Isaiah 48

1 Hear this, O house of Jacob called by the name Israel, sprung from the stock of Judah, You who swear by the name of the LORD and invoke the God of Israel without sincerity or justice,
2 Though you are named after the holy city and rely on the God of Israel, whose name is the LORD of hosts.
3 Things of the past I foretold long ago, they went forth from my mouth, I let you hear of them; then suddenly I took action and they came to be.
4 Because I know that you are stubborn and that your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead bronze,
5 I foretold them to you of old; before they took place I let you hear of them, That you might not say, My idol did them, my statue, my molten image commanded them.
6 Now that you have heard, look at all this; must you not admit it? From now on I announce new things to you, hidden events of which you knew not.
7 Now, not long ago, they are brought into being, and beforetime you did not hear of them, so that you cannot claim to have known them;
8 You neither heard nor knew, they did not reach your ears beforehand. Yes, I know you are utterly treacherous, a rebel you were called from birth.
9 For the sake of my name I restrain my anger, for the sake of my renown I hold it back from you, lest I should destroy you.
10 See, I have refined you like silver, tested you in the furnace of affliction.
11 For my sake, for my own sake, I do this; why should I suffer profanation? My glory I will not give to another.
12 Listen to me, Jacob, Israel, whom I named! I, it is I who am the first, a nd also the last am I.
13 Yes, my hand laid the foundations of the earth; my right hand spread out the heavens. When I call them, they stand forth at once.
14 All of you assemble and listen: Who among you foretold these things? The LORD'S friend shall do his will against Babylon and the progeny of Chaldea.
15 I myself have spoken, I have called him, I have brought him, and his way succeeds!
16 Come near to me and hear this! Not from the beginning did I speak it in secret; At the time it comes to pass, I am present: Now the Lord GOD has sent me, and his spirit.
17 Thus says the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I, the LORD, your God, teach you what is for your good, and lead you on the way you should go.
18 If you would hearken to my commandments, your prosperity would be like a river, and your vindication like the waves of the sea;
19 Your descendants would be like the sand, and those born of your stock like its grains, Their name never cut off or blotted out from my presence.
20 Go forth from Babylon, flee from Chaldea! With shouts of joy proclaim this, make it known; Publish it to the ends of the earth, and say, The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob.
21 They did not thirst when he led them through dry lands; Water from the rock he set flowing for them; he cleft the rock, and waters welled forth.
22 (There is no peace for the wicked, says the LORD.)

Isaiah 49

1 Hear me, O coastlands, listen, O distant peoples. The LORD called me from birth, from my mother's womb he gave me my name.
2 He made of me a sharp-edged sword and concealed me in the shadow of his arm. He made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me.
3 You are my servant, he said to me, Israel, through whom I show my glory.
4 Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength, Yet my reward is with the LORD, my recompense is with my God.
5 For now the LORD has spoken who formed me as his servant from the womb, That Jacob may be brought back to him and Israel gathered to him; And I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD, and my God is now my strength!
6 It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.
7 Thus says the LORD, the redeemer and the Holy One of Israel, To the one despised, whom the nations abhor, the slave of rulers: When kings see you, they shall stand up, and princes shall prostrate themselves Because of the LORD who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.
8 Thus says the LORD: In a time of favor I answer you, on the day of salvation I help you, To restore the land and allot the desolate heritages,
9 Saying to the prisoners: Come out! To those in darkness: Show yourselves! Along the ways they shall find pasture, on every bare height shall their pastures be.
10 They shall not hunger or thirst, nor shall the scorching wind or the sun strike them; For he who pities them leads them and guides them beside springs of water.
11 I will cut a road through all my mountains, and make my highways level.
12 See, some shall come from afar, others from the north and the west, and some from the land of Syene.
13 Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth, break forth into song, you mountains. For the LORD comforts his people and shows mercy to his afflicted.
14 But Zion said, The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.
15 Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.
16 See, upon the palms of my hands I have written your name; your walls are ever before me.
17 Your rebuilders make haste, as those who tore you down and laid you waste go forth from you;
18 Look about and see, they are all gathering and coming to you. As I live, says the LORD, you shall be arrayed with them all as with adornments, like a bride you shall fasten them on you.
19 Though you were waste and desolate, a land of ruins, Now you shall be too small for your inhabitants, while those who swallowed you up will be far away.
20 The children whom you had lost shall yet say to you, This place is too small for me, make room for me to live in.
21 You shall ask yourself: Who has borne me these? I was bereft and barren (exiled and repudiated); who has reared them? I was left all alone; where then do these come from?
22 Thus says the Lord GOD: See, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and raise my signal to the peoples; They shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
23 Kings shall be your foster fathers, their princesses your nurses; Bowing to the ground, they shall worship you and lick the dust at your feet. Then you shall know that I am the LORD, and those who hope in me shall never be disappointed.
24 Thus says the LORD: Can booty be taken from a warrior? or captives be rescued from a tyrant?
25 Yes, captives can be taken from a warrior, and booty be rescued from a tyrant; Those who oppose you I will oppose, and your sons I will save.
26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with the juice of the grape. All mankind shall know that I, the LORD, am your savior, your redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

