should go.
18If only you would heed My commands!
Then your prosperity would be like a river,
Your triumph like the waves of the sea.
19Your offspring would be as many as the sand,
Their issue as many as its grains.d
Their name would never be cut off
Or obliterated from before Me.
20Go forth from Babylon,
Flee from Chaldea!
Declare this with loud shouting,
Announce this,
Bring out the word to the ends of the earth!
21Say: “The LORD has redeemed
His servant Jacob!”
They have known no thirst,
Though He led them through parched places;
He made water flow for them from the rock;
He cleaved the rock and water gushed forth.
22There is no safety—said the LORD—for the wicked.
49 Listen, O coastlands, to me,
And give heed, O nations afar:
The LORD appointed me before I was born,
He named me while I was in my mother’s womb.
2He made my mouth like a sharpened blade,
He hid me in the shadow of His hand,
And He made me like a polished arrow;
He concealed me in His quiver.
3And He said to me, “You are My servant,
Israel in whom I glory.”
4I thought, “I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for empty breath.”
But my case rested with the LORD,
My recompense was in the hands of my God.
5And now the LORD has resolved—
He who formed me in the womb to be His servant—
To bring back Jacob to Himself,
That Israel may be restored to Him.
And I have been honored in the sight of the LORD,
My God has been my strength.
6For He has said:
“It is too little that you should be My servant
In that I raise up the tribes of Jacob
And restore the survivors of Israel:
I will also make you a lighta of nations,
That My salvation may reach the ends of the earth.”
7Thus said the LORD,
The Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One,
b-To the despised one,
To the abhorred nations,-b
To the slave of rulers:
Kings shall see and stand up;
Nobles, and they shall prostrate themselves—
To the honor of the LORD, who is faithful,
To the Holy One of Israel who chose you.
8Thus said the LORD:
In an hour of favor I answer you,
And on a day of salvation I help you—
I created you and appointed you c-a covenant people-c—
Restoring the land,
Allotting anew the desolate holdings,
9Saying to the prisoners, “Go free,”
To those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves.”
They shall pasture along the roads,
On every bare height shall be their pasture.
10They shall not hunger or thirst,
Hot wind and sun shall not strike them;
For He who loves them will lead them,
He will guide them to springs of water.
11I will make all My mountains a road,
And My highways shall be built up.
12Look! These are coming from afar,
These from the north and the west,
And these from the land of Sinim.d
13Shout, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth!
Break into shouting, O hills!
For the LORD has comforted His people,
And has taken back His afflicted ones in love.
14Zion says,
“The LORD has forsaken me,
My Lord has forgotten me.”
15Can a woman forget her baby,
Or disown the child of her womb?
Though she might forget,
I never could forget you.
16See, I have engraved you
On the palms of My hands,
Your walls are ever before Me.
17Swiftly your children are coming;
Those who ravaged and ruined you shall leave you.
18Look up all around you and see:
They are all assembled, are come to you!
As I live
—declares the LORD—
You shall don them all like jewels,
Deck yourself with them like a bride.
19As for your ruins and desolate places
And your land laid waste—
You shall soon be crowded with settlers,
While destroyers stay far from you.
20The children e-you thought you had lost-e
Shall yet say in your hearing,
“The place is too crowded for me;
Make room for me to settle.”
21And you will say to yourself,
“Who bore these for me
When I was bereaved and barren,
Exiled and disdainedf—
By whom, then, were these reared?
I was left all alone—
And where have these been?”
22Thus said the Lord GOD:
I will raise My hand to nations
And lift up My ensign to peoples;
And they shall bring your sons in their bosoms,
And carry your daughters on their backs.
23Kings shall tend your children,
Their queens shall serve you as nurses.
They shall bow to you, face to the ground,
And lick the dust of your feet.
And you shall know that I am the LORD—
Those who trust in Me shall not be shamed.
24Can spoil be taken from a warrior,
Or captives retrieved from a victor?
25Yet thus said the LORD:
Captives shall be taken from a warrior
And spoil shall be retrieved from a tyrant;
For I will contend with your adversaries,
And I will deliver your children.
26I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,
They shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine.
And all mankind shall know
That I the LORD am your Savior,
The Mighty One of Jacob, your Redeemer.
50 Thus said the LORD:
aWhere is the bill of divorce
Of your mother whom I dismissed?
And which of My creditors was it
To whom I sold you off?
You were only sold off for your sins,
And your mother dismissed for your crimes.
2Why, when I came, was no one there,
Why, when I called, would none respond?
Is my arm, then, too short to rescue,
Have I not the power to save?
With a mere rebuke I dry up the sea,
And turn rivers into desert.
