Isaiah 49-53
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Servant’s Mission
49 Listen to me, O coastlands;
pay attention, you peoples from far away!
The Lord called me before I was born;
while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.(A)
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword;
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow;
in his quiver he hid me away.(B)
3 And he said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”(C)
4 But I said, “I have labored in vain;
I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my cause is with the Lord
and my reward with my God.”(D)
5 And now the Lord says,
who formed me in the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him,
and that Israel might be gathered to him,
for I am honored in the sight of the Lord,
and my God has become my strength—(E)
6 he says,
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the survivors of Israel;
I will give you as a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”(F)
7 Thus says the Lord,
the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations,
the slave of rulers,
“Kings shall see and stand up;
princes, and they shall prostrate themselves,
because of the Lord, who is faithful,
the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”(G)
Zion’s Children to Be Brought Home
8 Thus says the Lord:
In a time of favor I have answered you;
on a day of salvation I have helped you;
I have kept you and given you
as a covenant to the people,[a]
to establish the land,
to apportion the desolate heritages,(H)
9 saying to the prisoners, “Come out,”
to those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves.”
They shall feed along the ways;
on all the bare heights[b] shall be their pasture;(I)
10 they shall not hunger or thirst,
neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down,
for he who has pity on them will lead them
and by springs of water will guide them.(J)
11 And I will turn all my mountains into a road,
and my highways shall be raised up.(K)
12 Look, some shall come from far away,
some from the north and from the west,
and some from the land of Syene.[c](L)
13 Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;
break forth, O mountains, into singing!
For the Lord has comforted his people
and will have compassion on his suffering ones.(M)
14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me;
my Lord has forgotten me.”(N)
15 Can a woman forget her nursing child
or show no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even these might forget,
yet I will not forget you.(O)
16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are continually before me.(P)
17 Your builders outdo your destroyers,[d]
and those who laid you waste go away from you.(Q)
18 Lift up your eyes all around and see;
they all gather; they come to you.
As I live, says the Lord,
you shall put all of them on like an ornament,
and like a bride you shall bind them on.(R)
19 For your wastelands, your desolate places,
and your devastated land—
now you will be too crowded for your inhabitants,
and those who swallowed you up will be far away.(S)
20 The children born in the time of your bereavement
will yet say in your hearing:
“The place is too crowded for me;
make room for me to settle.”(T)
21 Then you will say in your heart,
“Who has borne me these?
I was bereaved and barren,
exiled and put away—
so who has reared these?
I was left all alone—
where, then, have these come from?”(U)
22 Thus says the Lord God:
I will soon lift up my hand to the nations
and raise my signal to the peoples,
and they shall bring your sons in their bosom,
and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.(V)
23 Kings shall be your foster fathers
and their queens your nursing mothers.
With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you
and lick the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord;
those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.(W)
24 Can the prey be taken from the mighty
or the captives of a tyrant[e] be rescued?
25 But thus says the Lord:
Even the captives of the mighty will be taken,
and the prey of the tyrant will be rescued,
for I will contend with those who contend with you,
and I will save your children.(X)
26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,
and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine.
Then all flesh shall know
that I am the Lord your Savior
and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.(Y)
50 Thus says the Lord:
Where is your mother’s bill of divorce
with which I dismissed her?
Or which of my creditors is it
to whom I have sold you?
No, because of your sins you were sold,
and for your transgressions your mother was dismissed.(Z)
2 Why was no one there when I came?
Why did no one answer when I called?
Is my arm powerless to redeem?
Or have I no strength to deliver?
By my rebuke I dry up the sea;
I make the rivers a desert,
so that their fish stink for lack of water
and die of thirst.[f](AA)
3 I clothe the heavens with blackness
and make sackcloth their covering.(AB)
The Servant’s Humiliation and Vindication
4 The Lord God has given me
a trained tongue,[g]
that I may know how to sustain
the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens,
wakens my ear
to listen as those who are taught.(AC)
5 The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious;
I did not turn backward.(AD)
6 I gave my back to those who struck me
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face
from insult and spitting.(AE)
7 The Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame;(AF)
8 he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand in court together.
