Isaiah 40-55

New Catholic Bible

¹ Comfort my people and console them,
    says your God.
² Speak tenderly to Jerusalem
    and proclaim to her
that her time of servitude is over
    and that her guilt has been expiated.
Indeed she has received from the Lord’s hand
    double punishment for all her sins.
³     A voice cries out:
    In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
    make a straight path in the desert for our God.
⁴ Let every valley be filled in
    and every mountain and hill be made low.
Uneven ground will be made smooth
    and the rugged places will become a plain.
⁵ Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
    and all mankind will see it together,
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
⁶ A voice says, “Cry out!”
    I reply, “What shall I cry out?”
“All mortals are grass;
    they last no longer than the flowers of the field.
⁷ The grass withers, the flower fades,
    when the breath of the Lord falls upon them.
    Surely the people are grass.
⁸ The grass may wither and the flower may fade,
    but the word of our God will endure forever.”
⁹ Climb to the top of a high mountain,
    O Zion, herald of good tidings.
Cry out as loudly as you can,
    O Jerusalem, herald of good news.
Lift up your voice without fear
    and proclaim to the cities of Judah,
    “Here is your God!”
¹⁰ See the Lord God approaching with power,
    he who rules with his powerful arm.
His reward is with him
    and his recompense^[d] is before him.
¹¹ He will feed his flock like a shepherd,
    and in his arms he will gather the lambs,
carrying them in his bosom
    and gently leading the pregnant ewes to water.

¹² Who has measured the waters of the sea
    in the hollow of his hand,
or marked off the heavens
    with the breadth of his hand?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a measure
    and weighed the mountains in scales
    and the hills in a balance?
¹³ Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord?
    What counselor dared to instruct him?
¹⁴ Whom did he consult to gain enlightenment?
    Who taught him the path of justice?
Who taught him knowledge
    or showed him the way of understanding?
¹⁵ In his eyes the nations are
    like a drop in a bucket,
    like dust on the scales.
To him coasts and islands^[e]
    weigh no more than fine dust,
¹⁶ Lebanon would not supply enough wood for fuel,
    nor are its animals sufficient for a burnt offering.
¹⁷ All the nations are as naught in his sight;
    he reckons them as nothing and void.
¹⁸ To whom then will you compare God?
    To what image can you liken him?
¹⁹ Perhaps an idol that a craftsman casts
    and a goldsmith overlays with gold
    and for which he fashions silver chains?
²⁰ Or should mulberry wood be chosen,
    a wood that will not rot,
and then a skilled artisan be designated
    to fashion an idol that will not fall over?
²¹ Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
Were you not told from the beginning?
    Have you not understood from the foundation of the earth?
²² God sits enthroned above the vault of the earth,
    and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy
    and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
²³ He brings princes to naught
    and reduces the rulers of the earth to nothing.
²⁴ Scarcely have crops been planted or sown,
    scarcely have their stems taken root in the ground,
before he breathes on them and they wither,
    and storm winds carry them off like chaff.
²⁵ To whom then can you compare me,
    or who is my equal? says the Holy One.
²⁶ Lift up your eyes to the heavens.
    Who created these things?
He leads forth their host and numbers them,
    summoning them all by name.^[f]
Because of his mighty power and great strength,
    not one of them is missing.
²⁷ Why do you say, O Jacob,
    and complain, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
    and my cause is disregarded by my God”?
²⁸ Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the eternal God,
    the Creator of the earth’s farthest boundaries.
He does not faint or grow weary;
    his understanding cannot be scrutinized.
²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
    and new vigor to those who are powerless.
³⁰ Even though young men faint and grow weary
    and youths stumble and fall,
³¹ those who place their hope in the Lord
    will regain their strength.
They will soar as with eagles’ wings,
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not become faint.

