34:1Come near, you nations, to hear! Listen, you peoples. Let the earth and all it contains hear; the world, and everything that comes from it. 34:2For Yahweh is enraged against all the nations, and angry with all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them. He has given them over for slaughter. 34:3Their slain will also be cast out, and the stench of their dead bodies will come up; and the mountains will melt in their blood. 34:4All of the army of the sky will be dissolved. The sky will be rolled up like a scroll, and all its armies will fade away, as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree. 34:5For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky. Behold, it will come down on Edom, and on the people of my curse, for judgment. 34:6Yahweh’s sword is filled with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 34:7The wild oxen will come down with them, and the young bulls with the mighty bulls; and their land will be drunken with blood, and their dust made greasy with fat. 34:8For Yahweh has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. 34:9Its streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur, And its land will become burning pitch. 34:10It won’t be quenched night nor day. Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation, it will lie waste. No one will pass through it forever and ever. 34:11But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it. The owl and the raven will dwell in it. He will stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness. 34:12They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, but none shall be there; and all its princes shall be nothing. 34:13Thorns will come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses; and it will be a habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches. 34:14The wild animals of the desert will meet with the wolves, and the wild goat will cry to his fellow. Yes, the night creature shall settle there, and shall find herself a place of rest. 34:15The arrow snake will make her nest there, and lay, hatch, and gather under her shade. Yes, the kites will be gathered there, every one with her mate. 34:16Search in the book of Yahweh, and read: not one of these will be missing. None will lack her mate. For my mouth has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them. 34:17He has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it to them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever. From generation to generation they will dwell in it.
35:1The wilderness and the dry land will be glad. The desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose. 35:2It will blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. Lebanon’s glory will be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They will see Yahweh’s glory, the excellence of our God. 35:3Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. 35:4Tell those who have a fearful heart, “Be strong. Don’t be afraid. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God’s retribution. He will come and save you. 35:5Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. 35:6Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. 35:7The burning sand will become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water. Grass with reeds and rushes will be in the habitation of jackals, where they lay. 35:8A highway will be there, a road, and it will be called The Holy Way. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it will be for those who walk in the Way. Wicked fools will not go there. 35:9No lion will be there, nor will any ravenous animal go up on it. They will not be found there; but the redeemed will walk there. 35:10The Yahweh’s ransomed ones will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”
36:1Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all of the fortified cities of Judah, and captured them. 36:2The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to king Hezekiah with a large army. He stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool in the fuller’s field highway. 36:3Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder came out to him. 36:4Rabshakeh said to them, “Now tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What confidence is this in which you trust? 36:5I say that your counsel and strength for the war are only vain words. Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? 36:6Behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt, which if a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 36:7But if you tell me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God,’ isn’t that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar?’” 36:8Now therefore, please make a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. 36:9How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 36:10Have I come up now without Yahweh against this land to destroy it? Yahweh said to me, “Go up against this land, and destroy it.”’” 36:11Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and don’t speak to us in the Jews’ language in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 36:12But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you, to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?” 36:13Then Rabshakeh stood, and called out with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 36:14Thus says the king, ‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you. 36:15Don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, “Yahweh will surely deliver us. This city won’t be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”’ 36:16Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, ‘Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and each of you eat from his vine, and each one from his fig tree, and each one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; 36:17until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 36:18Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, “Yahweh will deliver us.” Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? 36:19Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? 36:20Who are they among all the gods of these countries that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’” 36:21But they remained silent, and said nothing in reply, for the king’s commandment was, “Don’t answer him.” 36:22Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
37:1When king Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahweh’s house. 37:2He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. 37:3They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘Today is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to give birth. 37:4It may be Yahweh your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’” 37:5So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 37:6Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘Yahweh says, “Don’t be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 37:7Behold, I will put a spirit in him and he will hear news, and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”’” 37:8So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish. 37:9He heard news concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “He has come out to fight against you.” When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 37:10“Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem won’t be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” 37:11Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Shall you be delivered? 37:12Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, Haran, 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 city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?’” 37:14Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to Yahweh’s house, and spread it before Yahweh. 