Day 53 of 90

¹Thus says the Lord, "Where is the bill of your mother's divorce, 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.

²Why, when I came, was there no man? When I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it can't 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.

³I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering."

⁴The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary: he wakens morning by morning, he wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.

⁵The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away backward.

⁶I gave my back to the strikers, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair; I did not hide my face from shame and spitting.

⁷For the Lord God will help me; therefore I have not been confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be disappointed.

⁸He is near who justifies me; who will bring charges against me? Let us stand up together: who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.

⁹Behold, the Lord God will help me; who is he who shall condemn me? Behold, all they shall wax old as a garment, the moth shall eat them up.

¹⁰Who is among you who fears the Lord, who obeys the voice of his servant? He who walks in darkness, and has no light, let him trust in the name of the Lord, and rely on his God.

¹¹Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who adorn yourselves with torches around yourselves; walk in the flame of your fire, and among the brands that you have kindled. You shall have this of my hand; you shall lie down in sorrow.

¹"Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the Lord: look to the rock you were cut from, and to the hold of the pit you were dug from.

²Look 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.

³For the Lord has comforted Zion; he has comforted all her waste places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

⁴"Attend to me, my people; and give ear to me, my nation: for a law shall go forth from me, and I will establish my justice for a light of the peoples.

⁵My righteousness is near, my salvation is gone forth, and my arms shall judge the peoples; the islands shall wait for me, and on my arm shall they trust.

⁶Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment; and those who dwell therein shall die in the same way: but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall 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, neither be dismayed at their insults.

⁸For 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."

⁹Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of the Lord; awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn't it you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster?

¹⁰Isn't it 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?

¹¹The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy shall be on their heads. They shall obtain gladness and joy. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

¹²"I, even I, am he who comforts you: who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who shall be made as grass;

¹³and have forgotten the Lord 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?

¹⁴The captive exile shall speedily be freed; and he shall not die and go down into the pit, neither shall his bread fail.

¹⁵For I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar: the Lord of hosts is his name.

¹⁶I 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 tell Zion, 'You are my people.'"

¹⁷Awake, awake, stand up, Jerusalem, that have drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath; you have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.

¹⁸There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth; neither is there any who takes her by the hand among all the sons who she has brought up.

¹⁹These two things have happened to you. Who will bemoan you? Desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword; how shall I comfort you?

²⁰Your 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 the Lord, the rebuke of your God.

²¹Therefore hear now this, you afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:

²²Thus says your Lord God, 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 shall no more drink it again:

²³and I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, 'Bow down, that we may walk over you;' and you have laid your back as the ground, and as the street, to those who walk over."

¹Awake, awake, put on your strength, Zion; put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean.

²Shake yourself from the dust! Arise, sit up, Jerusalem! Release yourself from the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Zion!

³For thus says the Lord, "You were sold for nothing; and you shall be redeemed without money."

⁴For thus says the Lord God, "My people went down at the first into Egypt to live there: and the Assyrian has oppressed them without cause.

⁵"Now therefore, what do I do here," says the Lord, "seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them mock," says the Lord, "and my name continually all the day is blasphemed.

⁶Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore they shall know in that day that I am he who speaks; behold, it is I."

⁷How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of good, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"

⁸The voice of your watchmen! they lift up the voice, together do they sing; for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord returns to Zion.

⁹Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.

¹⁰The Lord has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

¹¹Depart, depart, go out from there, touch no unclean thing! Go out of the midst of her! Cleanse yourselves, you who bear the vessels of the Lord.

¹²For you shall not go out in haste, neither shall you go by flight: for the Lord will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

¹³Behold, my servant shall deal wisely, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.

¹⁴Just as many were astonished at you (his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men),

¹⁵so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they understand.

¹Who has believed our message? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

²For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form nor comeliness. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

³He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering; as one from whom men hide their face, and we despised him and we did not value him.

⁴Surely he has borne our sufferings, and carried our sorrows; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.

