Isaiah 51

51 ¹ Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek our Father: look to the rock from which you were cut, and to the quarry from which you were dug. ² Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who gave you birth; for when he was only one I called him, and I blessed him and made him many. ³ For our Father comforts Zion; he comforts all her ruins. He makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of our Father. Joy and gladness are found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of song.

⁴ Listen to me, my people; hear me, my nation: for a teaching will go out from me, and I will set my justice as a light to the peoples. ⁵ My righteousness is near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will bring justice to the peoples; the coastlands wait for me, and they put their hope in my arm. ⁶ Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath: the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and those who live in it will die like gnats; but my salvation will last forever, and my righteousness will never be shattered. ⁷ Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people who carry my teaching in their hearts: do not fear the reproach of mortals, and do not be shattered by their insults. ⁸ For the moth will eat them like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but my righteousness will last forever, and my salvation to all generations.

⁹ Awake, awake, clothe yourself with strength, O arm of our Father! Awake as in days of old, in the generations long past. Was it not you who cut the sea monster Rahab to pieces, who pierced the dragon through? ^a a v9 In Isaiah's vision, our Father's outstretched arm is his saving power across history — from creation to the exodus to the redemption yet to come. ¹⁰ Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a road for the redeemed to cross over? ¹¹ So the ransomed of our Father will return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

¹² I, I am the one who comforts you. Who are you to fear mere mortals who die, people who pass away like grass, ¹³ that you forget me, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth? You live in constant dread all day long because of the fury of the oppressor, who is bent on destruction. But where is the fury of the oppressor? ¹⁴ The one bent down in chains will soon be set free; he will not die and go down to the pit, nor will he go hungry. ¹⁵ For I am your Father, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar — the Father of heaven's armies is his name. ¹⁶ And I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand, planting the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth, and saying to Zion, 'You are my people.'

¹⁷ Awake, awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of our Father the cup of his wrath, who have drained the bowl to the dregs, the cup that makes you stagger. ¹⁸ Among all the children she has borne there is no one to guide her; among all the children she has raised there is no one to take her by the hand. ¹⁹ These two things have fallen on you — who will mourn for you? — ruin and destruction, famine and sword. Who can comfort you? ²⁰ Your children have fainted; they lie at every street corner like an antelope caught in a net, filled with the wrath of our Father, the rebuke of your Father.

²¹ Therefore hear this, you who are afflicted, drunk, but not with wine:

²² Thus says your Sovereign Father, who defends the cause of his people: 'See, I have taken from your hand the cup that makes you stagger, the bowl of my wrath; you will never drink it again.' ²³ I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, who said to you, 'Bow down so we can walk over you,' so that you made your back like the ground, like a street for them to cross.