37:15Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh, saying, 37:16“Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, who is enthroned among the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 37:17Turn your ear, Yahweh, and hear. Open your eyes, Yahweh, and behold. Hear all of the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to defy the living God. 37:18Truly, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the countries and their land, 37:19and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them. 37:20Now therefore, Yahweh our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are Yahweh, even you only.” 37:21Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Yahweh, the God of Israel says, ‘Because you have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, 37:22this is the word which Yahweh has spoken concerning him. The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you. 37:23Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel. 37:24By your servants, have you defied the Lord, and have said, “With the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon. I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypress trees. I will enter into its farthest height, the forest of its fruitful field. 37:25I have dug and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt.” 37:26“‘Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to destroy fortified cities, turning them into ruinous heaps. 37:27Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field, and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops, and like a field before its crop has grown. 37:28But I know your sitting down, your going out, your coming in, and your raging against me. 37:29Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore will I put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came. 37:30“‘This shall be the sign to you. You will eat this year that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs from the same; and in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 37:31The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. 37:32For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go out, and survivors will escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this.’ 37:33“Therefore Yahweh says concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither will he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it. 37:34By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come to this city,’ says Yahweh. 37:35‘For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.’” 37:36Then Yahweh’s angel went out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 37:37So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, went away, returned to Nineveh, and stayed there. 37:38As he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place.
38:1In those days was Hezekiah sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Set your house in order, for you will die, and not live.’” 38:2Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh, 38:3and said, “Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” Hezekiah wept bitterly. 38:4Then Yahweh’s word came to Isaiah, saying, 38:5“Go, and tell Hezekiah, ‘Yahweh, the God of David your father, says, “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. 38:6I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. 38:7This shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing that he has spoken. 38:8Behold, I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps. So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down.”’” 38:9The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness. 38:10I said, “In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the residue of my years.” 38:11I said, “I won’t see Yah, Yah in the land of the living. I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world. 38:12My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end of me. 38:13I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me. 38:14I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security.” 38:15What will I say? He has both spoken to me, and himself has done it. I will walk carefully all my years because of the anguish of my soul. 38:16Lord, men live by these things; and my spirit finds life in all of them: you restore me, and cause me to live. 38:17Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back. 38:18For Sheol can’t praise you. Death can’t celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can’t hope for your truth. 38:19The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do today. The father shall make known your truth to the children. 38:20Yahweh will save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in Yahweh’s house. 38:21Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.” 38:22Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I will go up to Yahweh’s house?”
39:1At that time, Merodach Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he heard that he had been sick, and had recovered. 39:2Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah didn’t show them. 39:3Then Isaiah the prophet came to king Hezekiah, and asked him, “What did these men say? Where did they come from to you?” Hezekiah said, “They have come from a country far from me, even from Babylon.” 39:4Then he asked, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.” 39:5Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of Yahweh of Armies: 39:6‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up until today, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left,’ says Yahweh. 39:7‘They will take away your sons who will issue from you, whom you shall father, and they will be eunuchs in the king of Babylon’s palace.’” 39:8Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “Yahweh’s word which you have spoken is good.” He said moreover, “For there will be peace and truth in my days.”
40:1“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. 40:2“Speak comfortably to Jerusalem; and call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of Yahweh’s hand double for all her sins.” 40:3The voice of one who calls out, “Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God. 40:4Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain. 40:5Yahweh’s glory shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.” 40:6The voice of one saying, “Cry!” One said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field. 40:7The grass withers, the flower fades, because Yahweh’s breath blows on it. Surely the people are like grass. 40:8The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever.” 40:9You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength. Lift it up. Don’t be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold, your God!” 40:10Behold, the Lord Yahweh will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 40:11He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who have their young. 40:12Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the sky with his span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measuring basket, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? 40:13Who has directed Yahweh’s Spirit, or has taught him as his counselor? 40:14Who did he take counsel with, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? 40:15Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing. 40:16Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its animals sufficient for a burnt offering. 40:17All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity. 40:18To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him? 40:19A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it. 40:20He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks a skillful workman to set up a carved image for him that will not be moved. 40:21Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? Haven’t you been told from the beginning? Haven’t you understood from the foundations of the earth? 40:22It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in; 40:23who brings princes to nothing; who makes the judges of the earth like meaningless. 40:24They are planted scarcely. They are sown scarcely. Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble. 40:25“To whom then will you liken me? Who is my equal?” says the Holy One. 40:26Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name. by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, Not one is lacking. 40:27Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, “My way is hidden from Yahweh, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?” 40:28Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? The everlasting God, Yahweh, The Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint. He isn’t weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 40:29He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might. 40:30Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall; 40:31But those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.