Who are my adversaries?
Let them confront me.(AG)
9 It is the Lord God who helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
All of them will wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.(AH)
10 Who among you fears the Lord
and obeys the voice of his servant,
who walks in darkness
and has no light,
yet trusts in the name of the Lord
and relies upon his God?(AI)
11 But all of you are kindlers of fire,
lighters of firebrands.[h]
Walk in the flame of your fire
and among the brands that you have kindled!
This is what you shall have from my hand:
you shall lie down in torment.(AJ)
Blessings in Store for God’s People
51 Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,
you who seek the Lord.
Look to the rock from which you were hewn
and to the quarry from which you were dug.(AK)
2 Look to Abraham your father
and to Sarah, who bore you,
for he was but one when I called him,
but I blessed him and made him many.(AL)
3 For the Lord will comfort Zion;
he will comfort all her waste places
and will make her wilderness like Eden,
her desert like the garden of the Lord;
joy and gladness will be found in her,
thanksgiving and the voice of song.(AM)
4 Listen to me, my people,
and give heed to me, my nation,
for a teaching will go out from me
and my justice for a light to the peoples.(AN)
5 I will bring near my deliverance swiftly;
my salvation has gone out,
and my arms will rule the peoples;
the coastlands wait for me,
and for my arm they hope.(AO)
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens
and look at the earth beneath,
for the heavens will vanish like smoke,
the earth will wear out like a garment,
and those who live on it will die like gnats,[i]
but my salvation will be forever,
and my deliverance will never be ended.(AP)
7 Listen to me, you who know righteousness,
you people who have my teaching in your hearts;
do not fear the reproach of others,
and do not be dismayed when they revile you.(AQ)
8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment,
and the worm will eat them like wool,
but my deliverance will be forever
and my salvation to all generations.(AR)
9 Awake, awake, put on strength,
O arm of the Lord!
Awake, as in days of old,
the generations of long ago!
Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces,
who pierced the dragon?(AS)
10 Was it not you who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep;
who made the depths of the sea a way
for the redeemed to cross over?(AT)
11 So the ransomed of the Lord shall return
and come to Zion with rejoicing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.(AU)
12 I, I am he who comforts you;
why then are you afraid of a mere mortal who must die,
a human being who fades like grass?(AV)
13 You have forgotten the Lord, your Maker,
who stretched out the heavens
and laid the foundations of the earth.
You fear continually all day long
because of the fury of the oppressor,
who is bent on destruction.
But where is the fury of the oppressor?(AW)
14 The oppressed shall speedily be released;
they shall not die and go down to the Pit,
nor shall they lack bread.(AX)
15 For I am the Lord your God,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
the Lord of hosts is his name.(AY)
16 I have put my words in your mouth
and hidden you in the shadow of my hand,
stretching out[j] the heavens
and laying the foundations of the earth
and saying to Zion, “You are my people.”(AZ)
17 Rouse yourself, rouse yourself!
Stand up, O Jerusalem,
you who have drunk at the hand of the Lord
the cup of his wrath,
who have drunk to the dregs
the cup of staggering.(BA)
18 There is no one to guide her
among all the children she has borne;
there is no one to take her by the hand
among all the children she has brought up.(BB)
19 These two things have befallen you
—who will grieve with you?—
devastation and destruction, famine and sword.
Who will comfort you?[k](BC)
20 Your children have fainted;
they lie at the head of every street
like an antelope in a net;
they are full of the wrath of the Lord,
the rebuke of your God.(BD)
21 Therefore hear this, you who are wounded,[l]
who are drunk but not with wine:(BE)
22 Thus says your Sovereign, the Lord,
your God who pleads the cause of his people:
See, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering;
you shall drink no more
from the cup of my wrath.(BF)
23 And I will put it into the hand of your tormentors,
who have said to you,
“Bow down, that we may walk on you,”
and you have made your back like the ground
and like the street for them to walk on.(BG)
Let Zion Rejoice
52 Awake; awake;
put on your strength, O Zion!
