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Isaiah 49
Listen, O isles, to me; and listen, you peoples, from far: Yahweh has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother has he made mention of my name: 2 and he has made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand has he hid me: and he has made me a polished shaft; in his quiver has he kept me close: 3 and he said to me, You are my servant; Israel, in whom I will be glorified. 4 But I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely the justice due to me is with Yahweh, and my recompense with my Elohim.
5 And now, says Yahweh that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, and that Israel be gathered to him; (for I am honorable in the eyes of Yahweh, and my Elohim has become my strength;) 6 And he said, It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give you for a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth. 7 In this manner says Yahweh, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation hates, to a servant of rulers: Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall worship; because of Yahweh that is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.
8 In this manner says Yahweh, In an acceptable time have I answered you, and in a day of salvation have I helped you; and I will preserve you, and give you for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages; 9 saying to them that are bound, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and on all bare heights shall be their pasture. 10 They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun strike them: for he that has mercy on them will lead them, even by springs of water will he guide them. 11 And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted. 12 Lo, these shall come from far; and, to, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim. 13 Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for Yahweh has comforted his people, and will have compassion upon his afflicted.
14 But Zion said, Yahweh has forsaken me, and Yahweh has forgotten me. 15 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget, yet will not I forget you. 16 Behold, I have carved you upon the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me. 17 Your children make haste; your destroyers and they that made you waste shall go forth from you. 18 Lift up your eyes all around, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to you. As I live, says Yahweh, you shall surely clothe yourself with them all as with an ornament, and gird yourself with them, like a bride. 19 For, as for your waste and your desolate places, and your land that has been destroyed, surely now shall you be too narrow for the inhabitants, and they that swallowed you up shall be far away. 20 The children of whom you were robbed shall yet say in your ears, the place is too narrow for me; give place to me that I may dwell. 21 Then shall you say in your heart, who has begotten me these, seeing I have been robbed of my children, and am solitary, an exile, and wandering to and fro? And who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where were they?
22 In this manner says the Sovereign Yahweh, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and set up my ensign to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. 23 And kings shall be your nursing fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers: they shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of your feet; and you shall know that I am Yahweh; and they that wait for me shall not be put to shame.
24 Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captives be delivered? 25 But thus says Yahweh, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; for I will contend with him that contends with you, and I will save your children. 26 And I will feed them that oppress you with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
Isaiah 50
In this manner says Yahweh, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, with which I have put her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities were you sold, and for your transgressions was your mother put away. 2 Why, when I came, was there no man? When I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stink, because there is no water, and die for thirst. 3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.
4 The Sovereign Yahweh has given me the tongue of them that are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him that is weary: he awakens morning by morning, he awakens my ear to hear as they that are taught. 5 The Sovereign Yahweh has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away backward. 6 I gave my back to the strikers, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting. 7 For the Sovereign Yahweh will help me; therefore have I not been confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. 8 He is near who justifies me; who will contend with me? Let us stand up together: who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. 9 Behold, the Sovereign Yahweh will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? Behold, they shall all wear out as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.
10 Who is among you that fears Yahweh, that obeys the voice of his servant? He that walks in darkness, and has no light, let him trust in the name of Yahweh, and rely upon his Elohim. 11 Behold, all you that kindle a fire, that gird yourselves about with firebrands; walk in the flame of your fire, and among the brands that you have kindled. This shall you have of my hand; you shall lie down in sorrow.
Isaiah 51
Listen to me, you that follow after righteousness, you that seek Yahweh: look to the rock from where you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit from where you were dug. 2 Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah that bore you; for when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him, and made him many. 3 For Yahweh has comforted Zion; he has comforted all her waste places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Yahweh; joy and gladness shall be found in it, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
4 Attend to me, O my people; and give ear to me, O my nation: for a law shall go forth from me, and I will establish my justice for a light of the peoples. 5 My righteousness is near, my salvation has gone forth, and my arms shall judge the peoples; the isles shall wait for me, and on my arm they shall trust. 6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall grow old like a garment; and they that dwell in it shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
7 Listen to me, you that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not the reproach of men, neither be dismayed at their revilings. 8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool; but my righteousness shall be forever, and my salvation to all generations.
9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of Yahweh; awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Is it not you that cut Rahab in pieces, that pierced the monster? 10 Is it not you that dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; that made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? 11 And the ransomed of Yahweh shall return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
12 I, even I, am he that comforts you: who are you, that you are afraid of man that shall die, and of the son of man that shall be made as grass; 13 and have forgotten Yahweh your Maker, that stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and fear continually all the day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he makes ready to destroy? And where is the fury of the oppressor? 14 The captive exile shall speedily be loosed; and he shall not die and go down into the pit, neither shall his bread fail. 15 For I am Yahweh your Elohim, who stirs up the sea, so that the waves of it roar: Yahweh of hosts is his name. 16 And I have put my words in your mouth, and have covered you in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, You are my people.
17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, that have drunk at the hand of Yahweh the cup of his wrath; you have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it. 18 There is no one to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth; neither is there any that takes her by the hand among all the sons that she has brought up. 19 These two things have happened to you; who shall bemoan you? Desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword; how shall I comfort you? 20 Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of Yahweh, the rebuke of your Elohim.
21 Therefore hear this now, you afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine: 22 thus says your Sovereign Yahweh, and your Elohim that pleads the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath; you shall no more drink it again: 23 and I will put it into the hand of them that afflict you, that have said to your soul, Bow down, that we may go over; and you have laid your back as the ground, and as the street, to them that go over.