41:1“Keep silent before me, islands, and let the peoples renew their strength. Let them come near, then let them speak. Let’s meet together for judgment. 41:2Who has raised up one from the east? Who called him to his foot in righteousness? He hands over nations to him, and makes him rule over kings. He gives them like the dust to his sword, like the driven stubble to his bow. 41:3He pursues them, and passes by safely, Even by a way that he had not gone with his feet. 41:4Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Yahweh, the first, and with the last, I am he.” 41:5The islands have seen, and fear. The ends of the earth tremble. They approach, and come. 41:6Everyone helps his neighbor. They say to their brothers, “Be strong!” 41:7So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith. He who smoothes with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, “It is good”; and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter. 41:8“But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham my friend, 41:9You whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and called from its corners, and said to you, ‘You are my servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away.’ 41:10Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness. 41:11Behold, all those who are incensed against you will be disappointed and confounded. Those who strive with you will be like nothing, and shall perish. 41:12You will seek them, and won’t find them, even those who contend with you. Those who war against you will be as nothing, as a non-existent thing. 41:13For I, Yahweh your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, ‘Don’t be afraid. I will help you.’ 41:14Don’t be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel. I will help you,” says Yahweh, “and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. 41:15Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth. You will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and will make the hills like chaff. 41:16You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the whirlwind will scatter them. You will rejoice in Yahweh. You will glory in the Holy One of Israel. 41:17The poor and needy seek water, and there is none. Their tongue fails for thirst. I, Yahweh, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. 41:18I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the middle of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. 41:19I will put cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oil trees in the wilderness. I will set cypress trees, pine, and box trees together in the desert; 41:20that they may see, know, consider, and understand together, that Yahweh’s hand has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it. 41:21Produce your cause,” says Yahweh. “Bring out your strong reasons,” says the King of Jacob. 41:22“Let them announce, and declare to us what shall happen. Declare the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come. 41:23Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and see it together. 41:24Behold, you are of nothing, and your work is of nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination. 41:25“I have raised up one from the north, and he has come; from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name; and he shall come on rulers as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay. 41:26Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know? And before, that we may say, ‘He is right?’ Surely, there is no one who declares. Surely, there is no one who shows. Surely, there is no one who hears your words. 41:27I am the first to say to Zion, ‘Behold, look at them;’ and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem. 41:28When I look, there is no man; even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask of them, can answer a word. 41:29Behold, all of them, their deeds are vanity and nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion.
42:1“Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen, in whom my soul delights— I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations. 42:2He will not shout, nor raise his voice, nor cause it to be heard in the street. 42:3He won’t break a bruised reed. He won’t quench a dimly burning wick. He will faithfully bring justice. 42:4He will not fail nor be discouraged, until he has set justice in the earth, and the islands will wait for his law.” 42:5Thus says God Yahweh, he who created the heavens and stretched them out, he who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it, he who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it. 42:6“I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will keep you, and make you a covenant for the people, as a light for the nations; 42:7to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison. 42:8“I am Yahweh. That is my name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to engraved images. 42:9Behold, the former things have happened, and I declare new things. I tell you about them before they come up.” 42:10Sing to Yahweh a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the islands and their inhabitants. 42:11Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices, with the villages that Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing. Let them shout from the top of the mountains! 42:12Let them give glory to Yahweh, and declare his praise in the islands. 42:13Yahweh will go out like a mighty man. He will stir up zeal like a man of war. He will raise a war cry. Yes, he will shout aloud. He will triumph over his enemies. 42:14“I have been silent a long time. I have been quiet and restrained myself. Now I will cry out like a travailing woman. I will both gasp and pant. 42:15I will destroy mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs. I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools. 42:16I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know. I will lead them in paths that they don’t know. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. I will do these things, and I will not forsake them. 42:17“Those who trust in engraved images, who tell molten images, ‘You are our gods’ will be turned back. They will be utterly disappointed. 42:18“Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see. 42:19Who is blind, but my servant? Or who is as deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is as blind as he who is at peace, and as blind as Yahweh’s servant? 42:20You see many things, but don’t observe. His ears are open, but he doesn’t listen. 42:21It pleased Yahweh, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify the law, and make it honorable. 42:22But this is a robbed and plundered people. All of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prisons. They have become captives, and no one delivers; and a plunder, and no one says, ‘Restore them!’ 42:23Who is there among you who will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come? 42:24Who gave Jacob as plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Didn’t Yahweh, he against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, and they disobeyed his law. 42:25Therefore he poured the fierceness of his anger on him, and the strength of battle; and it set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know; and it burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart.”