⁵But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.

⁶All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

⁷He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he did not open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is mute, so he did not open his mouth.

⁸He was taken away by oppression and judgment; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people?

⁹They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death; although he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

¹¹After the suffering of his soul, he will see light and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my servant, the righteous one, make many righteous, and he will bear their iniquities.

¹²Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sins of many, and made intercession for their transgressions.

¹"Sing, barren, you who did not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you who did not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than of her that has a husband," says the Lord.

²"Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of your habitations; do not spare: lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.

³For you shall spread out on the right hand and on the left; and your seed shall possess the nations, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

⁴"Do not be afraid; for you shall not be ashamed: neither be confounded; for you shall not be disappointed: for you shall forget the shame of your youth; and the reproach of your widowhood you shall remember no more.

⁵For your Maker is your husband; the Lord of hosts is his name: and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; the God of the whole earth shall he be called.

⁶For the Lord has called you as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even a wife of youth, when she is cast off," says your God.

⁷"For a small moment have I forsaken you; but with great mercies will I gather you.

⁸In overflowing wrath I hid my face from you for a moment; but with everlasting loving kindness will I have mercy on you," says the Lord your Redeemer.

⁹"For this is like the waters of Noah to me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah shall no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I will not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.

¹⁰For the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed; but my loving kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall my covenant of peace be removed," says the Lord who has mercy on you.

¹¹"You afflicted, tossed with storms, and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in beautiful colors, and lay your foundations with sapphires.

¹²I will make your pinnacles of rubies, and your gates of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones.

¹³All your children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of your children.

¹⁴In righteousness you shall be established: you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not be afraid; and from terror, for it shall not come near you.

¹⁵Behold, they may gather together, but not by me: whoever shall gather together against you shall fall because of you.

¹⁶"Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals, and brings forth a weapon for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.

¹⁷No weapon that is formed against you will prevail; and you will condemn every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness which is of me," says the Lord.

¹"Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

²Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which doesn't satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

³Turn your ear, and come to me; hear, and your soul shall live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

⁴Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander to the peoples.

⁵Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know; and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he has glorified you."

⁶Seek the Lord while he may be found; call you on him while he is near:

⁷let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

⁸"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," says the Lord.

⁹"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

¹⁰For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn't return there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater;

¹¹so shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing I sent it to do.

¹²For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing; and all the trees of the fields shall clap their hands.

¹³Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree; and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."

¹Thus says the Lord, "Keep justice, and do righteousness; for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.

²Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast; who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil."

³Neither let the foreigner, who has joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, "The Lord will surely separate me from his people"; neither let the eunuch say, "Behold, I am a dry tree."

⁴For thus says the Lord, "To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and hold fast my covenant:

⁵to them I will give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.

⁶Also the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it, and holds fast my covenant;

⁷even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples."

⁸The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, "Yet will I gather others to him, besides his own who are gathered."

⁹All you animals of the field, come to devour, all you animals in the forest.

¹⁰His watchmen are blind, they are all without knowledge; they are all mute dogs, they can't bark; dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.

¹¹Yes, the dogs are greedy, they can never have enough; and these are shepherds who can't understand: they have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter.

¹²"Come," say they, "I will get wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as this day, great beyond measure."

¹The righteous perishes, and no man lays it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil.

²He enters into peace; they rest in their beds, each one who walks in his uprightness.

³"But draw near here, you sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the prostitute.

⁴Against whom do you sport yourselves? Against whom do you make a wide mouth, and stick out your tongue? Aren't you children of disobedience, a seed of falsehood,

⁵you who inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every green tree; who kill the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?

⁶Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion; they, they are your lot; you have even poured a drink offering to them. You have offered an offering. Shall I be appeased for these things?

⁷On a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed; there also you went up to offer sacrifice.

⁸Behind the doors and the posts you have set up your memorial: for you have uncovered to someone besides me, and have gone up; you have enlarged your bed, and made you a covenant with them: you loved their bed where you saw it.