¹ Be silent and listen to me, O coastlands;
    let the peoples renew their strength.
Let them draw near and speak;
    let us meet together at the place of judgment.
² Who has raised up a victor from the east
    and summoned him to his service?
He delivers up nations to him
    and overthrows their kings.
With his sword he scatters them like dust,
    and with his bow he reduces them to stubble.
³ He pursues them and advances unscathed,
    scarcely touching the path with his feet.
⁴ Who has performed these deeds and accomplished this?
    Who has summoned the nations from the beginning?
I, the Lord, am the first,
    and I will be there with the last.
⁵ The coastlands have seen and become frightened;
    the ends of the earth tremble.
These things are fast approaching;
    they will come to pass.
⁶ Each worker helps another;
    they encourage each other to take heart.
⁷ The craftsman encourages the goldsmith,
    and the polisher the one who strikes the anvil;
he declares the soldering to be good,
    and he fastens the image with nails
    so that it will be secure.
⁸ But you, Israel, my servant,
    Jacob, whom I have chosen,
    the descendants of my friend Abraham,
⁹ you whom I have taken to myself
    from the ends of the earth
    and summoned from its farthest corners,
to whom I have said, “You are my servant;
    I have chosen you and will not cast you off.
¹⁰ Do not fear, for I am with you;
    do not be afraid, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and give you help,
    I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.”
¹¹ All those who rage against you
    will be put to shame and disgraced;
those who oppose you
    will be reduced to nothing and perish.
¹² You will search for those who oppose you
    but you will not find them.
Those who take up arms against you
    will be reduced to nothing.
¹³ For I, the Lord, am your God
    and I grasp your right hand.
It is I who say to you,
    Do not fear; I will help you.
¹⁴ Do not fear, you worm, Jacob,
    you maggot, Israel.
I will help you, says the Lord;
    your redeemer^[g] is the Holy One of Israel.
¹⁵ Now I will make of you a threshing sledge,
    sharp, new, with numerous teeth.
You will thresh the mountains and crush them,
    and you will reduce the hills to chaff.
¹⁶ You will winnow them,
    the wind will carry them away,
    and the gale will scatter them.
Then you will rejoice in the Lord
    and glory in the Holy One of Israel.
¹⁷ When the poor and needy search for water
    and there is none,
    and their tongues are parched with thirst,
I the Lord will come to their aid;
    I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
¹⁸ I will open up rivers on the barren heights
    and fountains in the midst of valleys.
I will turn the wilderness into a lake
    and the dry land into springs of water.
¹⁹ In the wilderness I will plant cedars,
    acacias, myrtles, and olive trees;
in the wasteland I will place cypress trees
    to grow side by side with plane trees and pine trees,
²⁰ so that all may see and know,
    observe and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
    that the Holy One of Israel has created it.
²¹ Present your case, says the Lord.
    Produce your arguments, says the king of Jacob.
²² Let them bring forth their idols
    and reveal to us what is going to happen.
What happened in the past?
    Inform us so that we may reflect on it
and that we may know what the outcome will be
    or declare to us the things to come.
²³ Reveal to us what is yet to come
    so that we may know that you are gods.
Do something, whether good or bad,
    that will cause us to be alarmed and terrified.
²⁴ But you cannot do so, for you are nothing,
    and your works are truly worthless.
    To choose you is an abomination.
²⁵ I have stirred up one from the north,
    and he has come forth;
    from the east he has been summoned by name.
He will trample on rulers as if they were mud,
    like a potter treading clay.
²⁶ Who revealed this to us from the beginning
    so that we might know it,
or advised us beforehand
    so that we might say, “He is right”?
No one foretold it, no one proclaimed it,
    no one has heard you say anything in this regard.
²⁷ I was the first to declare it to Zion,
    and I sent a bearer of glad tidings to Jerusalem.
²⁸ But when I look around, I see no one;
    there is not a single one of them to offer counsel
    or to give an answer when I question them.
²⁹ No, they are a delusion.
    Nothing they do amounts to anything;
    their idols are empty wind.

¹ Here is my servant whom I uphold,
    my chosen one in whom my soul delights.
I have put my Spirit upon him;
    he will establish justice among the nations.
² He will not cry out or shout
    or make his voice heard in the street.
³ He will not break a bruised reed,
    nor will he snuff out a smoldering wick;
    faithfully he will establish justice.
⁴ He will not falter or become discouraged
    until he has established justice upon the earth;
    and the coastlands wait for his teaching.
⁵ Thus says God, the Lord,
    who created the heavens and stretched them out,
    who fashioned the earth and all that grows in it,
who gives breath to the people who dwell on it
    and spirit to those who walk upon it:
⁶ I, the Lord, have called you for a righteous purpose;
    I have taken you by the hand.
I have formed you and established you
    to be a covenant to the people
    and a light to the nations,
⁷ to open the eyes of the blind,
    and to lead captives out of prison,
and to release from the dungeon
    those who live in darkness.
⁸ I am the Lord; that is my name.
    My glory I do not grant to another,
    nor my praise to idols.
⁹ Behold, the earlier prophecies have come to pass,
    and now I will reveal new things.
Before they actually occur,
    I will announce them to you.

¹⁰ Sing to the Lord a new song,
    his praise from the ends of the earth.
Let the sea resound and all that fills it,
    the coastlands and all its inhabitants.
¹¹ Let the desert and its towns rejoice,
    the villages where Kedar^[i] dwells.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy;
    let them shout from the top of the mountains.
¹² Let them all give glory to God
    and sing his praise in the coastlands.
¹³ The Lord marches forth like a hero;
    like a warrior he stirs up his fury.
He shouts forth his battle cry
    and triumphs against his foes.^[j]
14 For a long time I have restrained myself;
    I have maintained my silence and held my peace.
Now I will cry out like a woman in labor,
    gasping and panting.
¹⁵ I will lay waste mountains and hills
    and dry up all their vegetation.
I will convert rivers into islands
    and dry up the pools.
¹⁶ I will lead the blind^[k]
    and guide them along paths they do not know.
I will turn darkness into light before them
    and make straight their winding roads.
These are the things I will do for them,
    and I will not forsake them.
¹⁷ But those who place their trust in idols
    and who say to carved images,
“You are our gods,”
    will be turned back in bitter shame.
¹⁸ You who are deaf, listen!
    You who are blind, look and see!
¹⁹ Who is so blind as my servant,
    or so deaf as the messenger I send?
Who is so blind as the one dedicated to my service,
    or so deaf as the servant of the Lord?
²⁰ You have seen many things without comprehending them;
    your ears are open but you do not hear.
²¹ For the sake of his justice the Lord was pleased
    to make his law great and glorious.
²² But this is a people despoiled and plundered,
    all of them trapped in holes
    and hidden away in dungeons.
They have been pillaged with no one to rescue them;
    they are plundered with no one to demand their release.
²³ Who among you will pay heed to this?
    Who will pay attention and listen in the future?
²⁴ Who handed over Jacob to be plundered,
    who gave up Israel to be despoiled?
Was it not the Lord,
    against whom we have sinned?
They refused to walk in his ways,
    and they would not obey his laws.
²⁵ Therefore, he poured out upon them
    his blazing anger and the fury of battle.
It enveloped them in flames,
    but they did not understand,
it burned them,
    but they did not take it to heart.