43:1But now Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel says: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine. 43:2When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, and flame will not scorch you. 43:3For I am Yahweh your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I have given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place. 43:4Since you have been precious and honored in my sight, and I have loved you; therefore I will give people in your place, and nations instead of your life. 43:5Don’t be afraid; for I am with you. I will bring your offspring from the east, and gather you from the west. 43:6I will tell the north, ‘Give them up!’ and tell the south, ‘Don’t hold them back! Bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth— 43:7everyone who is called by my name, and whom I have created for my glory, whom I have formed, yes, whom I have made.’” 43:8Bring out the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears. 43:9Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the peoples be assembled. Who among them can declare this, and show us former things? Let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified; or let them hear, and say, “That is true.” 43:10“You are my witnesses,” says Yahweh, “With my servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither will there be after me. 43:11I myself am Yahweh; and besides me there is no savior. 43:12I have declared, I have saved, and I have shown; and there was no strange god among you. Therefore you are my witnesses”, says Yahweh, “and I am God. 43:13Yes, since the day was, I am he; and there is no one who can deliver out of my hand. I will work, and who can hinder it?” 43:14Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: “For your sake, I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring all of them down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing. 43:15I am Yahweh, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.” 43:16Yahweh, who makes a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters says: 43:17who brings out the chariot and horse, the army and the mighty man (they lie down together, they shall not rise; they are extinct, they are quenched like a wick): 43:18“Don’t remember the former things, and don’t consider the things of old. 43:19Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs out now. Don’t you know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. 43:20The animals of the field shall honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; because I give water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen, 43:21the people which I formed for myself, that they might declare my praise. 43:22Yet you have not called on me, Jacob; but you have been weary of me, Israel. 43:23You have not brought me of your sheep for burnt offerings; neither have you honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, nor wearied you with frankincense. 43:24You have bought me no sweet cane with money, nor have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices; but you have burdened me with your sins. You have wearied me with your iniquities. 43:25I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins. 43:26Put me in remembrance. Let us plead together. Declare your case, that you may be justified. 43:27Your first father sinned, and your teachers have transgressed against me. 43:28Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary; and I will make Jacob a curse, and Israel an insult.”
