21 They didn’t thirst when he led them through the deserts.
He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them.
He also split the rock and the waters gushed out.
22 “There is no peace”, says the LORD, “for the wicked.”
49
1 Listen, islands, to me.
Listen, you peoples, from afar:
the LORD has called me from the womb;
from the inside of my mother, he has mentioned my name.
2 He 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.
3 He said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
4 But 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 the LORD,
and my reward with my God.”
5 Now the LORD, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
says to bring Jacob again to him,
and to gather Israel to him,
for I am honorable in the LORD’s eyes,
and my God has become my strength.
6 Indeed, 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.”
7 The LORD, 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 the LORD who is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
8 The LORD says, “I have answered you in an acceptable time.
I have helped you in a day of salvation.
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,
9 saying 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.
10 They 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.
11 I will make all my mountains a road,
and my highways shall be exalted.
12 Behold, these shall come from afar,
and behold, these from the north and from the west,
and these from the land of Sinim.”
13 Sing, heavens, and be joyful, earth!
Break out into singing, mountains!
For the LORD has comforted his people,
and will have compassion on his afflicted.
14 But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me,
and the Lord has forgotten me.”
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!
16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.
Your walls are continually before me.
17 Your children hurry.
Your destroyers and those who devastated you will leave you.
18 Lift up your eyes all around, and see:
all these gather themselves together, and come to you.
As I live,” says the LORD, “you shall surely clothe yourself with them all as with an ornament,
and dress yourself with them, like a bride.
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.
20 The children of your bereavement will say in your ears,
‘This place is too small for me.
Give me a place to live in.’
21 Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has conceived these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children
and am alone, an exile, and wandering back and forth?
Who has brought these up?
Behold, I was left alone. Where were these?’ ”
22 The Lord GOD says, “Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations,
and lift up my banner to the peoples.
They shall bring your sons in their bosom,
and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
23 Kings 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 the LORD;
and those who wait for me won’t be disappointed.”
24 Shall the plunder be taken from the mighty,
or the lawful captives be delivered?
25 But the LORD 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.
26 I 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, the LORD, am your Savior
and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
50
1 The LORD 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.
2 Why, 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 of thirst.
3 I clothe the heavens with blackness.
I make sackcloth their covering.”
4 The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught,
that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary.
He awakens morning by morning,
he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.
5 The Lord GOD has opened my ear.
I was not rebellious.
I have not turned back.
6 I 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.
7 For the Lord GOD will help me.
Therefore I have not been confounded.
Therefore I have set my face like a flint,
and I know that I won’t be disappointed.
8 He 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.
9 Behold, the Lord GOD 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.
10 Who among you fears the LORD
and obeys the voice of his servant?
He who walks in darkness
and has no light,
let him trust in the LORD’s name,
and rely on his God.
11 Behold, 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 the LORD.
Look to the rock you were cut from,
and to the quarry you were dug from.
2 Look to Abraham your father,
and to Sarah who bore you;
for when he was but one I called him,
I blessed him,
and made him many.
3 For the LORD has comforted Zion.
He has comforted all her waste places,
and has made her wilderness like Eden,
and her desert like the garden of the LORD.
Joy and gladness will be found in them,
thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
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.
5 My 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.
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and look at the earth beneath;
for the heavens will vanish away like smoke,
and the earth will wear out like a garment.
Its inhabitants will die in the same way,
but my salvation will be forever,
and my righteousness will not be abolished.
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.
8 For 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.”
9 Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of the LORD!
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?
10 Isn’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?
11 Those ransomed by the LORD will return,
and come with singing to Zion.
Everlasting joy shall be on their heads.
They will obtain gladness and joy.
Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
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?
13 Have you forgotten the LORD 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?
14 The captive exile will speedily be freed.
He will not die and go down into the pit.
His bread won’t fail.
15 For I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea
so that its waves roar.
the LORD of Hosts is his name.
16 I have put my words in your mouth
and have covered you in the shadow of my hand,
that
