lord says about the king of Assyria, He will not come into this town, or send an arrow against it; he will not come before it with arms, or put up an earthwork against it. 37:34By the way he came he will go back, and he will not get into this town. 37:35For I will keep this town safe, for my honour, and for the honour of my servant David. 37:36And the angel of the Lord went out and put to death in the army of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand men: and when the people got up early in the morning, there was nothing to be seen but dead bodies. 37:37Sennacherib, king of Assyria, went back to his place at Nineveh. 37:38And it came about, when he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer put him to death with the sword, and they went in flight into the land of Ararat. And Esar-haddon, his son, became king in his place.
38:1In those days Hezekiah was ill and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, The Lord says, Put your house in order; for your death is near. 38:2And Hezekiah, turning his face to the wall, made his prayer to the Lord, saying, 38:3O Lord, keep in mind how I have been true to you with all my heart, and have done what is good in your eyes. And Hezekiah gave way to bitter weeping. 38:4Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying, 38:5Go to Hezekiah, and say, The Lord, the God of David, your father, says, Your prayer has come to my ears, and I have seen your weeping: see, I will give you fifteen more years of life. 38:6And I will keep you and this town safe from the hands of the king of Assyria: and I will keep watch over this town. 38:7And Isaiah said, This is the sign the Lord will give you, that he will do what he has said: 38:8See, I will make the shade which has gone down on the steps of Ahaz with the sun, go back ten steps. So the shade went back the ten steps by which it had gone down. 38:9The writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, after he had been ill, and had got better from his disease. 38:10I said, In the quiet of my days I am going down into the underworld: the rest of my years are being taken away from me. 38:11I said, I will not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the living: I will not see man again or those living in the world. 38:12My resting-place is pulled up and taken away from me like a herdsman's tent: my life is rolled up like a linen-worker's thread; I am cut off from the cloth on the frame: from day even to night you give me up to pain. 38:13I am crying out with pain till the morning; it is as if a lion was crushing all my bones. 38:14I make cries like a bird; I give out sounds of grief like a dove: my eyes are looking up with desire; O Lord, I am crushed, take up my cause. 38:15What am I to say? seeing that it is he who has done it: all my time of sleeping I am turning from side to side without rest. 38:16O Lord, for this cause I am waiting for you, give rest to my spirit: make me well again, and let me come back to life. 38:17See, in place of peace my soul had bitter sorrow. but you have kept back my soul from the underworld; for you have put all my sins out of your memory. 38:18For the underworld is not able to give you praise, death gives you no honour: for those who go down into the underworld there is no hope in your mercy. 38:19The living, the living man, he will give you praise, as I do this day: the father will give the story of your mercy to his children. 38:20O Lord, quickly be my saviour; so we will make my songs to corded instruments all the days of our lives in the house of the Lord. 38:21And Isaiah said, Let them take a cake of figs, and put it on the diseased place, and he will get well. 38:22And Hezekiah said, What is the sign that I will go up to the house of the Lord?
39:1At that time Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters with an offering to Hezekiah, because he had news that Hezekiah had been ill, and was well again. 39:2And Hezekiah was glad at their coming, and let them see all his store of wealth, the silver and the gold and the spices and the oil, and all the house of his arms, and everything there was in his stores: there was nothing in all his house or his kingdom which he did not let them see. 39:3Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, What did these men say, and where did they come from? And Hezekiah said, They came from a far country, even from Babylon. 39:4And he said, What have they seen in your house? And Hezekiah said in answer, They saw everything in my house: there is nothing among my stores which I did not let them see. 39:5Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Give ear to the word of the Lord of armies: 39:6Truly, the days are coming when everything in your house, and whatever your fathers have put in store till this day, will be taken away to Babylon: all will be gone. 39:7And your sons, even your offspring, will they take away to be unsexed servants in the house of the king of Babylon. 39:8Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord which you have said. And he said in his heart, There will be peace and quiet in my days.