44:1Yet listen now, Jacob my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen. 44:2This is what Yahweh who made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you says: “Don’t be afraid, Jacob my servant; and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. 44:3For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your offspring: 44:4and they will spring up among the grass, as willows by the watercourses. 44:5One will say, ‘I am Yahweh’s;’ and another will be called by the name of Jacob; and another will write with his hand ‘to Yahweh,’ and honor the name of Israel.” 44:6This is what Yahweh, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies, says: “I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God. 44:7Who is like me? Who will call, and will declare it, and set it in order for me, since I established the ancient people? Let them declare the things that are coming, and that will happen. 44:8Don’t fear, neither be afraid. Haven’t I declared it to you long ago, and shown it? You are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? Indeed, there is not. I don’t know any other Rock.” 44:9Everyone who makes a carved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that they may be disappointed. 44:10Who has fashioned a god, or molds an image that is profitable for nothing? 44:11Behold, all his fellows will be disappointed; and the workmen are mere men. Let them all be gathered together. Let them stand up. They will fear. They will be put to shame together. 44:12The blacksmith takes an ax, works in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm. He is hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water, and is faint. 44:13The carpenter stretches out a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes. He marks it out with compasses, and shapes it like the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to reside in a house. 44:14He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak, and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest. He plants a cypress tree, and the rain nourishes it. 44:15Then it will be for a man to burn; and he takes some of it, and warms himself. Yes, he burns it, and bakes bread. Yes, he makes a god, and worships it; he makes it a carved image, and falls down to it. 44:16He burns part of it in the fire. With part of it, he eats meat. He roasts a roast, and is satisfied. Yes, he warms himself, and says, “Aha! I am warm. I have seen the fire.” 44:17The rest of it he makes into a god, even his engraved image. He bows down to it and worships, and prays to it, and says, “Deliver me; for you are my god!” 44:18They don’t know, neither do they consider: for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see; and their hearts, that they can’t understand. 44:19No one thinks, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, “I have burned part of it in the fire. Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it. Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?” 44:20He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?” 44:21Remember these things, Jacob and Israel; for you are my servant. I have formed you. You are my servant. Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. 44:22I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you. 44:23Sing, you heavens, for Yahweh has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth! Break out into singing, you mountains, O forest, all of your trees, for Yahweh has redeemed Jacob, and will glorify himself in Israel. 44:24Yahweh, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb says: “I am Yahweh, who makes all things; who alone stretches out the heavens; who spreads out the earth by myself; 44:25who frustrates the signs of the liars, and makes diviners mad; who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolish; 44:26who confirms the word of his servant, and performs the counsel of his messengers; who says of Jerusalem, ‘She will be inhabited;’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They will be built,’ and ‘I will raise up its waste places;’ 44:27who says to the deep, ‘Be dry,’ and ‘I will dry up your rivers;’ 44:28Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure,’ even saying of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built;’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’”
45:1Yahweh says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him, and strip kings of their armor; to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut: 45:2“I will go before you, and make the rough places smooth. I will break the doors of brass in pieces, and cut apart the bars of iron. 45:3I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that it is I, Yahweh, who call you by your name, even the God of Israel. 45:4For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel my chosen, I have called you by your name. I have given you a title, though you have not known me. 45:5I am Yahweh, and there is no one else. Besides me, there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not known me; 45:6that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is no one besides me. I am Yahweh, and there is no one else. 45:7I form the light, and create darkness. I make peace, and create calamity. I am Yahweh, who does all these things. 45:8Rain, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, that it may produce salvation, and let it cause righteousness to spring up with it. I, Yahweh, have created it. 45:9Woe to him who strives with his Maker— a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands?’ 45:10Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What have you become the father of?’ or to a mother, ‘To what have you given birth?’” 45:11Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker says: “You ask me about the things that are to come, concerning my sons, and you command me concerning the work of my hands! 45:12I have made the earth, and created man on it. I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens; and I have commanded all their army. 45:13I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will make straight all his ways. He shall build my city, and he shall let my exiles go free, not for price nor reward,” says Yahweh of Armies. 45:14Yahweh says: “The labor of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you, and they shall be yours. They will go after you. They shall come over in chains; and they will bow down to you. They will make supplication to you: ‘Surely God is in you; and there is no one else. There is no other god. 45:15Most certainly you are a God who has hidden yourself, God of Israel, the Savior.’” 45:16They will be disappointed, yes, confounded, all of them. Those who are makers of idols will go into confusion together. 45:17Israel will be saved by Yahweh with an everlasting salvation. You will not be disappointed nor confounded to ages everlasting. 45:18For Yahweh who created the heavens, the God who formed the earth and made it, who established it and didn’t create it a waste, who formed it to be inhabited says: “I am Yahweh; and there is no other. 45:19I have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness. I didn’t say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, Yahweh, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right. 45:20“Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. Those have no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image, and pray to a god that can’t save. 45:21Declare and present it. Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has shown this from ancient time? Who has declared it of old? Haven’t I, Yahweh? There is no other God besides me, a just God and a Savior; There is no one besides me. 45:22“Look to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. 45:23I have sworn by myself. The word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and will not be revoked, that to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath. 45:24They will say of me, ‘There is righteousness and strength only in Yahweh.’” Even to him shall men come; and all those who raged against him shall be disappointed. 45:25All the offspring of Israel will be justified in Yahweh, and will rejoice!
