Israel freed

12 ‘Listen to me, Jacob,
    Israel, whom I have called:
I am he;
    I am the first and I am the last.
13 My own hand laid the foundations of the earth,
    and my right hand spread out the heavens;
when I summon them,
    they all stand up together.

14 ‘Come together, all of you, and listen:
    which of the idols has foretold these things?
The Lord’s chosen ally
    will carry out his purpose against Babylon;
    his arm will be against the Babylonians.[a]
15 I, even I, have spoken;
    yes, I have called him.
I will bring him,
    and he will succeed in his mission.

16 ‘Come near me and listen to this:

‘From the first announcement I have not spoken in secret;
    at the time it happens, I am there.’

And now the Sovereign Lord has sent me,
    endowed with his Spirit.

17 This is what the Lord says –
    your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
‘I am the Lord your God,
    who teaches you what is best for you,
    who directs you in the way you should go.
18 If only you had paid attention to my commands,
    your peace would have been like a river,
    your well-being like the waves of the sea.
19 Your descendants would have been like the sand,
    your children like its numberless grains;
their name would never be blotted out
    nor destroyed from before me.’

20 Leave Babylon,
    flee from the Babylonians!
Announce this with shouts of joy
    and proclaim it.
Send it out to the ends of the earth;
    say, ‘The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.’
21 They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
    he made water flow for them from the rock;
he split the rock
    and water gushed out.

22 ‘There is no peace,’ says the Lord, ‘for the wicked.’

The servant of the Lord

49 Listen to me, you islands;
    hear this, you distant nations:
before I was born the Lord called me;
    from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.
He made my mouth like a sharpened sword,
    in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me into a polished arrow
    and concealed me in his quiver.
He said to me, ‘You are my servant,
    Israel, in whom I will display my splendour.’
But I said, ‘I have laboured in vain;
    I have spent my strength for nothing at all.
Yet what is due to me is in the Lord’s hand,
    and my reward is with my God.’

And now the Lord says –
    he who formed me in the womb to be his servant
to bring Jacob back to him
    and gather Israel to himself,
for I am[b] honoured in the eyes of the Lord
    and my God has been my strength –
he says:
‘It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
    to restore the tribes of Jacob
    and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
    that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.’

This is what the Lord says –
    the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel –
to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation,
    to the servant of rulers:
‘Kings will see you and stand up,
    princes will see and bow down,
because of the Lord, who is faithful,
    the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.’

Restoration of Israel

This is what the Lord says:

‘In the time of my favour I will answer you,
    and in the day of salvation I will help you;
I will keep you and will make you
    to be a covenant for the people,
to restore the land
    and to reassign its desolate inheritances,
to say to the captives, “Come out,”
    and to those in darkness, “Be free!”

‘They will feed beside the roads
    and find pasture on every barren hill.
10 They will neither hunger nor thirst,
    nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them.
He who has compassion on them will guide them
    and lead them beside springs of water.
11 I will turn all my mountains into roads,
    and my highways will be raised up.
12 See, they will come from afar –
    some from the north, some from the west,
    some from the region of Aswan.’[c]

13 Shout for joy, you heavens;
    rejoice, you earth;
    burst into song, you mountains!
For the Lord comforts his people
    and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

14 But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me,
    the Lord has forgotten me.’

15 ‘Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
    and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
    I will not forget you!
16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
    your walls are ever before me.
17 Your children hasten back,
    and those who laid you waste depart from you.
18 Lift up your eyes and look around;
    all your children gather and come to you.
As surely as I live,’ declares the Lord,
    ‘you will wear them all as ornaments;
    you will put them on, like a bride.

19 ‘Though you were ruined and made desolate
    and your land laid waste,
now you will be too small for your people,
    and those who devoured you will be far away.
20 The children born during your bereavement
    will yet say in your hearing,
“This place is too small for us;
    give us more space to live in.”
21 Then you will say in your heart,
    “Who bore me these?
I was bereaved and barren;
    I was exiled and rejected.
    Who brought these up?
I was left all alone,
    but these – where have they come from?”’

22 This is what the Sovereign Lord says:

‘See, I will beckon to the nations,
    I will lift up my banner to the peoples;
they will bring your sons in their arms
    and carry your daughters on their hips.
23 Kings will be your foster fathers,
    and their queens your nursing mothers.
They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground;
    they will lick the dust at your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord;
    those who hope in me will not be disappointed.’

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 48:14 Or Chaldeans; also in verse 20
  2. Isaiah 49:5 Or him, / but Israel would not be gathered; / yet I will be
  3. Isaiah 49:12 Dead Sea Scrolls; Masoretic Text Sinim