¹ But now this is the word of the Lord,
    he who created you, O Jacob,
    and formed you, O Israel.
Have no fear, for I have redeemed you.
    I have called you by name; you are mine.
² When you pass through the waters,
    I will be with you;
    nor will the waters engulf you.
When you walk through fire,
    you will not be burned;
    the flames will not consume you.
³ For I am the Lord, your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom,
    Ethiopia and Seba^[l] in exchange for you.
⁴ Because in my eyes you are precious,
    because you are honored and I love you,
I will give people in exchange for you
    and nations in return for your life.
⁵ Do not be afraid, for I am with you.
    I will bring your offspring from the east,
    and from the west I will gather you.
⁶ I will say to the north, “Give them up,”
    and to the south, “Do not hold them back.”
Bring back my sons from afar
    and my daughters from the ends of the earth—
⁷ everyone who bears my name,
    whom I created for my glory,
    whom I formed and made.
⁸ Bring forth my people,
    those who have eyes yet are blind,
    those who have ears yet are deaf.
⁹ Let all the nations gather together
    and let the peoples assemble.
Who among them foretold this
    and proclaimed to us former events?
Let them produce witnesses to prove themselves right;
    let those who hear them say, “It is true!”
¹⁰ You are my witnesses, says the Lord,
    and my servants whom I have chosen,
so that you may know and believe in me
    and understand that it is I.
No god was formed before me,
    nor will there be any after me.
¹¹ I am the Lord,
    and there is no other servant but me.
¹² I have revealed and saved and proclaimed,
    and not some strange god among you;
    you are my witnesses to this, says the Lord.
¹³ I am God, and from eternity I am he;
    no one can deliver from my hand;
    no one can overrule or alter what I do.
¹⁴ Thus says the Lord, your redeemer,
    the Holy One of Israel:
For your sake I will send an army to Babylon
    to uproot all the prison bars,
and the triumphant shouts of the Chaldeans
    will turn to cries of lamentation.
¹⁵ I am the Lord, your Holy One,
    the Creator of Israel, your king.
¹⁶ Thus says the Lord,
    who opened a way through the sea,
    a path through raging waters,
¹⁷ who led out chariots and horsemen
    and an army of formidable strength,
until the enemy lay prostrate, unable to rise,
    extinguished and snuffed out like a wick.
¹⁸ Do not linger thinking about events of the past;
    consider not the things of old.
¹⁹ I am about to do something new.
    Now it comes to fruition;
    can you not perceive it?
I will make a path through the wilderness
    and rivers in the desert.
²⁰ The wild beasts will honor me,
    the jackals and the ostriches,
because I will provide water in the desert
    and rivers in the wasteland
    where my chosen people may drink,
²¹ the people whom I formed for myself
    so that they may proclaim my praise.
²² Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob;
    you grew weary of me, O Israel.
²³ You have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings
    or honored me with your sacrifices.
I have not exacted grain offerings from you
    or wearied you with demands for incense.
²⁴ You have not purchased aromatic cane for me
    or sated me with the fat of your sacrifices.
Rather, you have burdened me with your sins;
    you have wearied me with your crimes.
²⁵ I, I alone, am the one
    who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,
    and I will remember your sins no more.
²⁶ If you choose to review the past,
    let us go to trial;
    state your defense and prove your innocence.
²⁷ Your first ancestor sinned,
    and your spokesmen rebelled against me.
²⁸ Therefore, I expelled the leaders of the sanctuary,
    placing Jacob under the curse of destruction
    and subjecting Israel to scorn.

¹ Now listen to me, O Jacob, my servant,
    Israel whom I have chosen.
² Thus says the Lord who made you,
    who formed you in the womb
    and will continue to help you:
Do not fear, O Jacob, my servant,
    Jeshurun^[m] whom I have chosen.
³ For I will pour down rain on the thirsty land
    and open up streams on the dry ground.
I will pour out my Spirit upon your offspring
    and my blessing upon your descendants.
⁴ They will spring up amid the grass
    like willows besides flowing waters.
⁵ One person will say, “I am the Lord’s,”
    while another will call himself a son of Jacob.
And on his hand still another will write “The Lord’s,”
    and adopt Israel as a surname.

⁶ Thus says the Lord, the Lord Almighty,
    Israel’s king and redeemer:
I am the first and I am the last;
    there is no god but me.
⁷ Who is like me? Let him stand up and speak.
    Let him declare it and set forth his evidence.
Who in the past has foretold future events?
    Let him foretell to us what is yet to occur.
⁸ Do not fear or be afraid.
    Did I not proclaim all this
and foretell it long ago?
    You are my witnesses in this regard.
Is there any god besides me?
    There is no other Rock;
    I am aware of none.

²¹ Remember these things, O Lord,
    and you also, O Israel,
    for you are my servant.
I fashioned you to be my servant;
    O Israel, I will never forget you.
²² I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud
    and your sins like a mist.
Return to me,
    for I have redeemed you.
²³ Shout in triumphant joy, O heavens,
    for the Lord has done this;
    shout aloud, O depths of the earth.
Break forth into song, you mountains,
    you forests, with all your trees.
For the Lord has redeemed Jacob
    and displayed his glory in Israel.
²⁴ Thus says the Lord, your redeemer,
    who formed you in the womb:
I am the Lord who made all things;
    by myself I stretched out the heavens
    by myself I spread out the earth.
²⁵ I frustrate the omens of false prophets
    and make fools of diviners.
I confound wise men
    and reveal the foolishness of their thoughts.
²⁶ I confirm the words of my servants
    and carry out the plans revealed by my messengers.
I say to Jerusalem, You will be inhabited,
    and to the cities of Judah, You will be rebuilt.
    I will raise up their ruins.
²⁷ I say to the deep waters, Become dry;
    I will dry up your rivers.
²⁸ I say to Cyrus, You will be my shepherd,
    and he will carry out my every wish,
so that Jerusalem will be rebuilt
    and the foundations of the temple will be laid.

