Isaiah 51
1Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek Yahweh: 1 look at the rock from which you were chiseled and to the quarry from which you were cut. 1
2Look at Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who bore you; for when he was a lone individual, 1 I called him. I blessed him and made him many. 1
3Yes, Yahweh will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places; 1 her wilderness he made like Eden, and her desert plains beside the Jordan River valley like the garden of Yahweh; 1 joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving, and the sound of singing. 1
4“Be attentive to me, my people; and listen to me, my people! 1 For I will issue a decree, and I will make my justice to be a light for the nations. 1
5My righteousness is near; my salvation will go out, and my arm will judge the nations; 1 the coastlands will wait for me; for my arm they will eagerly wait. 1
6Lift up your eyes to the sky, and look at the earth beneath, 1 for the heavens will vanish away like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants will die like flies. 1 But my salvation will continue forever, and my righteousness will never stop working. 1
7Listen to me, you who know what is right, you people who have my law in your heart: 1 Do not fear the insults of men, nor be disheartened by their abuse. 1
8For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; 1 but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations.” 1
9Awake, awake, clothe yourself with strength, arm of Yahweh. 1 Awake as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. 1 Is it not you who crushed Rahab, you who pierced the monster? 1
10Did you not dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep, 1 and make the depths of the sea into a way for the redeemed to pass through? 1
11The ransomed of Yahweh will return and come to Zion with cries of joy 1 and with gladness forever on their heads; and gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and mourning will flee away. 1
12“I, I, am he who comforts you. 1 Why are you afraid of men, who will die, the sons of mankind, who are made like grass? 1
13Why have you forgotten Yahweh your Maker, who stretched out the heavens 1 and laid the foundations of the earth? You are in constant dread every day 1 because of the hot fury of the oppressor when he decides to destroy. Where is the fury of the oppressor? 1
14The one who is bent down, Yahweh will hurry to release; he will not die and go down to the pit, nor will he lack bread. 1
15For I am Yahweh your God, who churns up the sea so that its waves roar—Yahweh of hosts is his name. 1
16I have placed my words in your mouth, and I have covered you in the shadow of my hand, 1 that I may plant the heavens, lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, 'You are my people.'” 1
17Awake, awake, stand up, Jerusalem, 1 you who have drunk out of the hand of Yahweh from the bowl of his anger; 1 you who have drunk out of the bowl, down to the dregs from the cup of staggering. 1
18There is no one among all the sons she has born to guide her; 1 there is no one among all the sons that she has raised to take her by the hand. 1
19These two troubles happened to you—who will grieve with you?— 1 desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword. Who will comfort you? + 51:19 The Hebrew text and some modern versions have How will I comfort you? , most modern versions correct this passage to Who will comfort you? 1
20Your sons have fainted; they lie at every street corner, like an antelope in a net; 1 they are filled with the anger of Yahweh, the rebuke of your God. 1
21But now hear this, you oppressed one and drunken one, but not drunk with wine: 1
22Your Lord Yahweh, your God, who pleads the cause of his people, says this, 1 “See, I have taken the cup of staggering from your hand— 1 the bowl, which is the cup of my anger—so that you will not drink it again. 1
23I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, those who have said to you, 'Lie down, that we may walk over you'; 1 you made your back like the ground and like the street for them to walk on.”