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Isaiah 51
1 Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek
the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit
whence ye are digged.
2 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for
I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.
3 For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste
places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the
garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and
the voice of melody.
4 Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation:
for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light
of the people.
5 My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine
arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall
they trust.
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth
beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax
old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my
salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
7 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose
heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their
revilings.
8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall
eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation
from generation to generation.
9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in
the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab,
and wounded the dragon?
10 Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the
great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass
over?
11 Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with
singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall
obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
12 I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou
shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall
be made as grass;
13 And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the
heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually
every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy?
and where is the fury of the oppressor?
14 The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he
should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.
15 But I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves
roared: The LORD of hosts is his name.
16 And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in
the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations
of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.
17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the
hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of
trembling, and wrung them out.
18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath
brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons
that she hath brought up.
19 These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for
thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall
I comfort thee?
20 Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets,
as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of
thy God.
21 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not
with wine:
22 Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the
cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of
trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it
again:
23 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which
have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy
body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.
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