Isaiah 51
Look to the Rock from Which You Were Hewn
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Listen to Me, You Who Pursue What Is Right
51:1“Listen to Me, you who pursue what is right and seek the Lord. Look at the solid rock you quarried and the hollow of the pit you dug.
51:2Look at Abraham your father and Sarah who labored to bear you. He was one, and I called him, blessed him, loved him, and multiplied him.
51:3I will now comfort you, Zion; I have comforted all her deserted places and will make her deserted places like the Lord’s paradise. They will find joy and exultation in her, thanksgiving and a voice of praise.
51:4Listen to Me, listen, My people; and kings, give ear to Me. For law will go out from Me, and My judgment as a light for nations.
Salvation That Lasts Forever
51:5My righteousness approaches swiftly, and My salvation will go out like light. Nations will hope in My arm; islands will wait for Me and hope in My arm.
51:6Lift your eyes to heaven and look at earth below. Heaven was made firm like smoke, but earth will grow old like a garment, and earth’s inhabitants will die like these. My salvation will last forever, and My righteousness will never fail.
51:7Listen to Me, you who know judgment, My people with My law in your heart. Do not fear people’s reproach or be overcome by their contempt.
51:8For a garment will be consumed by time, and wool eaten by a moth. But My righteousness will last forever, and My salvation through generations of generations.”
Awake, Awake, Jerusalem
51:9Awake, awake, Jerusalem, and clothe yourself with your arm’s strength! Awake as at day’s beginning, as an age-old generation. Are you not the one
51:10who makes the sea desolate, the abundant water of the abyss, who made the sea depths a crossing road for those rescued
51:11and ransomed? For by the Lord they will be brought back and come to Zion with joy and everlasting exultation. Exultation and praise are upon their heads; joy will overtake them. Pain, sorrow, and sighing fled.
51:12“I am, I am the One comforting you. Recognize whom you dreaded and feared: a mortal person, a human being who withered like grass.
Forgetting the Maker, Fearing the Oppressor
51:13You forgot God who made you, who made heaven and founded earth, and feared continually, every day, the face of your oppressor’s anger. For as he planned to remove you—where now is your oppressor’s anger?
51:14For as you are saved, it will not stand or linger.
51:15For I am your God, who stirs the sea and makes its waves resound; the Lord Sabaoth is My name.
51:16I will put My words in your mouth and shelter you under My hand’s shadow, by which I established heaven and founded earth; and He will say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’
Awake, Rise, You Who Drank the Cup
51:17Awake, awake, rise, Jerusalem, you who drank the cup of anger from the Lord’s hand. You drank out and emptied the cup of falling, the bowl of anger.
51:18There was no one to comfort you among all your children you bore, and no one to take your hand among all your sons you raised.
51:19These two confront you—who will grieve with you?—fall and crushing, famine and sword. Who will comfort you?
51:20Your sons are helpless, sleeping at every way out like a half-boiled beet, full of the Lord’s anger, exhausted because of the Lord God.
51:21Therefore listen, humbled one, drunk but not from wine.
The Lord Who Judges His People
51:22Thus says the Lord God who judges His people: ‘Look, I have taken from your hand the cup of falling, the bowl of anger. You will not drink it again.
51:23I will throw it into the hands of those who wronged and humbled you, who told your soul, “Bend down, so we may pass.” You laid your back level with the earth, outside for passersby.’”
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.