Isaiah 49:14-51:3

English Standard Version

¹⁴But Zion said, ^(A)“The Lord has forsaken me;
my Lord has forgotten me.”

¹⁵^(B)“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
    that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
    yet I will not forget you.
¹⁶Behold, ^(C)I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
    your walls are continually before me.
¹⁷Your builders make haste;^[a]
    ^(D)your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you.
¹⁸^(E)Lift up your eyes around and see;
    they all gather, they come to you.
^(F)As I live, declares the Lord,
    ^(G)you shall put them all on as an ornament;
    you shall bind them on as a bride does.

¹⁹“Surely your waste and your desolate places
    and your devastated land—
^(H)surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants,
    and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
²⁰^(I)The children of your bereavement
    will yet say in your ears:
^(J)‘The place is too narrow for me;
    make room for me to dwell in.’
²¹Then you will say in your heart:
    ‘Who has borne me these?
^(K)I was bereaved and barren,
    exiled and put away,
    but who has brought up these?
Behold, I was left alone;
    from where have these come?’”

²²Thus says the Lord God:
“Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations,
    ^(L)and raise my signal to the peoples;
^(M)and they shall bring your sons in their arms,^[b]
    and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
²³^(N)Kings shall be your foster fathers,
    and their queens your nursing mothers.
^(O)With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you,
    and ^(P)lick the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord;
    ^(Q)those who wait for me ^(R)shall not be put to shame.”

²⁴Can the prey be taken from the mighty,
    or the captives of a tyrant^[c] be rescued?
²⁵For thus says the Lord:
^(S)“Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken,
    and the prey of the tyrant be rescued,
for I will contend with those who contend with you,
    and I will save your children.
²⁶^(T)I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,
    and they shall be drunk ^(U)with their own blood as with wine.
Then all flesh shall know
    that ^(V)I am the Lord your Savior,
    and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Israel's Sin and the Servant's Obedience

50 Thus says the Lord:
“Where is ^(W)your mother's certificate of divorce,
    with which ^(X)I sent her away?
Or ^(Y)which of my creditors is it
    to whom I have sold you?
^(Z)Behold, for your iniquities you were sold,
    and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
²^(AA)Why, when I came, was there no man;
    why, when I called, was there no one to answer?
^(AB)Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem?
    Or have I no power to deliver?
^(AC)Behold, by my rebuke ^(AD)I dry up the sea,
    ^(AE)I make the rivers a desert;
^(AF)their fish stink for lack of water
    and die of thirst.
³^(AG)I clothe the heavens with blackness
    and make sackcloth their covering.”

⁴The Lord God has given ^(AH)me
    the tongue of those who are taught,
that ^(AI)I may know how to sustain with a word
    ^(AJ)him who is weary.
Morning by morning he awakens;
    he awakens my ear
    to hear as those who are taught.
⁵^(AK)The Lord God has opened my ear,
    ^(AL)and I was not rebellious;
    I turned not backward.
⁶^(AM)I gave my back to those who strike,
    and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
    from disgrace and spitting.

⁷But the Lord God helps me;
    therefore I have not been disgraced;
^(AN)therefore I have set my face like a flint,
    and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
⁸    ^(AO)He who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
    Let us stand up together.
Who is my adversary?
    Let him come near to me.
⁹^(AP)Behold, the Lord God helps me;
    who will declare me guilty?
Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment;
    the moth will eat them up.

¹⁰Who among you fears the Lord
    and obeys ^(AQ)the voice of his servant?
^(AR)Let him who walks in darkness
    and has no light
trust in the name of the Lord
    and rely on his God.
¹¹Behold, all you who kindle a fire,
    who equip yourselves with burning torches!
Walk by the light of your fire,
    and by the torches that you have kindled!
^(AS)This you have from my hand:
    you shall lie down in torment.

The Lord's Comfort for Zion

51 ^(AT)“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.
²Look to Abraham your father
    and to Sarah who bore you;
for ^(AU)he was but one when I called him,
    that I might bless him and multiply him.
³For the Lord ^(AV)comforts Zion;
    he comforts all her waste places
and makes her wilderness like ^(AW)Eden,
    her desert like ^(AX)the garden of the Lord;
^(AY)joy and gladness will be found in her,
    thanksgiving and the voice of song.

Footnotes

Isaiah 49:17 Dead Sea Scroll; Masoretic Text Your children make haste
Isaiah 49:22 Hebrew in their bosom
Isaiah 49:24 Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac, Vulgate (see also verse 25); Masoretic Text of a righteous man