| Chapter 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. | ||