Their fish stink from lack of water;
They lie dead b-of thirst.-b
3I clothe the skies in blackness
And make their raiment sackcloth.
4c-The Lord GOD gave me a skilled tongue,
To know how to speak timely words to the weary.-c
Morning by morning, He rouses,
He rouses my ear
To give heed like disciples.
5The Lord GOD opened my ears,
And I did not disobey,
I did not run away.
6I offered my back to the floggers,
And my cheeks to those who tore out my hair.
I did not hide my face
From insult and spittle.
7But the Lord GOD will help me—
Therefore I feel no disgrace;
Therefore I have set my face like flint,
And I know I shall not be shamed.
8My Vindicator is at hand—
Who dares contend with me?
Let us stand up together!d
Who would be my opponent?
Let him approach me!
9Lo, the Lord GOD will help me—
Who can get a verdict against me?
They shall all wear out like a garment,
The moth shall consume them.
10Who among you reveres the LORD
And heeds the voice of His servant?—
Though he walk in darkness
And have no light,
Let him trust in the name of the LORD
And rely upon his God.
11But you are all kindlers of fire,
e-Girding on-e firebrands.
Walk by the blaze of your fire,
By the brands that you have lit!
This has come to you from My hand:
e-You shall lie down in pain.-e
51 Listen to Me, you who pursue justice,
You who seek the LORD:
Look to the rock you were hewn from,
To the quarry you were dug from.
2Look back to Abraham your father
And to Sarah who brought you forth.
For he was only one when I called him,
But I blessed him and made him many.
3Truly the LORD has comforted Zion,
Comforted all her ruins;
He has made her wilderness like Eden,
Her desert like the Garden of the LORD.
Gladness and joy shall abide there,
Thanksgiving and the sound of music.
4Hearken to Me, a-My people,-a
And give ear to Me, O a-My nation,-a
For teaching shall go forthb from Me,
My way for the light of peoples.
In a moment I will bring it:
5The triumph I grant is near,
The success I give has gone forth.
My arms shall c-provide for-c the peoples;
The coastlands shall trust in Me,
They shall look to My arm.
6Raise your eyes to the heavens,
And look upon the earth beneath:
Though the heavens should melt away like smoke,
And the earth wear out like a garment,
And its inhabitants die out d-as well,-d
My victory shall stand forever,
My triumph shall remain unbroken.
7Listen to Me, you who care for the right,
O people who lay My instruction to heart!
Fear not the insults of men,
And be not dismayed at their jeers;
8For the moth shall eat them up like a garment,
The worme shall eat them up like wool.
But My triumph shall endure forever,
My salvation through all the ages.
9Awake, awake, clothe yourself with splendor.
O arm of the LORD!
Awake as in days of old,
As in former ages!
It was you that hacked Rahabf in pieces,
That pierced the Dragon.f
10It was you that dried up the Sea,
The waters of the great deep;
That made the abysses of the Sea
A road the redeemed might walk.
11So let the ransomed of the LORD return,
And come with shouting to Zion,
Crowned with joy everlasting.
Let them attain joy and gladness,
While sorrow and sighing flee.
12I, I am He who comforts you!
What ails you that you fear
Man who must die,
Mortals who fare like grass?
13You have forgotten the LORD your Maker,
Who stretched out the skies and made firm the earth!
And you live all day in constant dread
Because of the rage of an oppressor
Who is aiming to cut [you] down.
Yet of what account is the rage of an oppressor?
14gQuickly the crouching one is freed;
He is not cut down and slain,
And he shall not want for food.
15For I the LORD your God—
Who stir up the sea into roaring waves,
Whose name is LORD of Hosts—
16h-Have put My words in your mouth
And sheltered you with My hand;-h
I, who plantedi the skies and made firm the earth,
Have said to Zion: You are My people!
17Rouse, rouse yourself!
Arise, O Jerusalem,
You who from the LORD’s hand
Have drunk the cup of His wrath,
You who have drained to the dregs
The bowl, the cup of reeling!
18She has none to guide her
Of all the sons she bore;
None takes her by the hand,
Of all the sons she reared.j
19These two things have befallen you:
Wrack and ruin—who can console you?
Famine and sword—k-how shall I-k comfort you?
20Your sons lie in a swoon
At the corner of every street—
Like an antelope caught in a net—
Drunk with the wrath of the LORD,
With the rebuke of your God.
21Therefore,
Listen to this, unhappy one,
Who are drunk, but not with wine!
22Thus said the LORD, your Lord,
Your God who champions His people:
Herewith I take from your hand
The cup of reeling,l
The bowl, the cup of My wrath;
You shall never drink it again.
23I will put it in the hands of