40:1Give comfort, give comfort, to my people, says your God. 40:2Say kind words to the heart of Jerusalem, crying out to her that her time of trouble is ended, that her punishment is complete; that she has been rewarded by the Lord's hand twice over for all her sins. 40:3A voice of one crying, Make ready in the waste land the way of the Lord, make level in the lowland a highway for our God. 40:4Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low, and let the rough places become level, and the hilltops become a valley, 40:5And the glory of the Lord will be made clear, and all flesh will see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has said it. 40:6A voice of one saying, Give a cry! And I said, What is my cry to be? All flesh is grass, and all its strength like the flower of the field. 40:7The grass becomes dry, the flower is dead; because the breath of the Lord goes over it: truly the people is grass. 40:8The grass is dry, the flower is dead; but the word of our God is eternal. 40:9You who give good news to Zion, get up into the high mountain; you who give good news to Jerusalem, let your voice be strong; let it be sounding without fear; say to the towns of Judah, See, your God! 40:10See, the Lord God will come as a strong one, ruling in power: see, those made free by him are with him, and those whom he has made safe go before him. 40:11He will give food to his flock like a keeper of sheep; with his arm he will get it together, and will take up the lambs on his breast, gently guiding those which are with young. 40:12In the hollow of whose hand have the waters been measured? and who is able to take the heavens in his stretched-out fingers? who has got together the dust of the earth in a measure? who has taken the weight of the mountains, or put the hills into the scales? 40:13By whom has the spirit of the Lord been guided, or who has been his teacher? 40:14Who gave him suggestions, and made clear to him the right way? who gave him knowledge, guiding him in the way of wisdom? 40:15See, the nations are to him like a drop hanging from a bucket, and like the small dust in the scales: he takes up the islands like small dust. 40:16And Lebanon is not enough to make a fire with, or all its cattle enough for a burned offering. 40:17All the nations are as nothing before him; even less than nothing, a thing of no value. 40:18Whom then is God like, in your opinion? or what will you put forward as a comparison with him? 40:19The workman makes an image, and the gold-worker puts gold plates over it, and makes silver bands for it. 40:20The wise workman makes selection of the mulberry-tree of the offering, a wood which will not become soft; so that the image may be fixed to it and not be moved. 40:21Have you no knowledge of it? has it not come to your ears? has not news of it been given to you from the first? has it not been clear to you from the time when the earth was placed on its base? 40:22It is he who is seated over the arch of the earth, and the people in it are as small as locusts; by him the heavens are stretched out like an arch, and made ready like a tent for a living-place. 40:23He makes rulers come to nothing; the judges of the earth are of no value. 40:24They have only now been planted, and their seed put into the earth, and they have only now taken root, when he sends out his breath over them and they become dry, and the storm-wind takes them away like dry grass. 40:25Who then seems to you to be my equal? says the Holy One. 40:26Let your eyes be lifted up on high, and see: who has made these? He who sends out their numbered army: who has knowledge of all their names: by whose great strength, because he is strong in power, all of them are in their places. 40:27Why do you say, O Jacob, such words as these, O Israel, The Lord's eyes are not on my way, and my God gives no attention to my cause? 40:28Have you no knowledge of it? has it not come to your ears? The eternal God, the Lord, the Maker of the ends of the earth, is never feeble or tired; there is no searching out of his wisdom. 40:29He gives power to the feeble, increasing the strength of him who has no force. 40:30Even the young men will become feeble and tired, and the best of them will come to the end of his strength; 40:31But those who are waiting for the Lord will have new strength; they will get wings like eagles: running, they will not be tired, and walking, they will have no weariness.
41:1Come quietly before me, O sea-lands, and let the peoples get together their strength: let them come near; then let them say what they have to say: let us put forward our cause against one another. 41:2Who sent out from the east one who is right wherever he goes? he gives the nations into his hands, and makes him ruler over kings; he gives them as the dust to his sword, as dry stems before the wind to his bow. 41:3He goes after them safely, not touching the road with his feet. 41:4Whose purpose and work was it? His who sent out the generations from the start. I the Lord, the first, and with the last, I am he. 41:5The sea-lands saw it, and were in fear; the ends of the earth were shaking: they came near. 41:6They gave help everyone to his neighbour; and everyone said to his brother, Take heart! 41:7So the metal-worker put heart into the gold-worker, and he who was hammering the metal smooth said kind words to the iron-worker, saying of the plate, It is ready: and he put it together with nails, so that there might be no slipping. 41:8But as for you, Israel, my servant, and you, Jacob, whom I have taken for myself, the seed of Abraham my friend: 41:9You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and sent for from its farthest parts, saying to you, You are my servant, whom I have taken for myself, and whom I have not given up: 41:10Have no fear, for I am with you; do not be looking about in trouble, for I am your God; I will give you strength, yes, I will be your helper; yes, my true right hand will be your support. 41:11Truly, all those who are angry with you will be made low and put to shame: those desiring to do you wrong will come to nothing and never again be seen. 41:12You will make search for your haters but they will not be there; those who make war against you will be as nothing and will come to destruction. 41:13For I, the Lord your God, have taken your right hand in mine, saying to you, Have no fear; I will be your helper. 41:14Have no fear, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel; I will be your helper, says the Lord, even he who takes up your cause, the Holy One of Israel. 41:15See, I will make you like a new grain-crushing instrument with teeth, crushing the mountains small, and making the hills like dry stems. 41:16You will send the wind over them, and it will take them away; they will go in all directions before the storm-wind: you will have joy in the Lord, and be glad in the Holy One of Israel. 41:17The poor and crushed are looking for water where no water is, and their tongue is dry for need of it: I the Lord will give ear to their prayer, I the God of Israel will not give them up. 41:18I will make rivers on the dry mountain-tops, and fountains in the valleys: I will make the waste land a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. 41:19I will put in the waste land the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive-tree; and in the lowland will be planted the fir-tree, the plane, and the cypress together: 41:20So that they may see and be wise and give their mind to it, and that it may be clear to them all that the hand of the Lord has done this, and that the Holy One of Israel has made it. 41:21Put forward your cause, says the Lord; let your strong argument come out, says the King of Jacob. 41:22Let the future be made clear to us: give us news of the past things, so that we may give thought to them; or of the things to come, so that we may see if they are true. 41:23Give us word of what will be after this, so that we may be certain that you are gods: yes, do good or do evil, so that we may all see it and be surprised. 41:24But you are nothing, and your work is of no value: foolish is he who takes you for his gods. 41:25I have sent for one from the north, and from the dawn he has come; in my name he will get rulers together and go against them; they will be like dust, even as the wet earth is stamped on by the feet of the potter. 41:26Who has given knowledge of it from the first, so that we may be certain of it? and from the start, so that we may say, His word is true? There is no one who gives news, or says anything, or who gives ear to your words. 41:27I was the first to give word of it to Zion, and I gave the good news to Jerusalem. 41:28And I saw that there was no man, even no wise man among them, who might give an answer to my questions. 41:29Truly they are all nothing, their works are nothing and of no value: their metal images are of no more use than wind.