⁹You went to the king with oil, and increased your perfumes, and sent your ambassadors far off, and debased yourself even to Sheol.

¹⁰You were wearied with the length of your way; yet you did not say, 'It is in vain.' You found a reviving of your strength; therefore you weren't faint.

¹¹"Of whom have you been afraid and in fear, that you lie, and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart? Haven't I held my peace even of long time, and you do not fear me?

¹²I will declare your righteousness; and as for your works, they shall not profit you.

¹³When you cry, let those who you have gathered deliver you; but the wind shall take them, a breath shall carry them all away: but he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain."

¹⁴He will say, "Cast up, cast up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people."

¹⁵For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

¹⁶For I will not contend forever, neither will I be always angry; for the spirit would faint before me, and the souls who I have made.

¹⁷For the iniquity of his covetousness was I angry, and struck him; I hid myself and was angry; and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart.

¹⁸I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners.

¹⁹I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to him who is far off and to him who is near," says the Lord; "and I will heal them."

²⁰But the wicked are like the troubled sea; for it can't rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt.

²¹"There is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked."

¹"Cry aloud, do not spare, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and declare to my people their disobedience, and to the house of Jacob their sins.

²Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways: as a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.

³'Why have we fasted,' say they, 'and you do not see? Why have we afflicted our soul, and you take no knowledge?' "Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exact all your labors.

⁴Behold, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wickedness: you do not fast this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high.

⁵Is such the fast that I have chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?

⁶"Isn't this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?

⁷Isn't it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?

⁸Then your light shall break forth as the morning, and your healing shall spring forth speedily; and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

⁹Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.' "If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking wickedly;

¹⁰and if you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul: then your light shall rise in darkness, and your obscurity be as the noonday;

¹¹and the Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in dry places, and make strong your bones; and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

¹²Those who shall be of you shall build the old waste places; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

¹³"If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of the Lord honorable; and shall honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words:

¹⁴then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father:" for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.

¹Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it can't save; neither his ear heavy, that it can't hear:

²but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

³For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness.

⁴None sues in righteousness, and none pleads in truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.

⁵They hatch adders' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he who eats of their eggs dies; and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.

⁶Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.

⁷Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their paths.

⁸The way of peace they do not know; and there is no justice in their goings: they have made them crooked paths; whoever goes therein does not know peace.

⁹Therefore is justice far from us, neither does righteousness overtake us: we look for light, but, behold, darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity.

¹⁰We grope for the wall like the blind; yes, we grope as those who have no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the twilight; among those who are lusty we are as dead men.

¹¹We roar all like bears, and moan bitterly like doves: we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.

¹²For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them:

¹³transgressing and denying the Lord, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.

¹⁴Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and uprightness can't enter.

¹⁵Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.

¹⁶He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his own arm brought salvation to him; and his righteousness, it upheld him.

¹⁷He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; and he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle.

¹⁸According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, wrath to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompense.

¹⁹So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which the breath of the Lord drives.

²⁰"A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from disobedience in Jacob," says the Lord.

²¹"As for me, this is my covenant with them," says the Lord. "My Spirit who is on you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed's seed," says the Lord, "from henceforth and forever."

¹"Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen on you.

²For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise on you, and his glory shall be seen on you.

³Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

⁴"Lift up your eyes all around, and see: they all gather themselves together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far, and your daughters shall be carried in the arms.

⁵Then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall thrill and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you.

⁶The multitude of camels shall cover you, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praises of the Lord.

⁷All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together to you, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you; they shall come up with acceptance on my altar; and I will glorify the house of my glory.

⁸"Who are these who fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?

⁹Surely the islands shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, for the name of the Lord your God, and for the Holy One of Israel, because he has glorified you.

¹⁰"Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you: for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor have I had mercy on you.

¹¹Your gates also shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring to you the wealth of the nations, and their kings led captive.