46:1Bel bows down. Nebo stoops. Their idols are carried by animals, and on the livestock. The things that you carried around are heavy loads, a burden for the weary. 46:2They stoop and they bow down together. They could not deliver the burden, but they have gone into captivity. 46:3“Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, that have been carried from their birth, that have been carried from the womb. 46:4Even to old age I am he, and even to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear. Yes, I will carry, and will deliver. 46:5“To whom will you compare me, and consider my equal, and compare me, as if we were the same? 46:6Some pour out gold from the bag, and weigh silver in the balance. They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god. They fall down— yes, they worship. 46:7They bear it on their shoulder. They carry it, and set it in its place, and it stands there. It cannot move from its place. Yes, one may cry to it, yet it can not answer. It cannot save him out of his trouble. 46:8“Remember this, and show yourselves men. Bring it to mind again, you transgressors. 46:9Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me. 46:10I declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done. I say: My counsel will stand, and I will do all that I please. 46:11I call a ravenous bird from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. Yes, I have spoken. I will also bring it to pass. I have planned. I will also do it. 46:12Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness! 46:13I bring my righteousness near. It is not far off, and my salvation will not wait. I will grant salvation to Zion, my glory to Israel.
47:1“Come down, and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans. For you will no longer be called tender and delicate. 47:2Take the millstones, and grind flour. Remove your veil, lift up your skirt, uncover your legs, and wade through the rivers. 47:3Your nakedness will be uncovered. Yes, your shame will be seen. I will take vengeance, and will spare no one.” 47:4Our Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies is his name, is the Holy One of Israel. 47:5“Sit in silence, and go into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans. For you shall no longer be called the mistress of kingdoms. 47:6I was angry with my people. I profaned my inheritance, and gave them into your hand. You showed them no mercy. You laid a very heavy yoke on the aged. 47:7You said, ‘I will be a princess forever;’ so that you did not lay these things to your heart, nor did you remember the results. 47:8“Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me. I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children.’ 47:9But these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children and widowhood. They will come on you in their full measure, in the multitude of your sorceries, and the great abundance of your enchantments. 47:10For you have trusted in your wickedness. You have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and your knowledge has perverted you. You have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’ 47:11Therefore disaster will come on you. You won’t know when it dawns. Mischief will fall on you. You won’t be able to put it away. Desolation will come on you suddenly, which you don’t understand. 47:12“Stand now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth; as if you might profit; as if you might prevail. 47:13You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels. Now let the astrologers, the stargazers, and the monthly prognosticators, stand up and save you from the things that will come on you. 47:14Behold, they are like stubble. The fire will burn them. They won’t deliver themselves from the power of the flame. It won’t be a coal to warm at or a fire to sit by. 47:15The things that you labored in will be like this: those who have trafficked with you from your youth will each wander in his own way. There will be no one to save you.
48:1“Hear this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and have come out of the waters of Judah. You swear by Yahweh’s name, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness 48:2(for they call themselves citizens of the holy city, and rely on the God of Israel; Yahweh of Armies is his name): 48:3I have declared the former things from of old; yes, they went out of my mouth, and I revealed them. I did them suddenly, and they happened. 48:4Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow brass; 48:5therefore I have declared it to you from of old; before it came to pass I showed it to you; lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them, and my engraved image, and my molten image, has commanded them.’ 48:6You have heard it; see all this. And you, won’t you declare it? “I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, which you have not known. 48:7They are created now, and not from of old; and before today you didn’t hear them; lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’ 48:8Yes, you didn’t hear; yes, you didn’t know; yes, from of old your ear was not opened: for I knew that you dealt very treacherously, and were called a transgressor from the womb. 48:9For my name’s sake, I will defer my anger, and for my praise I hold it back for you, so that I don’t cut you off. 48:10Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction. 48:11For my own sake, for my own sake, I will do it; for how would my name be profaned? I will not give my glory to another. 48:12“Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel my called: I am he; I am the first, I am also the last. 48:13Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spread out the heavens. when I call to them, they stand up together. 48:14“Assemble yourselves, all of you, and hear; who among them has declared these things? He whom Yahweh loves will do what he likes to Babylon, and his arm will be against the Chaldeans. 48:15I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him. I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous. 48:16“Come near to me and hear this: “From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it happened, I was there.” Now the Lord Yahweh has sent me, with his Spirit. 48:17Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: “I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go. 48:18Oh that you had listened to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. 48:19Your offspring also would have been as the sand, and the descendants of your body like its grains. His name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.” 48:20Leave Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! With a voice of singing announce this, tell it even to the end of the earth: say, “Yahweh has redeemed his servant Jacob!” 48:21They didn’t thirst when he led them through the deserts. He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them. He split the rock also, and the waters gushed out. 48:22“There is no peace”, says Yahweh, “for the wicked.”