42:1See my servant, whom I am supporting, my loved one, in whom I take delight: I have put my spirit on him; he will give the knowledge of the true God to the nations. 42:2He will make no cry, his voice will not be loud: his words will not come to men's ears in the streets. 42:3He will not let a crushed stem be quite broken, and he will not let a feebly burning light be put out: he will go on sending out the true word to the peoples. 42:4His light will not be put out, and he will not be crushed, till he has given the knowledge of the true God to the earth, and the sea-lands will be waiting for his teaching. 42:5God the Lord, even he who made the heavens, measuring them out on high; stretching out the earth, and giving its produce; he who gives breath to the people on it, and life to those who go about on it, says: 42:6I the Lord have made you the vessel of my purpose, I have taken you by the hand, and kept you safe, and I have given you to be an agreement to the people, and a light to the nations: 42:7To give eyes to the blind, to make free the prisoners from the prison, to let out those who are shut up in the dark. 42:8I am the Lord; that is my name: I will not give my glory to another, or my praise to pictured images. 42:9See, the things said before have come about, and now I give word of new things: before they come I give you news of them. 42:10Make a new song to the Lord, and let his praise be sounded from the end of the earth; you who go down to the sea, and everything in it, the sea-lands and their people. 42:11Let the waste land and its flocks be glad, the tent-circles of Kedar; let the people of the rock give a glad cry, from the top of the mountains let them make a sound of joy. 42:12Let them give glory to the Lord, sounding his praise in the sea-lands. 42:13The Lord will go out as a man of war, he will be moved to wrath like a fighting-man: his voice will be strong, he will give a loud cry; he will go against his attackers like a man of war. 42:14I have long been quiet, I have kept myself in and done nothing: now I will make sounds of pain like a woman in childbirth, breathing hard and quickly. 42:15I will make waste mountains and hills, drying up all their plants; and I will make rivers dry, and pools dry land. 42:16And I will take the blind by a way of which they had no knowledge, guiding them by roads strange to them: I will make the dark places light before them, and the rough places level. These things will I do and will not give them up. 42:17They will be turned back and be greatly shamed who put their hope in pictured images, who say to metal images, You are our gods. 42:18Give ear, you whose ears are shut; and let your eyes be open, you blind, so that you may see. 42:19Who is blind, but my servant? who has his ears stopped, but he whom I send? who is blind as my true one, or who has his ears shut like the Lord's servant? 42:20Seeing much, but keeping nothing in mind; his ears are open, but there is no hearing. 42:21It was the Lord's pleasure, because of his righteousness, to make the teaching great and give it honour. 42:22But this is a people whose property has been taken away from them by force; they are all taken in holes, and shut up in prisons: they are made prisoners, and no one makes them free; they are taken by force and no one says, Give them back. 42:23Who is there among you who will give ear to this? who will give attention to it for the time to come? 42:24Who gave up Jacob to those who took away his goods, and Israel to his attackers? Did not the Lord? he against whom they did wrong, and in whose ways they would not go, turning away from his teaching. 42:25For this reason he let loose on him the heat of his wrath, and his strength was like a flame; and it put fire round about him, but he did not see it; he was burned, but did not take it to heart.
43:1But now, says the Lord your Maker, O Jacob, and your life-giver, O Israel: have no fear, for I have taken up your cause; naming you by your name, I have made you mine. 43:2When you go through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not go over you: when you go through the fire, you will not be burned; and the flame will have no power over you. 43:3For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your saviour; I have given Egypt as a price for you, Ethiopia and Seba for you. 43:4Because of your value in my eyes, you have been honoured, and loved by me; so I will give men for you, and peoples for your life. 43:5Have no fear, for I am with you: I will take your seed from the east, and get you together from the west; 43:6I will say to the north, Give them up; and to the south, Do not keep them back; send back my sons from far, and my daughters from the end of the earth; 43:7Every one who is named by my name, and whom I have made for my glory, who has been formed and designed by me. 43:8Send out the blind people who have eyes, and those who have ears, but they are shut. 43:9Let all the nations come together, and let the peoples be present: who among them is able to make this clear, and give us word of earlier things? let their witnesses come forward, so that they may be seen to be true, and that they may give ear, and say, It is true. 43:10You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and my servant whom I have taken for myself: so that you may see and have faith in me, and that it may be clear to you that I am he; before me there was no God formed, and there will not be after me. 43:11I, even I, am the Lord; and there is no saviour but me. 43:12I gave the word, and made it clear, and there was no strange god among you: for this reason you are my witnesses, says the Lord. 43:13From time long past I am God, and from this day I am he: there is no one who is able to take you out of my hand: when I undertake a thing, by whom will my purpose be changed? 43:14The Lord, who has taken up your cause, the Holy One of Israel, says, Because of you I have sent to Babylon, and made all their seers come south, and the Chaldaeans whose cry is in the ships. 43:15I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Maker of Israel, your King. 43:16This is the word of the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, and a road through the deep waters; 43:17Who sends out the war-carriages and the horses, the army with all its force; they have come down, they will not get up again; like a feebly burning light they are put out. 43:18Give no thought to the things which are past; let the early times go out of your minds. 43:19See, I am doing a new thing; now it is starting; will you not take note of it? I will even make a way in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country. 43:20The beasts of the field will give me honour, the jackals and the ostriches: because I send out waters in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country, to give drink to the people whom I have taken for myself: 43:21Even the people whom I made to be the witnesses of my praise. 43:22But you have made no prayer to me, O Jacob: and you have given no thought to me, O Israel. 43:23You have not made me burned offerings of sheep, or given me honour with your offerings of beasts; I did not make you servants to give me an offering, and I did not make you tired with requests for perfumes. 43:24You have not got me sweet-smelling plants with your money, or given me pleasure with the fat of your offerings: but you have made me a servant to your sins, and you have made me tired with your evil doings. 43:25I, even I, am he who takes away your sins; and I will no longer keep your evil doings in mind. 43:26Put me in mind of this; let us take up the cause between us: put forward your cause, so that you may be seen to be in the right. 43:27Your first father was a sinner, and your guides have gone against my word. 43:28Your chiefs have made my holy place unclean, so I have made Jacob a curse, and Israel a thing of shame.
