Isaiah 51

Listen to Me, You Who Pursue Righteousness

1Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the quarry from which you were dug. 2Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you;
for when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him, and made him many. 3For the LORD has comforted Zion;
he has comforted all her waste places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD;
joy and gladness will be found in it, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. 4Attend to me, my people;
and give ear to me, my nation: for a law will go forth from me, and I will establish my justice for a light of the peoples.

5My righteousness is near, my salvation is gone forth, and my arms will judge the peoples;
the islands will wait for me, and on my arm will they trust. 6Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath;
for the heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will wax old like a garment;
and those who dwell in it will die in like manner: but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will not be abolished. 7Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law;
do not you fear the reproach of men, neither be you dismayed at their insults. 8For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool;
but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations.

9Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of the LORD;
awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn't it you who did cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster? 10Isn't it you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep;
who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? 11The ransomed of the LORD will return, and come with singing to Zion;
and everlasting joy will be on their heads: they will obtain gladness and joy;
and sorrow and sighing will flee away. 12I, even I, am the one who comforts you: who are you, that you are afraid of man who will die, and of the son of man who will be made as grass;

13and have forgotten the LORD your Maker, who stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth;
and fear continually all the day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he makes ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor? 14The captive exile will speedily be freed;
and he will not die and go down into the pit, neither will his bread fail. 15For I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea, so that the waves of it roar: the LORD of Hosts is his name. 16I have put my words in your mouth, and have covered you in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and tell Zion, You are my people.

17Awake, awake, stand up, Jerusalem, that have drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath;
you have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it. 18There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has gave birth;
neither is there any who takes her by the hand among all the sons who she has brought up. 19These two things have happened to you. Who will bemoan you? Desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword;
how will I comfort you? 20Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as an antelope in a net;
they are full of the wrath of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.

21Therefore hear now this, you afflicted, and drunken, but now with wine: 22Thus says your Lord GOD, and your God who pleads the cause of his people, Look, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath;
you will no more drink it again: 23and I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, Bow down, that we may go over;
and you have laid your back as the ground, and as the street, to those who go over.