Put on your beautiful garments,
O Jerusalem, the holy city,
for the uncircumcised and the unclean
shall enter you no more.(BH)
2 Shake yourself from the dust; rise up,
O captive[m] Jerusalem;
loose the bonds from your neck,
O captive daughter Zion!(BI)
3 For thus says the Lord: You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.(BJ) 4 For thus says the Lord God: Long ago, my people went down into Egypt to reside there as aliens; the Assyrian, too, has oppressed them without cause.(BK) 5 Now therefore what am I doing here, says the Lord, seeing that my people are taken away without cause? Their rulers howl, says the Lord, and continually, all day long, my name is despised.(BL) 6 Therefore my people shall know my name; on[n] that day they shall know that it is I who speak—it is I!(BM)
7 How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
who brings good news,
who announces salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”(BN)
8 Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices;
together they shout for joy,
for in plain sight they see
the return of the Lord to Zion.(BO)
9 Break forth; shout together for joy,
you ruins of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people;
he has redeemed Jerusalem.(BP)
10 The Lord has bared his holy arm
before the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God.(BQ)
11 Depart, depart, go out from there!
Touch no unclean thing;
go out from the midst of it; purify yourselves,
you who carry the vessels of the Lord.(BR)
12 For you shall not go out in haste,
and you shall not go in flight,
for the Lord will go before you,
and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.(BS)
The Suffering Servant
13 See, my servant shall prosper;
he shall be exalted and lifted up
and shall be very high.(BT)
14 Just as there were many who were astonished at him[o]
—so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of mortals—(BU)
15 so he shall startle[p] many nations;
kings shall shut their mouths because of him,
for that which had not been told them they shall see,
and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate.(BV)
53 Who has believed what we have heard?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?(BW)
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.(BX)
3 He was despised and rejected by others;
a man of suffering[q] and acquainted with infirmity,
and as one from whom others hide their faces[r]
he was despised, and we held him of no account.(BY)
4 Surely he has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases,
yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.(BZ)
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed.(CA)
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have all turned to our own way,
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.(CB)
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.(CC)
8 By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
Who could have imagined his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people.(CD)
9 They made his grave with the wicked
and his tomb[s] with the rich,[t]
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.(CE)
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with affliction.
When you make his life an offering for sin,[u]
he shall see his offspring and shall prolong his days;
through him the will of the Lord shall prosper.(CF)
11 Out of his anguish he shall see;
he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.
The righteous one,[v] my servant, shall make many righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.(CG)
12 Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out himself to death
and was numbered with the transgressors,
yet he bore the sin of many
and made intercession for the transgressors.(CH)
Footnotes
- 49.8 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 49.9 Or the trails
- 49.12 Q ms: MT Sinim
- 49.17 Or Your children come swiftly; your destroyers
- 49.24 Q ms Syr Vg: MT of a righteous person
- 50.2 Or die on the thirsty ground
- 50.4 Cn: Heb of those who are taught
- 50.11 Syr: Heb you gird yourselves with firebrands
- 51.6 Or in like manner
- 51.16 Syr: Heb planting
- 51.19 Q ms Gk Syr Vg: MT how may I comfort you?
- 51.21 Or humbled
- 52.2 Cn: Heb rise up, sit
- 52.6 Q ms Syr Vg Tg: MT therefore on
- 52.14 Syr Tg: Heb you
- 52.15 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 53.3 Or a man of sorrows
- 53.3 Or as one who hides his face from us
- 53.9 Q ms: MT and in his death
- 53.9 Cn: Heb with a rich person
- 53.10 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 53.11 Or and he shall find satisfaction. Through his knowledge, the righteous one
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.