Isaiah, 51

1. Listen to me, you who pursue saving justice, you who seek Yahweh. Consider the rock from which you were hewn, the quarry from which you were dug.

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. Consider Abraham your father and Sarah who gave you birth. When I called him he was the only one but I blessed him and made him numerous.

2. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah [that] bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.

3. Yes, Yahweh has pity on Zion, has pity on all her ruins; he will turn her desert into an Eden and her wastelands into the garden of Yahweh. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of music.

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. Pay attention to me, my people, listen to me, my nation, for a law will come from me, and I shall make my saving justice the light of peoples.

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 justice is suddenly approaching, my salvation appears, my arm is about to judge the peoples. The coasts and islands will put their hope in me and put their trust in my arm.

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. Raise your eyes to the heavens, look down at the earth; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth wear out like clothing and its inhabitants die like vermin, but my salvation will last for ever and my saving justice remain inviolable.

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. Listen to me, you who know what saving justice means, a people who take my laws to heart: do not fear people's taunts, do not be alarmed by their insults,

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 will eat them like clothing, the grub will devour them like wool, but my saving justice will last for ever and my salvation for all generations.

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! Clothe yourself in strength, arm of Yahweh. Awake, as in the olden days, generations long ago! Was it not you who split Rahab in half, who pierced the Dragon through?

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. Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great Abyss; who made the sea-bed into a road for the redeemed to go across?

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. This is why those whom Yahweh has ransomed will return, they will enter Zion shouting for joy, their heads crowned with a joy unending; joy and gladness will escort them and sorrow and sighing will take flight.

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, I am your consoler. Why then should you be afraid of mortal human beings, of a child of man, whose fate is that of the grass?

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. You forget about Yahweh your Creator who spread out the heavens and laid the earth's foundations; you have never stopped trembling all day long before the fury of the oppressor when he was bent on destruction. Where is the oppressor's fury now?

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 despairing captive is soon to be set free; he will not die in the dungeon, nor will his food run out.

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

15. But I [am] the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of hosts [is] his name.

16. I put my words into your mouth, I hid you in the shadow of my hand, to spread out the heavens and lay the earth's foundations and say to Zion, 'You are my people.'

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! To your feet, Jerusalem! You who from Yahweh's hand have drunk the cup of his wrath. The chalice, the stupefying cup, you have drained to the dregs.

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 no one to guide her of all the children she has borne, no one to grasp her hand of all the children she has reared.

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. Double disaster has befallen you -- who is there to sympathise? Pillage and ruin, famine and sword -- who is there to console you?

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. Your children are lying helpless at the end of every street like an antelope trapped in a net; they are filled to the brim with Yahweh's wrath, with the rebuke of your God.

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. So listen to this, afflicted one, drunk, though not with wine.

21. Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:

22. Thus says your Lord Yahweh, your God, defender of your people: Look, I am taking the stupefying cup from your hand, the chalice, the cup of my wrath, you will not have to drink again.

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. I shall hand it to your tormentors who used to say to you, 'On the ground! So that we can walk over you!' And you would flatten your back like the ground, like a street for them to walk on.

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.