44:1And now, give ear, O Jacob my servant, and Israel whom I have taken for myself: 44:2The Lord who made you, forming you in your mother's body, the Lord, your helper, says, Have no fear, O Jacob my servant, and you, Jeshurun, whom I have taken for myself. 44:3For I will send water on the land needing it, and streams on the dry earth: I will let my spirit come down on your seed, and my blessing on your offspring. 44:4And they will come up like grass in a well-watered field, like water-plants by the streams. 44:5One will say, I am the Lord's; and another will give himself the name, Jacob; another will put a mark on his hand, I am the Lord's, and another will take the name of Israel for himself. 44:6The Lord, the King of Israel, even the Lord of armies who has taken up his cause, says, I am the first and the last, and there is no God but me. 44:7If there is one like me, let him come forward and say it, let him make it clear and put it in order before me: who has made clear in the past the things to come? let him make clear the future to me. 44:8Have no fear, be strong in heart; have I not made it clear to you in the past, and let you see it? and you are my witnesses. Is there any God but me, or a Rock of whom I have no knowledge? 44:9Those who make a pictured image are all of them as nothing, and the things of their desire will be of no profit to them: and their servants see not, and have no knowledge; so they will be put to shame. 44:10Whoever makes a god, makes nothing but a metal image in which there is no profit. 44:11Truly, all those who make use of secret arts will be put to shame, and their words of power are only words of men: let them all come forward together; they will all be in fear and be put to shame. 44:12The iron-worker is heating the metal in the fire, giving it form with his hammers, and working on it with his strong arm: then for need of food his strength gives way, and for need of water he becomes feeble. 44:13The woodworker is measuring out the wood with his line, marking it out with his pencil: after smoothing it with his plane, and making circles on it with his instrument, he gives it the form and glory of a man, so that it may be placed in the house. 44:14He has cedars cut down for himself, he takes an oak and lets it get strong among the trees of the wood; he has an ash-tree planted, and the rain gives it growth. 44:15Then it will be used to make a fire, so that a man may get warm; he has the oven heated with it and makes bread: he makes a god with it, to which he gives worship: he makes a pictured image out of it, and goes down on his face before it. 44:16With part of it he makes a fire, and on the fire he gets meat cooked and takes a full meal: he makes himself warm, and says, Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire: 44:17And the rest of it he makes into a god, even his pictured image: he goes down on his face before it, giving worship to it, and making prayer to it, saying, Be my saviour; for you are my god. 44:18They have no knowledge or wisdom; for he has put a veil over their eyes, so that they may not see; and on their hearts, so that they may not give attention. 44:19And no one takes note, no one has enough knowledge or wisdom to say, I have put part of it in the fire, and made bread on it; I have had a meal of the flesh cooked with it: and am I now to make the rest of it into a false god? am I to go down on my face before a bit of wood? 44:20As for him whose food is the dust of a dead fire, he has been turned from the way by a twisted mind, so that he is unable to keep himself safe by saying, What I have here in my hand is false. 44:21Keep these things in mind, O Jacob; and you Israel, for you are my servant: I have made you; you are my servant; O Israel, I will not let you go out of my memory. 44:22I have put your evil doings out of my mind like a thick cloud, and your sins like a mist: come back to me; for I have taken up your cause. 44:23Make a song, O heavens, for the Lord has done it: give a loud cry, you deep parts of the earth: let your voices be loud in song, you mountains, and you woods with all your trees: for the Lord has taken up the cause of Jacob, and will let his glory be seen in Israel. 44:24The Lord, who has taken up your cause, and who gave you life in your mother's body, says, I am the Lord who makes all things; stretching out the heavens by myself, and giving the earth its limits; who was with me? 44:25Who makes the signs of those who give word of the future come to nothing, so that those who have knowledge of secret arts go off their heads; turning the wise men back, and making their knowledge foolish: 44:26Who makes the word of his servants certain, and gives effect to the purposes of his representatives; who says of Jerusalem, Her people will come back to her; and of the towns of Judah, I will give orders for their building, and will make her waste places fertile again: 44:27Who says to the deep, Be dry, and I will make your rivers dry: 44:28Who says of Cyrus, He will take care of my sheep, and will do all my pleasure: who says of Jerusalem, I will give the word for your building; and of the Temple, Your bases will be put in place.
