Isaiah 51

¹ Listen to me, you who pursue integrity, who seek Yahweh. Consider the rock you were hewn from, the quarry from which you were cut.

² Consider Abraham your father and Sarah who gave you birth. For he was all alone when I called him, but I blessed and increased him.

³ Yes, Yahweh has pity on Zion, has pity on all her ruins; turns her desolation into an Eden her wasteland into the garden of Yahweh. Joy and gladness shall be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of music.

⁴ Pay attention to me, you peoples, listen to me, you nations. For from me comes the Law and my justice shall be the light of the peoples, I will establish

⁵ my integrity speedily, my salvation shall come like the light, my arm shall judge the peoples. The islands put their hope in me, put their trust in my strength.

⁶ Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look down at the earth. The heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants die like vermin, but my salvation shall last for ever and my justice have no end.

⁷ Listen to me, you who know what integrity means, people who take my laws to heart: do not fear the taunts of men, nor be dismayed by their insults,

⁸ for the moth shall eat them like garments, the grub devour them like wool, but my integrity will remain for ever, and my salvation for all generations.

⁹ Awake, awake! Clothe yourself in strength, arm of Yahweh. Awake, as in the past, in times of generations long ago. Did you not split Rahab in two, and pierce the Dragon through?

¹⁰ Did you not dry up the sea, the waters of the great Abyss, to make the seabed a road for the redeemed to cross?

¹¹ Those whom Yahweh has ransomed return, they come to Zion shouting for joy, everlasting joy in their faces; joy and gladness go with them, sorrow and lament are ended.

¹² I, I am your consoler. How then can you be afraid of mortal man, of son of man, whose fate is the fate of grass?

¹³ You have forgotten Yahweh who made you, who spread out the heavens and laid the earth’s foundations, why still go in daily dread of the oppressor’s fury, when he sets out to destroy you? What has happened to the fury of oppressors?

¹⁴ The captive is soon to be set free; he will not die in a deep dungeon nor will his bread run out.

¹⁵ I am Yahweh your God who stirs the sea, making its waves roar, my name is Yahweh Sabaoth.

¹⁶ I put my words into your mouth, I hid you in the shadow of my hand, when I spread out the heavens and laid the earth’s foundations and said to Zion, ‘You are my people’.

¹⁷ Awake, awake! To your feet, Jerusalem! You who from Yahweh’s hand have drunk the cup of his wrath. The chalice of stupor you have drained to the dregs.

¹⁸ She has not one to guide her of all the sons she has borne, not one to take her by the hand of all the sons she has reared.

¹⁹ These two calamities have befallen you – who is there to mourn for you? Devastation and ruin, famine and sword – who is there to console you?

²⁰ Your sons lie helpless (at every street corner) like an antelope trapped in a net, sodden with the wrath of Yahweh, with the threats of your God.

²¹ Listen then to this, prostrated one, drunk, though not with wine.

²² Thus says your Lord Yahweh, your God, defender of your people. See, I take out of your hand the cup of stupor, the chalice of my wrath; you shall drink it no longer.

²³ I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, of those who said to you, ‘Bow down that we may walk over you’; while of your back you made a pavement, a street for them to walk on.