The Book of the Prophet Isaiah 51 The Restoration and Salvation of Israel

 The Book of the Prophet Isaiah 51

The Restoration and Salvation of Israel

1 Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord: look to the rock where you were cut, and to the quarry from which you were hewn.

2 Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him and multiplied him.

3 For the Lord will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.

4 Give ear to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for from me will go forth the law, and my justice will be established as a light to the peoples.

5 My righteousness is near, my salvation is on its way, and my arms will judge the peoples; the islands will wait for me, and in my arm they will hope.

6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants will die likewise; but my salvation will last forever, and my righteousness will not be broken.

7 Listen to me, you who know righteousness, you people in whose hearts is my law: do not fear the reproach of men, nor be dismayed by their insults.

8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will devour them like wool; but my righteousness will last forever, and my salvation from generation to generation.

9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake as in the days of old, as in the generations of long ago; Are you not the one who cut Rahab in pieces and wounded the dragon?

10 Are you not the one who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep? Who made a path in the depths of the sea so that the redeemed might pass through?

11 So the ransomed of the Lord will return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

12 I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you should fear mortal man, human beings who are like grass?

13 Do you forget the Lord your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth? Do you continually fear the wrath of the oppressor? Where is the wrath of him who afflicted you?

14 The captive exile will soon be released, and he will not die in the cave, nor will his bread fail him.

15 For I am the Lord your God, who divides the sea, so that its waves roar. The Lord of Hosts is his name.

16 I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand, to plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, and to say to Zion, “You are my people.”

17 Awake, awake, rise up, Jerusalem! You have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath; you have drunk and swallowed the dregs of the cup of stumbling.

18 Of all the children she bore, there is none to guide her gently; of all the children she raised, there is none to take her by the hand.

19 These two things have happened to you; who will have pity on you? Desolation, and destruction, and famine, and the sword! How shall I comfort you?

20 Your children have fainted; they lie in the streets of every road like an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of the Lord and the rebuke of your God.

21 Therefore hear this, you afflicted one, drunk but not with wine.

22 Thus says your Lord, the Lord, your God, who will plead the cause of his people: Behold, I take from your hand the cup of stumbling, the dregs of the cup of my wrath; you shall drink no more of it.

23 But I will put it into the hands of those who afflicted you, who say to your soul, “Bow down, that we may pass over you”; and you have made your back like the ground, and like a road for passersby.