Isaiah 51

MLV(i) 1 Listen to me, you* who follow after righteousness, you* who seek Jehovah. Look to the rock from where you* were hewn and to the hold of the pit from where you* were dug. 2 Look to Abraham your* father and to Sarah who bore you*. For when he was but one I called him and I blessed him and made him many.
3 For Jehovah has comforted Zion. He has comforted all her waste places and has made her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of Jehovah. Joy and gladness will be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.
4 Attend to me, O my people and listen to me, O my nation. For a law will 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 will judge the peoples. The isles will wait for me and on my arm they will trust.
6 Lift up your* eyes to the heavens and look upon the earth beneath. For the heavens will vanish away like smoke and the earth will grow old like a garment and those who dwell in it will die in like manner. But my salvation will be everlasting and my righteousness will not be abolished.
7 Listen to me, you* who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law. Do not fear the reproach of men, nor be you* dismayed at their revilings. 8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment and the worm will eat them like wool. But my righteousness will be everlasting and my salvation to all generations.
9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of Jehovah. Awake, as in the days of long-ago, the generations of everlasting. Is it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster? 10 Is 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 pass over?
11 And the ransomed of Jehovah will return and come with singing to Zion and everlasting joy will be upon their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
12 I, even I, am he who comforts you*. Who are you, that you are afraid of man who will die and of the son of man who will be made as grass, 13 and have forgotten Jehovah your maker, who 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 will speedily be loosed and he will not die in the pit, nor will his bread fail. 15 For I am Jehovah your God, who stirs up the sea so that the waves of it roar. Jehovah 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, who have drunk at the hand of Jehovah the cup of his wrath. You have drunk the bowl of the cup of staggering and drained it. 18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth, nor is there any who takes her by the hand among all the sons that she has brought up.
19 These two things have befallen you (Who will sympathize with 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 Jehovah, the rebuke of your God.
21 Therefore hear now this, you afflicted and drunken, but not with wine. 22 Thus says your lord Jehovah and your God who 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 will no more drink it again. 23 And I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who 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 those who go over.