45:1The Lord says to the man of his selection, to Cyrus, whom I have taken by the right hand, putting down nations before him, and taking away the arms of kings; making the doors open before him, so that the ways into the towns may not be shut; 45:2I will go before you, and make the rough places level: the doors of brass will be broken, and the iron rods cut in two: 45:3And I will give you the stores of the dark, and the wealth of secret places, so that you may be certain that I am the Lord, who gave you your name, even the God of Israel. 45:4Because of Jacob my servant, and Israel whom I have taken for myself, I have sent for you by name, giving you a name of honour, though you had no knowledge of me. 45:5I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God but me: I will make you ready for war, though you had no knowledge of me: 45:6So that they may see from the east and from the west that there is no God but me: I am the Lord, and there is no other. 45:7I am the giver of light and the maker of the dark; causing blessing, and sending troubles; I am the Lord, who does all these things. 45:8Let righteousness come down, O heavens, from on high, and let the sky send it down like rain: let the earth be open to give the fruit of salvation, causing righteousness to come up with it; I the Lord have made it come about. 45:9Cursed is he who has an argument with his Maker, the pot which has an argument with the Potter! Will the wet earth say to him who is working with it, What are you doing, that your work has nothing by which it may be gripped? 45:10Cursed is he who says to a father, To what are you giving life? or to a woman, What are you in birth-pains with? 45:11The Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, says, Will you put a question to me about the things which are to come, or will you give me orders about my sons, and the work of my hands? 45:12I have made the earth, forming man on it: by my hands the heavens have been stretched out, and all the stars put in their ordered places. 45:13I have sent him out to overcome the nations, and I will make all his ways straight: I will give him the work of building my town, and he will let my prisoners go free, without price or reward, says the Lord of armies. 45:14The Lord says, The workmen of Egypt, and the traders of Ethiopia, and the tall Sabaeans, will come over the sea to you, and they will be yours; they will go after you; in chains they will come over: and they will go down on their faces before you, and will make prayer to you, saying, Truly, God is among you; and there is no other God. 45:15Truly, you have a secret God, the God of Israel is a Saviour! 45:16All those who have gone against him will be put to shame; the makers of images will be made low. 45:17But the Lord will make Israel free with an eternal salvation: you will not be put to shame or made low for ever and ever. 45:18For this is the word of the Lord who made the heavens; he is God; the maker and designer of the earth; who made it not to be a waste, but as a living-place for man: I am the Lord, and there is no other. 45:19I have not given my word in secret, in a place in the underworld; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, Go into a waste land to make request of me: I the Lord say what is true, my word is righteousness. 45:20Come together, even come near, you nations who are still living: they have no knowledge who take up their image of wood, and make prayer to a god in whom is no salvation. 45:21Give the word, put forward your cause, let us have a discussion together: who has given news of this in the past? who made it clear in early times? did not I, the Lord? and there is no God but me; a true God and a saviour; there is no other. 45:22Let your hearts be turned to me, so that you may have salvation, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is no other. 45:23By myself have I taken an oath, a true word has gone from my mouth, and will not be changed, that to me every knee will be bent, and every tongue will give honour. 45:24Only in the Lord will Jacob overcome and be strong: together all those who were angry with him will be put to shame and come to destruction. 45:25In the Lord will all the seed of Israel get their rights, and they will give glory to him.
46:1Bel is bent down, Nebo is falling; their images are on the beasts and on the cattle: the things which you took about have become a weight to the tired beast. 46:2They are bent down, they are falling together: they were not able to keep their images safe, but they themselves have been taken prisoner. 46:3Give ear to me, O family of Jacob, and all the rest of the people of Israel, who have been supported by me from their birth, and have been my care from their earliest days: 46:4Even when you are old I will be the same, and when you are grey-haired I will take care of you: I will still be responsible for what I made; yes, I will take you and keep you safe. 46:5Who in your eyes is my equal? or what comparison will you make with me? 46:6As for those who take gold out of a bag, and put silver in the scales, they give payment to a gold-worker, to make it into a god; they go down on their faces and give it worship. 46:7They put him on their backs, and take him up, and put him in his fixed place, from which he may not be moved; if a man gives a cry for help to him, he is unable to give an answer, or get him out of his trouble. 46:8Keep this in mind and be shamed; let it come back to your memory, you sinners. 46:9Let the things which are past come to your memory: for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like me; 46:10Making clear from the first what is to come, and from past times the things which have not so far come about; saying, My purpose is fixed, and I will do all my pleasure; 46:11Sending for a bird of strong flight from the east, the man of my purpose from a far country; I have said it, and I will give effect to it; the thing designed by me will certainly be done. 46:12Give ear to me, you feeble-hearted, who have no faith in my righteousness: 46:13My righteousness is near, it is not far off; salvation will come quickly; and I will make Zion free, and give Israel my glory.