49:1Listen, islands, to me. Listen, you peoples, from afar: Yahweh has called me from the womb; from the inside of my mother he has mentioned my name. 49:2He has made my mouth like a sharp sword. He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand. He has made me a polished shaft. He has kept me close in his quiver. 49:3He said to me, “You are my servant; Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” 49:4But I said, “I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength in vain for nothing; yet surely the justice due to me is with Yahweh, and my reward with my God.” 49:5Now Yahweh says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, and to gather Israel to him, for I am honorable in Yahweh’s eyes, and my God has become my strength. 49:6Indeed, he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel? I will also give you as a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.” 49:7Yahweh, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, says to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and rise up; princes, and they shall worship; because of Yahweh who is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.” 49:8Yahweh says, “In an acceptable time I have answered you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you. I will preserve you, and give you for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritage, 49:9saying to those who are bound, ‘Come out!’; to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves!’ “They shall feed along the paths, and their pasture shall be on all treeless heights. 49:10They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun strike them: for he who has mercy on them will lead them. He will guide them by springs of water. 49:11I will make all my mountains a road, and my highways shall be exalted. 49:12Behold, these shall come from afar; and behold, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.” 49:13Sing, heavens; and be joyful, earth; and break out into singing, mountains: for Yahweh has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted. 49:14But Zion said, “Yahweh has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.” 49:15“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you! 49:16Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. your walls are continually before me. 49:17Your children hurry. Your destroyers and those who devastated you will leave you. 49:18Lift up your eyes all around, and see: all these gather themselves together, and come to you. As I live,” says Yahweh, “you shall surely clothe yourself with them all as with an ornament, and dress yourself with them, like a bride. 49:19“For, as for your waste and your desolate places, and your land that has been destroyed, surely now that land will be too small for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away. 49:20The children of your bereavement will say in your ears, ‘This place is too small for me. Give me a place to live in.’ 49:21Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has conceived these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children, and am solitary, an exile, and wandering back and forth? Who has brought these up? Behold, I was left alone. Where were these?’” 49:22Thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and lift up my banner to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. 49:23Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of your feet; Then you will know that I am Yahweh; and those who wait for me shall not be disappointed.” 49:24Shall the plunder be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captives be delivered? 49:25But Yahweh says, “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the plunder retrieved from the fierce; for I will contend with him who contends with you, and I will save your children. 49:26I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh; and they will be drunk on their own blood, as with sweet wine. Then all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
50:1Yahweh says, “Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, with which I have put her away? or to which of my creditors have I sold you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, and your mother was put away for your transgressions. 50:2Why, when I came, was there no one? when I called, why was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it can’t redeem? or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea. I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stink, because there is no water, and die for thirst. 50:3I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.” 50:4The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary. He wakens morning by morning, he wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. 50:5The Lord Yahweh has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious. I have not turned back. 50:6I gave my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair. I didn’t hide my face from shame and spitting. 50:7For the Lord Yahweh will help me. Therefore I have not been confounded. Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be disappointed. 50:8He who justifies me is near. Who will bring charges against me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. 50:9Behold, the Lord Yahweh will help me! Who is he who will condemn me? Behold, they will all grow old like a garment. The moths will eat them up. 50:10Who among you fears Yahweh, and obeys the voice of his servant? He who walks in darkness, and has no light, let him trust in Yahweh’s name, and rely on his God. 50:11Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who adorn yourselves with torches around yourselves; walk in the flame of your fire, and among the torches that you have kindled. You will have this from my hand: You will lie down in sorrow.