Isaiah 50

1 Thus says the LORD: Where is the bill of divorce with which I dismissed your mother? Or to which of my creditors have I sold you? It was for your sins that you were sold, for your crimes that your mother was dismissed.
2 Why was no one there when I came? Why did no one answer when I called? Is my hand too short to ransom? Have I not the strength to deliver? Lo, with my rebuke I dry up the sea, I turn rivers into a desert; Their fish rot for lack of water, and die of thirst.
3 I clothe the heavens in mourning, and make sackcloth their vesture.
4 The Lord GOD has given me a well-trained tongue, That I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them. Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear;
5 And I have not rebelled, have not turned back.
6 I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; My face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.
7 The Lord GOD is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
8 He is near who upholds my right; if anyone wishes to oppose me, let us appear together. Who disputes my right? Let him confront me.
9 See, the Lord GOD is my help; who will prove me wrong? Lo, they will all wear out like cloth, the moth will eat them up.
10 Who among you fears the LORD, heeds his servant's voice, And walks in darkness without any light, Trusting in the name of the LORD and relying on his God?
11 All of you kindle flames and carry about you fiery darts; Walk by the light of your own fire and by the flares you have burnt! This is your fate from my hand: you shall lie down in a place of pain.

Isaiah 51

1 Listen to me, you who pursue justice, who seek the LORD; Look to the rock from which you were hewn, to the pit from which you were quarried;
2 Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth; When he was but one I called him, I blessed him and made him many.
3 Yes, the LORD shall comfort Zion and have pity on all her ruins; Her deserts he shall make like Eden, her wasteland like the garden of the LORD; Joy and gladness shall be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of song.
4 Be attentive to me, my people; my folk, give ear to me. For law shall go forth from my presence, and my judgment, as the light of the peoples.
5 I will make my justice come speedily; my salvation shall go forth (and my arm shall judge the nations); In me shall the coastlands hope, and my arm they shall await.
6 Raise your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth below; Though the heavens grow thin like smoke, the earth wears out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies, My salvation shall remain forever and my justice shall never be dismayed.
7 Hear me, you who know justice, you people who have my teaching at heart: Fear not the reproach of men, be not dismayed at their revilings.
8 They shall be like a garment eaten by moths, like wool consumed by grubs; But my justice shall remain forever and my salvation, for all generations.
9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD! Awake as in the days of old, in ages long ago! Was it not you who crushed Rahab, you who pierced the dragon?
10 Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, Who made the depths of the sea into a way for the redeemed to pass over?
11 Those whom the LORD has ransomed will return and enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy; They will meet with joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning will flee.
12 I, it is I who comfort you. Can you then fear mortal man, who is human only, to be looked upon as grass,
13 And forget the LORD, your maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth? All the day you are in constant dread of the fury of the oppressor; But when he sets himself to destroy, what is there of the oppressor's fury?
14 The oppressed shall soon be released; they shall not die and go down into the pit, nor shall they want for bread.
15 For I am the LORD, your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; the LORD of hosts by name.
16 I have put my words into your mouth and shielded you in the shadow of my hand, I, who stretched out the heavens, who laid the foundations of the earth, who say to Zion: You are my people.
17 Awake, awake! Arise, O Jerusalem, You who drank at the LORD'S hand the cup of his wrath; Who drained to the dregs the bowl of staggering!
18 She has no one to guide her of all the sons she bore; She has no one to grasp her by the hand, of all the sons she reared!--
19 Your misfortunes are double; who is there to condole with you? Desolation and destruction, famine and sword! Who is there to comfort you?
20 Your sons lie helpless at every street corner like antelopes in a net. They are filled with the wrath of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.
21 But now, hear this, O afflicted one, drunk, but not with wine,
22 Thus says the LORD, your Master, your God, who defends his people: See, I am taking from your hand the cup of staggering; The bowl of my wrath you shall no longer drink.
23 I will put it into the hands of your tormentors, those who ordered you to bow down, that they might walk over you, While you offered your back like the ground, like the street for them to walk on.