47:1Come and take your seat in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; come down from your seat of power, and take your place on the earth, O daughter of the Chaldaeans: for you will never again seem soft and delicate. 47:2Take the crushing-stones and get the meal crushed: take off your veil, put away your robe, let your legs be uncovered, go through the rivers. 47:3The shame of your unclothed condition will be seen by all: I will give punishment without mercy, 47:4Says the Lord who takes up our cause; the Lord of armies is his name, the Holy One of Israel. 47:5Be seated in the dark without a word, O daughter of the Chaldaeans: for you will no longer be named, The Queen of Kingdoms. 47:6I was angry with my people, I put shame on my heritage, and gave them into your hands: you had no mercy on them; you put a cruel yoke on those who were old; 47:7And you said, I will be a queen for ever: you did not give attention to these things, and did not keep in mind what would come after. 47:8So now take note of this, you who are given up to pleasure, living without fear of evil, saying in your heart, I am, and there is no one like me; I will never be a widow, or have my children taken from me. 47:9But these two things will come on you suddenly in one day, the loss of children and of husband: in full measure they will come on you, for all your secret arts, and all your wonders. 47:10For you had faith in your evil-doing; you said, No one sees me; by your wisdom and knowledge you have been turned out of the way: and you have said in your heart, I am, and there is no other. 47:11Because of this evil will come on you, which may not be turned away for any price: and trouble will overtake you, from which no money will give salvation: destruction will come on you suddenly, without your knowledge. 47:12Go on now with your secret arts, and all your wonder-working, to which you have given yourself up from your earliest days; it may be that they will be of profit to you, or by them you may put fear into your attackers. 47:13But your mind is troubled by the number of your guides: let them now come forward for your salvation: the measurers of the heavens, the watchers of the stars, and those who are able to say from month to month what things are coming on you. 47:14Truly, they have become like dry stems, they have been burned in the fire; they are not able to keep themselves safe from the power of the flame: it is not a coal for warming them, or a fire by which a man may be seated. 47:15Small profit have you had from those who, from your earliest days, got great profit out of you; they have gone in flight, every one straight before him, and you have no saviour.
48:1Give ear to this, O family of Jacob, you who are named by the name of Israel, and have come out of the body of Judah; who take oaths by the name of the Lord, and make use of the name of the God of Israel, but not truly and not in good faith. 48:2For they say that they are of the holy town, and put their faith in the God of Israel: the Lord of armies is his name. 48:3I gave word in the past of the things which came about; they came from my mouth, and I made them clear: suddenly I did them, and they came about. 48:4Because I saw that your heart was hard, and that your neck was an iron cord, and your brow brass; 48:5For this reason I made it clear to you in the past, before it came I gave you word of it: for fear that you might say, My god did these things, and my pictured and metal images made them come about. 48:6All this has come to your ears and you have seen it; will you not give witness to it? I am now making clear new things, even secret things, of which you had no knowledge. 48:7They have only now been effected, and not in the past: and before this day they had not come to your ears; for fear that you might say, I had knowledge of them. 48:8Truly you had no word of them, no knowledge of them; no news of them in the past had come to your ears; because I saw how false was your behaviour, and that your heart was turned against me from your earliest days. 48:9Because of my name I will put away my wrath, and for my praise I will keep myself from cutting you off. 48:10See, I have been testing you for myself like silver; I have put you through the fire of trouble. 48:11For myself, even because of my name, I will do it; for I will not let my name be shamed; and my glory I will not give to another. 48:12Give ear to me, Jacob, and Israel, my loved one; I am he, I am the first and I am the last. 48:13Yes, by my hand was the earth placed on its base, and by my right hand the heavens were stretched out; at my word they take up their places. 48:14Come together, all of you, and give ear; who among you has given news of these things? the Lord's loved one will do his pleasure with Babylon, and with the seed of the Chaldaeans. 48:15I, even I, have given the word; I have sent for him: I have made him come, and have given effect to his undertakings. 48:16Come near to me, and give ear to this; from the start I did not keep it secret; from the time of its coming into existence I was there: and now the Lord God has sent me, and given me his spirit. 48:17The Lord who takes up your cause, the Holy One of Israel, says, I am the Lord your God, who is teaching you for your profit, guiding you by the way in which you are to go. 48:18If only you had given ear to my orders, then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea: 48:19Your seed would have been like the sand, and your offspring like the dust: your name would not be cut off or come to an end before me. 48:20Go out of Babylon, go in flight from the Chaldaeans; with the sound of song make it clear, give the news, let the word go out even to the end of the earth: say, The Lord has taken up the cause of his servant Jacob. 48:21They had no need of water when he was guiding them through the waste lands: he made water come out of the rock for them: the rock was parted and the waters came flowing out. 48:22There is no peace, says the Lord, for the evil-doers.
