Isaiah 51

1“Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek Yahweh: and to the quarry you were dug from. look to the rock you were cut from, 2and to Sarah who bore you; and I blessed him, and made him many. Look to Abraham your father, for when he was but one I called him, 3He has comforted all her waste places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Yahweh. thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. For Yahweh has comforted Zion. Joy and gladness will be found therein, 4and hear me, my nation: and I will establish my justice for a light to the peoples. “Listen to me, my people; for a law will go out from me, 5My salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples. and they will trust my arm. My righteousness is near. The islands will wait for me, 6and look on the earth beneath; and the earth will wear out like a garment; and its inhabitants will die in the same way: and my righteousness will not be abolished. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, for the heavens will vanish away like smoke, but my salvation will be forever, 7the people in whose heart is my law: and don’t be dismayed at their insults. “Listen to me, you who know righteousness, Don’t fear the reproach of men, 8and the worm will eat them like wool; and my salvation to all generations.” For the moth will eat them up like a garment, but my righteousness will be forever, 9Awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. who pierced the monster? Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of Yahweh! Isn’t it you who cut Rahab in pieces, 10the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? Isn’t it you who dried up the sea, 11and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy shall be on their heads. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Those ransomed by Yahweh will return, They will obtain gladness and joy. 12Who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who will be made as grass? “I, even I, am he who comforts you. 13who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth? when he prepares to destroy? Where is the fury of the oppressor? Have you forgotten Yahweh your Maker, Do you live in fear continually all day because of the fury of the oppressor, 14and he will not die and go down into the pit, and his bread will not fail. The captive exile will speedily be freed; 15so that its waves roar: Yahweh of Armies is his name. For I am Yahweh your God, who stirs up the sea, 16and have covered you in the shadow of my hand, and lay the foundations of the earth, and tell Zion, ‘You are my people.’” I have put my words in your mouth, that I may plant the heavens, 17Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from Yahweh’s hand the cup of his wrath. and drained it. Awake, awake! You have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, 18and there is no one who takes her by the hand among all the sons who she has brought up. There is no one to guide her among all the sons to whom she has given birth; 19who will grieve with you?— and famine and the sword. How can I comfort you? These two things have happened to you— desolation and destruction, 20They lie at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in a net. the rebuke of your God. Your sons have fainted. They are full of the Yahweh’s wrath, 21and drunken, but not with wine: Therefore now hear this, you afflicted, 22your God who pleads the cause of his people, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath. You will not drink it any more: Thus says your Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, 23who have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’ and you have laid your back as the ground, like a street to those who walk over.” and I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you,