Isaiah 51

Isaiah 51, verse 1. ¹“Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness and seek the Lord. Look to the solid rock which you hewed, and to the hole of the pit which you dug. Isaiah 51, verse 2. ²Look to Abraham our father and to Sarah who bore you, for he was first, and I called and blessed him, and loved and multiplied him. Isaiah 51, verse 3. ³And now I will comfort you, O Zion, and I comforted all her desert places; and I shall make her desert places like the Garden of the Lord. In it they shall find gladness and exceeding joy, and thanksgiving and the voice of praise. Isaiah 51, verse 4. ⁴Listen to Me, listen, O My people and kings, give ear to Me, for law shall proceed from Me, and My judgment as the light of the Gentiles. Isaiah 51, verse 5. ⁵My righteousness draws near quickly, and My salvation will go forth as light, and the Gentiles will hope in My arm, and the coastlands shall wait for Me and hope in My arm. Isaiah 51, verse 6. ⁶Lift up your eyes to heaven, and look to the earth below, for heaven is solid as smoke, and the earth will grow old like a garment; and the inhabitants of the earth shall die, as do these things. But My salvation shall be forever, and My righteousness will not fail. Isaiah 51, verse 7. ⁷Listen to Me, My people who know judgment, in whose heart is My law. Do not fear the reproach of men, nor be overcome by their contempt. Isaiah 51, verse 8. ⁸For as a garment will be devoured by time, and as wool will be devoured by a moth, so shall they be devoured. But My righteousness shall be forever, and My salvation from generation to generation.” Isaiah 51, verse 9. ⁹Awake, awake, O Jerusalem, and put on the strength of your arm. Awake as in the beginning of days, as in the generations of old. Isaiah 51, verse 10. ¹⁰Are You not He who dried up the sea, the abundant water of the deep, and made the depths of the sea a road of passage for those who were delivered and redeemed? Isaiah 51, verse 11. ¹¹For with the Lord's help, they shall return and come to Zion with gladness and everlasting joy; for exceeding joy. Praise and gladness shall come on them, and pain, grief, and sighing shall depart from them. Isaiah 51, verse 12. ¹²“I Am, I am the Lord who comforts you. Know who it is you feared, for you were fearful of mortal man and the son of man, those who wither like grass. Isaiah 51, verse 13. ¹³You forgot the God who made you, who made heaven and laid the foundations of the earth, but all your days you feared the angry face of him who oppressed you. For he plotted to take you away, but now where is the anger of him who oppressed you? Isaiah 51, verse 14. ¹⁴For when you are saved, he will not stand still nor tarry. Isaiah 51, verse 15. ¹⁵For I am your God who troubles the sea and causes the waves to roar. The Lord of hosts is My name. Isaiah 51, verse 16. ¹⁶I will put My words in your mouth, and protect you under the shadow of My hand, with which I established heaven, and laid the foundation of the earth. I will say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’ Isaiah 51, verse 17. ¹⁷Awake, awake, rise up, O Jerusalem, who drank the cup of anger from the Lord's hand, for you drank the cup of destruction, the drinking-vessel of My anger, and emptied it out. Isaiah 51, verse 18. ¹⁸There was no one to comfort you from all the children you bore, and there was no one to take hold of your hand, not even from among all the children you reared. Isaiah 51, verse 19. ¹⁹These two things are against you. Who will sympathize with you in your grief? Misfortune and affliction, famine and sword! Who will comfort you? Isaiah 51, verse 20. ²⁰Your sons are at a loss, and they lie asleep at the end of every street like a half-boiled beet, full of the Lord's anger and forsaken because of the Lord God. Isaiah 51, verse 21. ²¹Therefore listen, you who are humbled and drunk, but not from wine. Isaiah 51, verse 22. ²²Thus says the Lord God who judges His people: “Behold, I took the cup of destruction, the cup of My anger, from your hand, and it shall no longer be imposed on you to drink from it. Isaiah 51, verse 23. ²³I will put it into the hands of those who wronged and humbled you, those who said to your soul, ‘Bow down as we pass by.’ So you put your back parallel with the ground to those who passed by.”