^1 [n]Thus says the Lord to his anointed,
    to Cyrus whose right hand I have grasped,
to subdue nations before him
    and to remove the armor of kings,
opening doors before him
    and leaving no gates barred:
² I myself will advance before you
    and level the mountains;
I will tear down bronze gates^[o]
    and cut through bars of iron.
³ I will give you treasures concealed in darkness
    and riches hidden away in secret places,
so that you may know that I am the Lord,
    the God of Israel who calls you by your name.
⁴ For the sake of my servant Jacob
    and of Israel my chosen one,
I have called you by your name,
    and I have given you a title,
    even though you do not know me.
⁵ I am the Lord and there is no other;
    there is no god besides me.
I am the Lord who armed you
    even though you did not know me,
⁶ so that it may be acknowledged from east to west
    that there is no god besides me.
    I am the Lord, and there is no other.
⁷ I form the light and create the darkness;
    prosperity and disaster depend upon my will;
    I, the Lord, do all these things.
⁸ Rain down righteousness, you heavens;
    let the skies pour it down from above.
Let the earth open up
    so that salvation may blossom forth,
and let justice also spring up;
    I, the Lord, have created it.
⁹ Woe to anyone who rises up against his Maker,
    or to the pot that is displeased with the potter.
Does the clay say to the one who molds it,
    “What are you doing?
    Your work makes no sense.”
¹⁰ Woe to anyone who asks a father,
    “What are you begetting?”
or who says to a mother,
    “To what have you given birth?”
¹¹ Thus says the Lord,
    the Holy One of Israel and its Maker:
How dare you question me about my children
    or command me regarding the work of my hands?
¹² I was the one who made the earth
    and created mankind upon it.
It was my hands that stretched out the heavens
    and commanded all their host.
¹³ I have raised this man for the triumph of justice,
    and I will smooth all his paths.
He will rebuild my city
    and set my exiles free
without price or ransom,
    says the Lord of hosts.
¹⁴ Thus says the Lord:
    The wealth of Egypt, the commerce of Ethiopia,
    and the Sabeans, tall of stature,
will come over to you and belong to you;
    they will follow you, wearing chains.
They will bow down before you
    and pray to you, saying,
“God is with you alone, and there is no other;
    there is no god aside from him.”^[p]
15 Truly you are a God who is hidden,
    O God of Israel, the Savior.
¹⁶ All the makers of idols are disgraced and humbled;
    they perish in their shame.
¹⁷ But Israel is saved by the Lord,
    a salvation that is everlasting.
You will never be put to shame or humiliated
    forever and ever.
¹⁸ For thus says the Lord,
    the Creator of the heavens,
    he who is God,
the one who formed the earth and created it
    and established it;
he did not create it to be a wasteland,
    but a place to be lived in.
I am the Lord,
    and there is no other.
¹⁹ I did not speak in secret,
    in realms of darkness.
I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,
    “Search for me in an empty waste.”
I the Lord proclaim the truth;
    I declare what is right.
²⁰ Gather together and come forth;
    assemble, all you survivors of the nations.
Bereft of knowledge are those
    who parade with their wooden idols
    and pray to gods who are unable to save them.
²¹ Come forward and present your case
    once you have examined the evidence.
Who foretold this in ages past?
    Who revealed it long ago?
Was it not I, the Lord?
    There is no god aside from me,
    I alone am the righteous God and Savior.
²² If you turn to me, you will be saved,
    all you ends of the earth,
    for I am God, and there is no other.
²³ By myself I have sworn
    that the word that issues forth from my mouth
    is righteous and irrevocable.
To me every knee will bow,
    every tongue will swear,
²⁴ saying, “In the Lord alone
    are righteousness and strength;
all those who formerly defied him
    and vented their rage against him
    will come before him in shame.
²⁵ Then all the descendants of Israel
    will be triumphant and glory in the Lord.”

¹ Bel^[r] bows down, Nebo stoops low;
    their idols are borne by beasts and cattle.
The images you used to carry on your shoulders
    are now a burden for weary animals.
² They stoop and bow down together
    but are unable to transport their burden safely,
    and they too move forth into captivity.
³ Listen to me, O house of Jacob,
    all who remain of the house of Israel,
you who have been carried by me since your birth
    and borne by me from the womb.
⁴ Even when you reach old age
    I will still be the same.
Even when your hair is gray,
    I will still carry you.
I have made you and I will uphold you;
    I will carry you and save you.
⁵ Whom can you regard as my equal?
    To whom can you compare me as identical?
⁶ Some pour out gold from a purse
    and weigh out silver on the scales.
Then they hire a goldsmith
    who fashions it into a god
    before which they prostrate themselves in adoration.
⁷ They lift it to their shoulders and carry it;
    when they return it to its place, it stands there,
    unable to budge from the spot.
If you cry out to it, it cannot reply,
    nor can it save anyone from trouble.
⁸ Remember this and stand firm in your resolve;
    keep it foremost in your mind, you rebels.
⁹ Remember the things that happened long ago;
    for I am God, and there is no other;
    I am God, and there is no one like me.
¹⁰ From the beginning I reveal the end;
    in advance I foretell what has not yet occurred.
I proclaim that my plan will be fulfilled
    and that I will accomplish my intention.
¹¹ I summon a bird of prey from the east,
    a man from a distant country to fulfill my purpose.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
    what I have planned, I will accomplish.
¹² Listen to me, you whose hearts are stubborn
    and who are far removed from deliverance.
¹³ I will bring near my justice;
    it is not far distant,
    and my salvation will not be delayed.
I will grant my salvation to Zion
    and my glory to Israel.