49:1Give ear, O sea-lands, to me; and take note, you peoples from far: I have been marked out by the Lord from the first; when I was still in my mother's body, he had my name in mind: 49:2And he has made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shade of his hand he has kept me; and he has made me like a polished arrow, keeping me in his secret place; 49:3And he said to me, You are my servant, Israel, in whom my glory will be seen; 49:4And I said, I have undergone weariness for nothing, I have given my strength for no purpose or profit: but still the Lord will take up my cause, and my God will give me my reward. 49:5And now, says the Lord, who made me his servant when I was still in my mother's body, so that I might make Jacob come back to him, and so that Israel might come together to him: and I was honoured in the eyes of the Lord, and my God became my strength. 49:6It is not enough for one who is my servant to put the tribes of Jacob again in their place, and to get back those of Israel who have been sent away: my purpose is to give you as a light to the nations, so that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth. 49:7The Lord who takes up Israel's cause, even his Holy One, says to him whom men make sport of, who is hated by the nations, a servant of rulers: Kings will see and get up from their places, and chiefs will give worship: because of the Lord who keeps faith; even the Holy One of Israel who has taken you for himself. 49:8This is the word of the Lord: I have given ear to you at a good time, and I have been your helper in a day of salvation: and I will keep you safe, and will make you a glory for the people, putting the land in order, and giving them the heritages which now are waste; 49:9Saying to those who are in chains, Go free; to those who are in the dark, Come out into the light. They will get food by the way wherever they go, and have grass-lands on all the dry mountain-tops. 49:10They will not be in need of food or drink, or be troubled by the heat or the sun: for he who has mercy on them will be their guide, taking them by the springs of water. 49:11And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways will be lifted up. 49:12See, these are coming from far; and these from the north and the west; and these from the land of Sinim. 49:13Let your voice be loud in song, O heavens; and be glad, O earth; make sounds of joy, O mountains, for the Lord has given comfort to his people, and will have mercy on his crushed ones. 49:14But Zion said, The Lord has given me up, I have gone from his memory. 49:15Will a woman give up the child at her breast, will she be without pity for the fruit of her body? yes, these may, but I will not let you go out of my memory. 49:16See, your name is marked on my hands; your walls are ever before me. 49:17Your builders are coming quickly; your haters and those who made you waste will go out of you. 49:18Let your eyes be lifted up round about, and see: they are all coming together to you. By my life, says the Lord, truly you will put them all on you as an ornament, and be clothed with them like a bride. 49:19For though the waste places of your land have been given to destruction, now you will not be wide enough for your people, and those who made you waste will be far away. 49:20The children to whom you gave birth in other lands will say in your ears, The place is not wide enough for me: make room for me to have a resting-place. 49:21Then you will say in your heart, Who has given me all these children? when my children had been taken from me, and I was no longer able to have others, who took care of these? when I was by myself, where then were these? 49:22This is the word of the Lord God: See, I will make a sign with my hand to the nations, and put up my flag for the peoples; and they will take up your sons on their beasts, and your daughters on their backs. 49:23And kings will take care of you, and queens will give you their milk: they will go down on their faces before you, kissing the dust of your feet; and you will be certain that I am the Lord, and that those who put their hope in me will not be shamed. 49:24Will the goods of war be taken from the strong man, or the prisoners of the cruel one be let go? 49:25But the Lord says, Even the prisoners of the strong will be taken from him, and the cruel made to let go his goods: for I will take up your cause against your haters, and I will keep your children safe. 49:26And the flesh of your attackers will be taken by themselves for food; and they will take their blood for drink, as if it was sweet wine: and all men will see that I the Lord am your saviour, even he who takes up your cause, the Strong One of Jacob.
50:1This is the word of the Lord: Where is the statement which I gave your mother when I put her away? or to which of my creditors have I given you for money? It was for your sins that you were given into the hands of others, and for your evil-doing was your mother put away. 50:2Why, then, when I came, was there no man? and no one to give answer to my voice? has my hand become feeble, so that it is unable to take up your cause? or have I no power to make you free? See, at my word the sea becomes dry, I make the rivers a waste land: their fish are dead for need of water, and make an evil smell. 50:3By me the heavens are clothed with black, and I make haircloth their robe. 50:4The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are experienced, so that I may be able to give the word a special sense for the feeble: every morning my ear is open to his teaching, like those who are experienced: 50:5And I have not put myself against him, or let my heart be turned back from him. 50:6I was offering my back to those who gave me blows, and my face to those who were pulling out my hair: I did not keep my face covered from marks of shame. 50:7For the Lord God is my helper; I will not be put to shame: so I have made my face like a rock, and I am certain that he will give me my right. 50:8He who takes up my cause is near; who will go to law with me? let us come together before the judge: who is against me? let him come near to me. 50:9See, the Lord God is my helper; who will give a decision against me? truly, all of them will become old like a robe; they will be food for the worm. 50:10Who among you has the fear of the Lord, giving ear to the voice of his servant who has been walking in the dark and has no light? Let him put his faith in the name of the Lord, looking to his God for support. 50:11See, all you who make a fire, arming yourselves with burning branches: go in the flame of your fire, and among the branches you have put a light to. This will you have from my hand, you will make your bed in sorrow.