¹²For that nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; yes, those nations shall be utterly wasted.

¹³"The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the fir tree, the pine, and the box tree together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious.

¹⁴The sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending to you; and all those who despised you shall bow themselves down at the soles of your feet; and they shall call you The city of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵"Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, so that no man passed through you, I will make you an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations.

¹⁶You shall also drink the milk of the nations, and shall nurse from royal breasts; and you shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

¹⁷For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron. I will also make your officers peace, and righteousness your ruler.

¹⁸Violence shall no more be heard in your land, desolation nor destruction within your borders; but you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.

¹⁹The sun shall be no more your light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light to you: but the Lord will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory.

²⁰Your sun shall no more go down, neither shall your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended.

²¹Your people also shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.

²²The little one shall become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation; I, the Lord, will hasten it in its time."

¹The Spirit of the Lord God is on me; because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to those who are bound;

²to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;

³to appoint to those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

⁴They shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.

⁵Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.

⁶But you shall be named the priests of the Lord; men will call you the ministers of our God: you will eat the wealth of the nations, and you will boast in their glory.

⁷Instead of your shame you shall have double; and instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess double; everlasting joy shall be to them.

⁸"For I, the Lord, love justice, I hate robbery with iniquity; and I will give them their recompense in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

⁹Their seed shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord has blessed."

¹⁰I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

¹¹For as the earth brings forth its bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

¹For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her righteousness go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns.

²The nations shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name.

³You shall also be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

⁴You shall no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall your land any more be termed Desolate: but you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married.

⁵For as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons shall marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you.

⁶I have set watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day nor night: you who call on the Lord, take no rest,

⁷and give him no rest, until he establishes, and until he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

⁸The Lord has sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, "Surely I will no more give your grain to be food for your enemies; and foreigners shall not drink your new wine, for which you have labored:

⁹but those who have garnered it shall eat it, and praise the Lord; and those who have gathered it shall drink it in the courts of my sanctuary."

¹⁰Go through, go through the gates! Prepare the way of the people! Cast up, cast up the highway! Gather out the stones! Lift up a banner for the peoples.

¹¹Behold, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the earth, "Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your salvation comes. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.'"

¹²They shall call them The holy people, The redeemed of the Lord: and you shall be called Sought out, A city not forsaken.

¹Who is this who comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this who is glorious in his clothing, marching in the greatness of his strength? "It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save."

²Why are you red in your clothing, and your garments like him who treads in the wine vat?

³"I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the peoples there was no man with me: yes, I trod them in my anger, and trampled them in my wrath; and their lifeblood is sprinkled on my garments, and I have stained all my clothing.

⁴For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redeemed has come.

⁵I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore my own arm brought salvation to me; and my wrath, it upheld me.

⁶I trod down the peoples in my anger, and made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth."

⁷I will make mention of the loving kindnesses of the Lord and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he has bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.

⁸For he said, "Surely, they are my people, children who will not deal falsely:" so he was their Savior.

⁹In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bore them, and carried them all the days of old.

¹⁰But they rebelled, and grieved his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he himself fought against them.

¹¹Then he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, saying, Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put his holy Spirit in their midst?

¹²who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses? who divided the waters before them, to make himself an everlasting name?

¹³who led them through the depths, as a horse in the wilderness, so that they did not stumble?

¹⁴As the livestock that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused them to rest; so you led your people, to make yourself a glorious name.

¹⁵Look down from heaven, and see from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory: where are your zeal and your mighty acts? the yearning of your heart and your compassion is restrained toward me.

¹⁶For you are our Father, though Abraham doesn't know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us: you, Lord, are our Father; our Redeemer from everlasting is your name.

¹⁷O Lord, why do you make us to stray from your ways, and harden our heart from your fear? Return for your servants' sake, the tribes of your inheritance.

¹⁸Your holy people possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.

¹⁹We have become as they over whom you never bear rule, as those who were not called by your name.