¹ Come down and sit in the dust,
    O virgin daughter of Babylon.
Sit on the ground without a throne,
    O daughter of the Chaldeans.
Never again will you be called
    tender and delicate.^[s]
2 Take the millstone and grind meal;
    remove your veil,
strip off your skirt, bare your legs,
    and wade through the rivers.
³ Your nakedness will be exposed
    and your shame will be seen.
I will take vengeance,
    and I will show clemency to no one.
⁴ Thus says our redeemer,
    the Holy One of Israel,
    whose name is the Lord of hosts.
⁵ Sit in silence and conceal yourself in darkness,
    O daughter of the Chaldeans.
For never again will you be called
    the mistress of kingdoms.
⁶ Because I was angry with my people
    I profaned my inheritance
    and gave them over into your power.
You showed them no mercy,
    and you laid a very heavy yoke on the aged.
⁷ You said, “I will be a queen forever.”
    Thus you did not reflect carefully on your actions
    or give any consideration to their outcome.
⁸ Now listen to this, you voluptuous woman,
    as you sit securely on your throne,
thinking to yourself,
    “I am the only one who matters.
I will never be a widow
    or experience the loss of children.”
⁹ However, both of these things will befall you,
    suddenly, in a single day;
both the loss of children and widowhood
    will come upon you in full measure
despite all your sorceries
    and all your potent spells.
¹⁰ You felt secure in your wickedness
    as you thought, “No one can see me.”
But your wisdom and your knowledge
    led you astray,
and you said to yourself,
    “I am the only one who matters.”
¹¹ As a result, evil will come upon you,
    and you will not know how to conjure it away,
disaster will befall you
    that you will not be able to avert;
complete ruin which you did not foresee
    will suddenly afflict you.
^12 [t]But continue to persist in your spells
    and your many sorceries
in which you have placed your confidence
    throughout your life.
Perhaps you can succeed with them;
    perhaps you can inspire terror.
¹³ You have exhausted yourself with consultations
    ever since your youth.
Let the astrologers now come forth to save you,
    those who seek the future in the stars
and who predict at each new moon
    what will befall you next.
¹⁴ But they are like stubble;
    the fire consumes them.
They cannot even deliver themselves
    from the heat of the flames.
These flames are not meant to sit beside;
    these glowing embers are not meant for keeping warm.
¹⁵ Of absolutely no use to you are your astrologers
    upon whom you have depended from your youth.
Each of them follows his own path;
    not one of them can save you.

¹ Hear this, O house of Jacob,
    you who are called by the name of Israel,
    and who came forth from the stock of Judah,
who swear by the name of the Lord
    and invoke the God of Israel
    but not with righteousness or good faith,
² even though you call yourselves citizens of the holy city
    and rely on the God of Israel
    whose name is the Lord of hosts.
³ Things that happened in the past
    I foretold long before they occurred.
These predictions issued forth from my mouth,
    and I made them known to you;
    then suddenly I acted and they came to pass.
⁴ Because I know full well that you are obstinate,
    with your neck an iron sinew
    and your forehead firm as bronze,
⁵ I foretold these events to you long ago
    and declared them to you before they happened
so that you could not assert, “My idols did them;
    my carved statue and my molten image ordained them.”
⁶ You have heard what I said; now consider it
    and admit the truth of what I have stated.
From now on I will reveal new things,
    hidden things of which you have not been aware.
⁷ They have just been brought into existence, and not long ago;
    before today you have never heard of them,
    so that you cannot claim to have already known them.
⁸ You neither heard nor knew;
    knowledge of them never reached your ears before now.
For I knew how treacherous you are
    and that from your birth you were rebellious.
⁹ For the sake of my name I will restrain my anger;
    for the sake of my honor I will be patient with you
    lest I should be tempted to destroy you.
¹⁰ See, I have tested you,
    but not in the manner that silver is tested;
    I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
¹¹ For my sake, for my own sake, I do this,
    for why should my name be profaned?
    I will not yield my glory to another.
¹² Listen to me, O Jacob,
    and Israel, whom I have called.
I am he; I am the first
    and I am the last.
¹³ My hand laid the foundations of the earth,
    and my right hand spread out the heavens;
when I summon them,
    they all present themselves immediately.
¹⁴ Assemble, all of you, and listen!
    Who among the idols has revealed what will happen—
that he whom I love^[u] will do my will
    against Babylon and the Chaldeans?
¹⁵ I myself have spoken and summoned him;
    I have brought him,
    and his mission will succeed.
¹⁶ Draw near to me and hear this:
    From the very beginning
    I have not spoken in secret.
From the time it came to be, I have been there.
    Now the Lord God has sent me and his Spirit.
¹⁷ Thus says the Lord God,
    your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I am the Lord, your God
    who teaches you what is for your own good
    and who leads you in the way you should go.
¹⁸ If only you had listened to my commandments,
    your prosperity would have been like a river
    and your success like the waves of the sea.
¹⁹ Your descendants would have been as numerous as the sand
    and your offspring like its countless grains.
Their name would never be erased
    or blotted out from my sight.
²⁰ Go forth from Babylon! Flee from Chaldea!
    Proclaim this with shouts of joy
    and make it known.
Send the message to the ends of the earth and say,
    “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.”
²¹ Those whom he led through desert lands
    never endured thirst.
He caused water to flow from the rock for them;
    he split open the rock and waters streamed forth.
²² Thus says the Lord:
    There is no peace for the wicked.