51:1Give ear to me, you who are searching for righteousness, who are looking for the Lord: see the rock from which you were cut out, and the hole out of which you were taken. 51:2Let your thoughts be turned to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth: for when he was but one, my voice came to him, and I gave him my blessing, and made him a great people. 51:3For the Lord has given comfort to Zion: he has made glad all her broken walls; making her waste places like Eden, and changing her dry land into the garden of the Lord; joy and delight will be there, praise and the sound of melody. 51:4Give attention to me, O my people; and give ear to me, O my nation; for teaching will go out from me, and the knowledge of the true God will be a light to the peoples. 51:5Suddenly will my righteousness come near, and my salvation will be shining out like the light; the sea-lands will be waiting for me, and they will put their hope in my strong arm. 51:6Let your eyes be lifted up to the heavens, and turned to the earth which is under them: for the heavens will go in flight like smoke, and the earth will become old like a coat, and its people will come to destruction like insects: but my salvation will be for ever, and my righteousness will not come to an end. 51:7Give ear to me, you who have knowledge of righteousness, in whose heart is my law; have no fear of the evil words of men, and give no thought to their curses. 51:8For like a coat they will be food for the insect, the worm will make a meal of them like wool: but my righteousness will be for ever, and my salvation to all generations. 51:9Awake! awake! put on strength, O arm of the Lord, awake! as in the old days, in the generations long past. Was it not by you that Rahab was cut in two, and the dragon Wounded? 51:10Did you not make the sea dry, the waters of the great deep? did you not make the deep waters of the sea a way for the Lord's people to go through? 51:11Those whom the Lord has made free will come back with songs to Zion; and on their heads will be eternal joy: delight and joy will be theirs, and sorrow and sounds of grief will be gone for ever. 51:12I, even I, am your comforter: are you so poor in heart as to be in fear of man who will come to an end, and of the son of man who will be like grass? 51:13And you have given no thought to the Lord your Maker, by whom the heavens were stretched out, and the earth placed on its base; and you went all day in fear of the wrath of the cruel one, when he was making ready for your destruction. And where is the wrath of the cruel one? 51:14The prisoner, bent under his chain, will quickly be made free, and will not go down into the underworld, and his bread will not come to an end. 51:15For I am the Lord your God, who makes the sea calm when its waves are thundering: the Lord of armies is his name. 51:16And I have put my words in your mouth, covering you with the shade of my hand, stretching out the heavens, and placing the earth on its base, and saying to Zion, You are my people. 51:17Awake! awake! up! O Jerusalem, you who have taken from the Lord's hand the cup of his wrath; tasting in full measure the wine which overcomes. 51:18She has no one among all her children to be her guide; not one of the sons she has taken care of takes her by the hand. 51:19These two things have come on you; who will be weeping for you? wasting and destruction; death from need of food, and from the sword; how may you be comforted? 51:20Your sons are overcome, like a roe in a net; they are full of the wrath of the Lord, the punishment of your God. 51:21So now give ear to this, you who are troubled and overcome, but not with wine: 51:22This is the word of the Lord your master, even your God who takes up the cause of his people: See, I have taken out of your hand the cup which overcomes, even the cup of my wrath; it will not again be given to you: 51:23And I will put it into the hand of your cruel masters, and of those whose yoke has been hard on you; who have said to your soul, Down on your face! so that we may go over you: and you have given your backs like the earth, even like the street, for them to go over.
52:1Awake! awake! put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful robes, O Jerusalem, the holy town: for from now there will never again come into you the unclean and those without circumcision. 52:2Make yourself clean from the dust; up! and take the seat of your power, O Jerusalem: the bands of your neck are loose, O prisoned daughter of Zion. 52:3For the Lord says, You were given for nothing, and you will be made free without price. 52:4For the Lord God says, My people went down at first into Egypt, to get a place for themselves there: and the Assyrian put a cruel yoke on them without cause. 52:5Now then, what have I here? says the Lord, for my people are taken away without cause; they are made waste and give cries of sorrow, says the Lord, and all the day the nations put shame on my name. 52:6For this cause I will make my name clear to my people; in that day they will be certain that it is my word which comes to them; see, here am I. 52:7How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who comes with good news, who gives word of peace, saying that salvation is near; who says to Zion, Your God is ruling! 52:8The voice of your watchmen! their voices are loud in song together; for they will see him, eye to eye, when the Lord comes back to Zion. 52:9Give sounds of joy, make melody together, waste places of Jerusalem: for the Lord has given comfort to his people, he has taken up the cause of Jerusalem. 52:10The Lord has let his holy arm be seen by the eyes of all nations; and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. 52:11Away! away! go out from there, touching no unclean thing; go out from among her; be clean, you who take up the vessels of the Lord. 52:12For you will not go out suddenly, and you will not go in flight: for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will come after you to keep you. 52:13See, my servant will do well in his undertakings, he will be honoured, and lifted up, and be very high. 52:14As peoples were surprised at him, And his face was not beautiful, so as to be desired: his face was so changed by disease as to be unlike that of a man, and his form was no longer that of the sons of men. 52:15So will nations give him honour; kings will keep quiet because of him: for what had not been made clear to them they will see; and they will give their minds to what had not come to their ears.
53:1Who would have had faith in the word which has come to our ears, and to whom had the arm of the Lord been unveiled? 53:2For his growth was like that of a delicate plant before him, and like a root out of a dry place: he had no grace of form, to give us pleasure; 53:3Men made sport of him, turning away from him; he was a man of sorrows, marked by disease; and like one from whom men's faces are turned away, he was looked down on, and we put no value on him. 53:4But it was our pain he took, and our diseases were put on him: while to us he seemed as one diseased, on whom God's punishment had come. 53:5But it was for our sins he was wounded, and for our evil doings he was crushed: he took the punishment by which we have peace, and by his wounds we are made well. 53:6We all went wandering like sheep; going every one of us after his desire; and the Lord put on him the punishment of us all. 53:7Men were cruel to him, but he was gentle and quiet; as a lamb taken to its death, and as a sheep before those who take her wool makes no sound, so he said not a word. 53:8They took away from him help and right, and who gave a thought to his fate? for he was cut off from the land of the living: he came to his death for the sin of my people. 53:9And they put his body into the earth with sinners, and his last resting-place was with the evil-doers, though he had done no wrong, and no deceit was in his mouth. 53:10And the Lord was pleased ... see a seed, long life, ... will do well in his hand. ... 53:11... made clear his righteousness before men ... had taken their sins on himself. 53:12For this cause he will have a heritage with the great, and he will have a part in the goods of war with the strong, because he gave up his life, and was numbered with the evil-doers; taking on himself the sins of the people, and making prayer for the wrongdoers.