51:1“Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek Yahweh: look to the rock you were cut from, and to the quarry you were dug from. 51:2Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him, and made him many. 51:3For Yahweh has comforted Zion. He has comforted all her waste places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Yahweh. Joy and gladness will be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. 51:4“Listen to me, my people; and hear me, my nation: for a law will go out from me, and I will establish my justice for a light to the peoples. 51:5My righteousness is near. My salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples. The islands will wait for me, and they will trust my arm. 51:6Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment; and its inhabitants will die in the same way: but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will not be abolished. 51:7“Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law: Don’t fear the reproach of men, and don’t be dismayed at their insults. 51:8For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations.” 51:9Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of Yahweh! Awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn’t it you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster? 51:10Isn’t it you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? 51:11Those ransomed by Yahweh will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy shall be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away. 51:12“I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who will be made as grass? 51:13Have you forgotten Yahweh your Maker, who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth? Do you live in fear continually all day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he prepares to destroy? Where is the fury of the oppressor? 51:14The captive exile will speedily be freed; and he will not die and go down into the pit, and his bread will not fail. 51:15For I am Yahweh your God, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar: Yahweh of Armies is his name. 51:16I have put my words in your mouth, and have covered you in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and tell Zion, ‘You are my people.’” 51:17Awake, awake! Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from Yahweh’s hand the cup of his wrath. You have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it. 51:18There is no one to guide her among all the sons to whom she has given birth; and there is no one who takes her by the hand among all the sons who she has brought up. 51:19These two things have happened to you— who will grieve with you?— desolation and destruction, and famine and the sword. How can I comfort you? 51:20Your sons have fainted. They lie at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in a net. They are full of the Yahweh’s wrath, the rebuke of your God. 51:21Therefore now hear this, you afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine: 51:22Thus says your Lord Yahweh, your God who pleads the cause of his people, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath. You will not drink it any more: 51:23and I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’ and you have laid your back as the ground, like a street to those who walk over.”
52:1Awake, awake! Put on your strength, Zion. Put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city: for from now on the uncircumcised and the unclean will no more come into you. 52:2Shake yourself from the dust! Arise, sit up, Jerusalem! Release yourself from the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Zion! 52:3For Yahweh says, “You were sold for nothing; and you will be redeemed without money.” 52:4For thus says the Lord Yahweh: “My people went down at the first into Egypt to live there: and the Assyrian has oppressed them without cause. 52:5“Now therefore, what do I do here,” says Yahweh, “seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them mock,” says Yahweh, “and my name is blasphemed continually all day long. 52:6Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore they shall know in that day that I am he who speaks. Behold, it is I.” 52:7How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” 52:8Your watchmen lift up their voice, together they sing; for they shall see eye to eye, when Yahweh returns to Zion. 52:9Break out into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem; for Yahweh has comforted his people. He has redeemed Jerusalem. 52:10Yahweh has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. 52:11Depart, depart, go out from there; touch no unclean thing! Go out from among her! Cleanse yourselves, you who carry Yahweh’s vessels. 52:12For you shall not go out in haste, neither shall you go by flight: for Yahweh will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rear guard. 52:13Behold, my servant will deal wisely. He will be exalted and lifted up, and will be very high. 52:14Just as many were astonished at you (his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men), 52:15so he will cleanse many nations. Kings will shut their mouths at him: for they will see that which had not been told them; and they will understand that which they had not heard.
53:1Who has believed our message? To whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed? 53:2For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 53:3He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him. 53:4Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted. 53:5But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed. 53:6All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 53:7He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he didn’t open his mouth. 53:8He was taken away by oppression and judgment; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people? 53:9They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death; although he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. 53:10Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days, and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in his hand. 53:11After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities. 53:12Therefore will I give him a portion with the great, and he will divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was counted with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.