¹ Listen to me, O coastlands.
    Pay attention, you distant peoples.
The Lord called me before I was born;
    while I was still in my mother’s womb
    he gave me my name.
² He made my tongue like a sharp sword
    and hid me in the shadow of his hand.
He formed me into a polished arrow,
    and he concealed me in his quiver.
³ He said to me, “You are my servant,
    Israel, through whom I will manifest my glory.”
⁴ I formerly believed that I had labored in vain
    and had exhausted my strength for nothing
    and for no discernible purpose.
⁵ Yet now the Lord has spoken;
    he formed me in the womb to be his servant
so that I could bring back Jacob to him
    and enable Israel to be gathered to him.
For I am honored in the sight of the Lord,
    and my God is the source of my strength.
⁶ It is not enough for you to be my servant, he says,
    to raise up the tribes of Jacob
    and to bring back the survivors of Israel.
I will make you a light to the nations
    so that my salvation may reach
    to the ends of the earth.
⁷ Thus says the Lord,
    the redeemer, the Holy One of Israel,
to the one who is despised
    and whom the people abhor,
    the slave of tyrants:
Kings will rise up when they see you,
    and princes will prostrate themselves in homage,
because of the Lord who is faithful,
    the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.

^{8     [w]}Thus says the Lord:
    In a time of my favor I have answered you;
    on the day of salvation I have helped you.
I have formed you and have destined you
    to be a covenant to the people,
to restore the land
    and to allot the desolate heritages,
⁹ to say to the prisoners, “Come out,”
    and to those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves.”
They will find sustenance along the way,
    and any bare height will serve as their pasture.
¹⁰ They will not hunger or thirst,
    and neither scorching wind nor sun will weaken them,
for he who pities them will lead them,
    and he will guide them beside springs of water.
¹¹ I will blaze a path through all my mountains,
    and my roads will be level.
¹² Behold, some will come from far away,
    others from the north and the west,
    and still others from the land of Syene.^[x]
13 Sing for joy, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth;
    break forth into song, O mountains.
For the Lord has comforted his people,
    and he will show mercy to his afflicted ones.
¹⁴ But Zion cried out, “The Lord has forsaken me;
    my Lord has forgotten me.”
¹⁵ Can a woman forget the infant at her breast;
    or feel no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget,
    I will never forget you.
¹⁶ Behold, I have inscribed your name
    on the palms of my hands;
    your walls are continually before my eyes.
¹⁷ Those who rebuild you do so far more swiftly
    than those who destroyed you.
¹⁸ Lift up your eyes and look around you;
    they are all gathering to come to you.
As I live, says the Lord,
    you will put all of them on like jewels;
    you will adorn yourself with them like a bride.
¹⁹ You had lived in a desolate wasteland,
    amid devastated ruins.
Now the land is too tiny for its inhabitants,
    while those who destroyed you will be far away.
²⁰ The children born during your bereavement
    will say in your hearing,
“This place is too cramped for me;
    make room for me to live in.”
²¹ Then you will say to yourself,
    “Who bore these children for me?
I was bereaved and barren,
    I was exiled and repudiated;
    who has reared them?
I was left all alone;
    where then have these come from?”
²² Thus says the Lord God:
    Behold, I will beckon to the nations
    and raise my signal to the peoples.
Then they will bring your sons in their arms,
    and they will carry your daughters on their shoulders.
²³ Kings will be your foster-fathers,
    and their princesses will serve as your nursing mothers.
They will bow down to you
    with their faces to the ground
    and lick the dust from your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord;
    those who hope in me will not be disappointed.
²⁴ Can spoil be taken from a warrior,
    or can the tyrant’s captives be set free?
²⁵ Thus says the Lord:
    Even a warrior’s captives can be rescued,
    and booty can be retrieved from a tyrant.
I myself will contend with those who oppose you,
    and I will deliver your children.
²⁶ I will force your oppressors to eat their own flesh,
    and they will become drunk on their own blood
    as if with wine.
Then all mankind will know
    that I, the Lord, am your Savior
    and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

^{1     [y]}Thus says the Lord:
    Where is your mother’s bill of divorce
    by which I repudiated her?
Or which creditor of mine was it
    to whom I sold you?
No, you were sold because of your sins,
    and your mother was repudiated,
    because of your rebellious acts.
² Why was no one there when I came?
    Why did no one answer when I called?
Is my hand too short to redeem?
    Have I no power to deliver?
By my rebuke I can dry up the sea
    and turn the rivers into a desert.
Their fish rot for lack of water
    and die of thirst.
³ Did I not clothe the heavens in black
    and cover them with sackcloth?
^{4     [z]}The Lord God has given me
    the tongue of one who has been well taught
so that I am able to console the weary
    with a message of encouragement.
Morning after morning he opens my ears
    so that I may listen to their concerns.
⁵ And I have not rebelled,
    I have not turned away.
⁶ I offered my back to those who struck me,
    my cheeks to those who plucked my beard.
I did not shield my face
    from insults and spitting.
⁷ The Lord God is my help;
    therefore I have not been disgraced.
Rather, I have set my face like flint,
    knowing that I will not be put to shame.
⁸ He who upholds me is near;
    thus, if anyone wishes to oppose me,
    let us confront each other.
Is there anyone who has a case against me?
    Let him come forward.
⁹ The Lord God is my defender;
    who then will dare to condemn me?
All of them will wear out like a garment
    the moth will devour them.
¹⁰ Who among you fears the Lord
    and obeys his servant’s voice?
Who among you walks in darkness
    without any light?
Let him trust in the name of the Lord
    and rely on his God.
¹¹ But all of you kindle a fire
    and arm yourselves with firebrands.
Walk by the light of your fire
    and the firebrands that you have set ablaze.
This is what you will receive from my hand:
    you will lie down in torment.

¹ Listen to me, you who pursue justice,
    you who seek the Lord.
Look to the rock from which you were hewn,
    and to the quarry from which you were dug.
² Look to Abraham, your father,
    and to Sarah who gave birth to you.
When I called him, he was but one,
    but I blessed him and made him many.
³ The Lord will comfort Zion
    and have pity on all her ruins.
He will make her deserts like Eden
    and her wastelands into the garden of the Lord.
Joy and gladness will resound in her,
    thanksgiving and the sound of music.
⁴ Listen attentively to me, my people,
    and pay heed to me, my nation.
For the law will issue forth from me,
    and my justice will serve as a light to the nations.
⁵ My justice will issue forth swiftly,
    my salvation will appear,
    and I will judge the nations with my arm.
The coastlands and the islands
    will place their hope in me
    and trust in my protection.
⁶ Raise your eyes to the heavens
    and gaze down on the earth below.
For the heavens will vanish like smoke,
    and the earth will wear out like a garment
    as its inhabitants die like flies.
But my salvation will be everlasting
    and my justice will never cease.
⁷ Listen to me,
    you who truly comprehend the meaning of justice
    and who have my teaching in your hearts.
Do not fear the reproach of others
    or allow their reviling to dismay you.
⁸ For they will be like a garment eaten away by moths,
    like wool devoured by grubs.
But my saving justice will be everlasting
    and my deliverance for all generations.
⁹ Awake, awake, O arm of the Lord!
    Clothe yourself in strength.
Awake as in the days of old,
    in ages long past.
Was it not you who hacked Rahab^[ab] to pieces
    and pierced the dragon through?
¹⁰ Was it not you who dried up the sea,
    the waters of the great deep,
and turned the depths of the sea into a path
    for the redeemed to pass over?
¹¹ Therefore, those whom the Lord has redeemed will return
    and enter Zion singing,
    their heads crowned with everlasting joy.
They shall experience joy and gladness,
    while sorrow and mourning will disappear.
¹² I, I alone, am the one who comforts you.
    Why then do you fear mortal men who must die,
    human beings who must perish like grass?
¹³ You have forgotten the Lord, your maker,
    who stretched out the heavens
    and laid the foundations of the earth.
You are in constant fear every moment of the day,
    dreading the fury of the oppressor
    who is bent on your destruction.
But where now is the oppressor’s fury?
¹⁴     The oppressed will soon be set free;
they will not die in the dungeon,
    nor will they be without food.
¹⁵ For I am the Lord, your God
    who stirs up the sea and makes its waves roar;
    the Lord of hosts is my name.
¹⁶ I have put my words into your mouth
    and sheltered you in the shadow of my hand,
I who stretched out the heavens
    and laid the foundations of the earth,
and who say to Zion,
    You are my people.

¹⁷ Awake, awake!
    Rise up, O Jerusalem!
You have drunk from the Lord’s hand
    the cup of his wrath;
and have drained to the dregs
    the goblet that causes men to become inebriated.
¹⁸ Of all the sons you have brought forth,
    there is no one to guide you;
of all the sons you have reared,
    there is no one to take you by the hand.
¹⁹ Who is there to grieve with you
    about the twofold disaster you have suffered?
Devastation and destruction, famine and sword:
    who can comfort you?
²⁰ Your children are lying helpless
    at the corner of every street
    like antelopes trapped in a net.
They are filled with the wrath of the Lord,
    with the rebuke of your God.
²¹ Therefore, hear this, you who are afflicted,
    you who are drunk although not with wine.
²² Thus says your sovereign Lord,
    your God who defends his people:
I have taken from your hand
    the cup of inebriation;
    you will never again drink
    from the bowl of my wrath.
²³ I will hand it over to your tormentors,
    those who said to you,
“Lie on the ground
    so that we may walk over you.”
And you flattened your back
    like ground beneath their feet,
    like a road for them to walk on.^[ac]

¹ Awake, awake!
    Clothe yourself in strength, O Zion.
Put on your glorious garments,
    O Jerusalem, the holy city.
For the uncircumcised and the unclean
    will no longer enter you.
² Shake off the dust from yourself and rise up
    O captive Jerusalem.
Remove the chains from your neck,
    O captive daughter of Zion.
³ For thus says the Lord:
    You were sold for nothing
    and you will be redeemed without money.
⁴ Then the Lord God continues:
    Long ago my people went down to Egypt
and settled there as aliens;
    the Assyrians also oppressed them without cause.
⁵ Therefore, says the Lord,
    what should now be done?
My people have been carried off without cause;
    their rulers boast triumphantly,
and my name is constantly reviled
    throughout the day, declares the Lord.
⁶ Therefore, on that day,
    my people will know my name
and understand that it is I who say:
    Here I am!
⁷ How beautiful upon the mountains
    are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
who bears good news and proclaims glad tidings,
    announcing salvation and saying to Zion,
    “Your God is king.”
⁸ Listen! Your watchmen raise a cry
    and together they shout for joy,
for with their own eyes they clearly behold
    the return of the Lord to Zion.
⁹ Burst forth together with songs of joy,
    you ruins of Jerusalem.
For the Lord has comforted his people;
    he has redeemed Jerusalem.
¹⁰ The Lord has bared his holy arm
    in the sight of all the nations.
All the ends of the earth will see
    the salvation of our God.
¹¹ Depart, depart! Leave that place behind!
    Touch nothing that is unclean.
Go forth from its midst and purify yourselves,
    you who carry the vessels of the Lord.^[ad]
12 But you need not rush forth in haste,
    nor should you take flight like fugitives.
For the Lord will go before you,
    and your rear guard will be the God of Israel.

¹³ Behold, my servant will prosper;
    he will be exalted and raised to great heights.
¹⁴ Just as many people recoiled at the sight of him—
    he was so disfigured
    that he no longer appeared to be human—
¹⁵ so will he startle many nations,
    and kings will be speechless before him.
For they will see what they had not been told,
    and they will contemplate
    what they had not previously heard.

¹ Who has believed what we have heard?
    And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² He grew up before him like a sapling,
    like a shoot in arid ground.
He had no beauty or majesty
    that would cause us to look at him;
    nothing in his appearance would attract us to him.
³ He was despised and shunned by others,
    a man of sorrows who was no stranger to suffering.
We loathed him and regarded him as of no account,
    as one from whom men avert their gaze.
⁴ Although it was our afflictions that he bore,
    our sufferings that he endured,
we thought of him as stricken,
    as struck down by God and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our offenses
    and crushed for our iniquity;
the punishment that made us whole fell upon him,
    and by his bruises we have been healed.
⁶ We had all gone astray like sheep,
    each of us following his own way,
but the Lord laid upon him
    the guilt of us all.
⁷ Although harshly treated and afflicted,
    he did not open his mouth.
Like a lamb led to the slaughter
    and like a sheep that keeps silent before its shearers,
    he did not open his mouth.
⁸ Unjustly condemned, he was taken away,
    and who gave any thought to his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the living
    and stricken for the sins of his people.
⁹ They assigned him a grave with the wicked
    and a burial place with evildoers,
even though he had done no act of violence
    nor had he ever spoken deceitfully.
¹⁰ Yet it was the will of the Lord
    to crush him with pain.
For if he gives his life as a sacrifice for sin,
    he will see his offspring and prolong his life,
    and through him the will of the Lord will be accomplished.
¹¹ As a result of his anguish
    my servant will behold the light and be content.
Through his humiliation he will justify many,
    and their guilt he will bear.
¹² Therefore, I will allot him a portion among the great,
    and he will divide the spoils with the mighty,
because he exposed himself to death
    and was counted among the transgressors,
even though he bore the sins of many
    and interceded for the transgressors.

¹ Sing with happiness,
    you barren woman who never bore a child.
Burst forth in shouts of joy,
    you who never have been in labor.
For more numerous are the children of the deserted wife
    than are the children of the wedded wife,
    says the Lord.
² Enlarge the site for your dwelling
    and stretch out your tent curtains
    to the greatest possible extent.
Lengthen your ropes
    and strengthen your tent stakes.
³ For you will spread out
    to the right and to the left;
your descendants will dispossess the nations
    and settle in the desolate cities.
⁴ Have no fear, for you will not be put to shame;
    do not be discouraged, for you will not be humiliated.
You will forget the shame of your youth,
    and you will no longer remember
    the reproach of your widowhood.
⁵ For your Creator has now become your husband;
    his name is the Lord of hosts.
The Holy One of Israel is your redeemer;
    he is called the God of the entire world.
⁶ The Lord has called you back
    like a forsaken wife grieved in spirit,
like the repudiated wife of a man’s youth,
    says your God.
⁷ For a brief moment I did forsake you,
    but with great compassion I will take you back.
⁸ In an outburst of anger
    I hid my face from you for a moment,
but with everlasting love
    I will have compassion on you,
    says the Lord, your Redeemer.
⁹ This for me is like the days of Noah.
    Just as I swore that the waters of Noah
    would never again flood the earth,
so I have sworn that I never will be angry with you
    and that I will never rebuke you.
¹⁰ Although the mountains may be shaken
    and the hills may totter,
my steadfast love will not depart from you,
    and my covenant of peace will never be shaken,
    says the Lord who has compassion on you.
¹¹ O afflicted city, storm-battered and not comforted,
    I will build you with precious stones
    and lay your foundations with sapphires.
¹² I will use rubies to make your battlements,
    jewels for your gates,
    and precious stones for all your walls.
¹³ All of your sons will be taught by the Lord,
    and great will be their prosperity.
¹⁴ With justice you will be established;
    you will be free from the fear of oppression,
    and no terror will afflict you.
¹⁵ Should anyone attack you,
    it will not be my doing,
and anyone who does stir up strife
    will fall before you.
¹⁶ It was I who created the blacksmith
    to blow on the coals in the fire
    and produce a weapon suitable for its purpose.
I also created the ravager
    to destroy and wreak havoc.
¹⁷ No weapon used against you will prevail,
    and you will refute every accusation
    that is raised in court against you.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
    their vindication from me, says the Lord.

¹ All you who are thirsty,
    come to the water;
all you who have no money,
    come forward, buy, and eat.
Come, buy wine and milk,
    without money and without cost.
² Why spend money for that which is not bread,
    your wages for that which fails to satisfy.
Listen carefully to me, and you will eat well
    and delight in rich food.
³ Come to me and pay close attention;
    listen so that you may have life.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you
    to love you with the faithful love promised to David.
⁴ I appointed him to be a witness to the peoples,
    a leader and commander of nations.
⁵ You in turn will summon nations unknown to you,
    and nations that do not know you will hasten to you,
because of the Lord, your God,
    the Holy One of Israel,
    for he has glorified you.
⁶ Seek the Lord while he still may be found;
    call to him when he is close at hand.
⁷ Let the wicked abandon their ways
    and those who are evil their thoughts.
Let them return to the Lord
    so that he may have mercy upon them;
and to our God,
    for he is rich in forgiveness.
⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
⁹ As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts above your thoughts.
¹⁰ For just as the rain and the snow
    come down from the heavens
and do not return there
    until they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful,
    giving seed for the one who sows
    and bread for those who eat,
¹¹ so shall my word be
    that issues forth from my mouth.
It will not return to me unfulfilled,
    but it will accomplish my purpose
    and achieve what I sent it forth to do.
¹² Yes, you will go forth in joy,
    and you will be led back in peace.
The mountains and hills before you
    will burst forth into song,
and all the trees in the countryside
    will clap their hands.
¹³ A cypress will grow in place of the thornbush,
    and myrtles will come up instead of briars.
All this will increase the Lord’s renown,
    an everlasting sign that will not be cut off.