Yahweh Comforts Zion

• 51 “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,
  • who seek Yahweh.
• Look to the rock from which you were hewn,
  • and to the excavation of the pit from which you were quarried.
• 2 Look to Abraham your father,
  • and to Sarah; she brought you forth.
• For I called him alone ,[fn]
  • but[fn] I blessed him and made him numerous.”
• 3 For Yahweh will comfort Zion;
  • he will comfort all its sites of ruins.
• And he will make[fn] its wilderness like Eden,
  • and its desert like the garden of Yahweh.
• Joy and gladness will be found in it,
  • thanksgiving and the sound[fn] of song.
• 4 “Listen attentively to me, my people,
  • and my nation, listen to me!
• For a teaching will go out from me,
  • and I will cause my justice to rest for a light to the peoples.
• 5 My righteousness is near; my salvation has gone out,
  • and my arms will judge the peoples.
• The coastlands wait for me,
  • and for my arm they wait.
• 6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens
  • and look to the earth beneath,
• for the heavens will be torn to pieces like smoke,
  • and the earth will be worn out like a garment,
    • and those who inhabit her will die like gnats.
• But[fn] my salvation will be forever,
  • and my righteousness will not be broken to pieces.
• 7 Listen to me, you who know righteousness,
  • people who have my teaching in their heart;
• you must not fear the reproach of men,
  • or be terrified because of their abuse.
• 8 For a moth will eat them like garments;
  • a moth will devour[fn] them like wool,
• but[fn] my righteousness will be forever,
  • and my salvation for generation after generation .[fn]”
• 9 Awake! Awake; put on strength, O arm of Yahweh!
  • Awake as in days of long ago,
    • the generations of a long time back!
• Are you not the one who cut Rahab in pieces,
  • the one who pierced the sea-dragon?
• 10 Are you not the one who dried up the sea,
  • the waters of the great deep,
• the one who made[fn] the depths of the sea a way
  • for those who are redeemed to cross over?
• 11 So[fn] the redeemed ones of Yahweh shall return,
  • and they shall come to Zion with singing,
    • and everlasting joy shall be on their heads.[fn]
• Joy and gladness shall appear ;[fn]
  • sorrow and sighing shall flee away!
• 12 “I, I am he who comforts you;
  • who are you that[fn] you are afraid of man? He dies!
  • And of the son of humankind? He is sacrificed[fn] as grass!
• 13 And you have forgotten Yahweh, your maker,
  • who stretched out the heavens,
  • and founded the earth.
• And you tremble continually, all day,
  • because of the wrath of the oppressor
  • when he takes aim[fn] to destroy.
• But[fn] where is the wrath of the oppressor?
  • 14 The fettered one shall make haste to be freed.
• And he shall not die in[fn] the pit,
  • and he shall not lack his bread.
• 15 For[fn] I am Yahweh, your God,
  • who stirs up[fn] the sea, so that[fn] its waves roar;
  • Yahweh of hosts is his name.
• 16 And I have put my words in your mouth,
  • and I have covered you in the shadow of my hand,
• to plant the heavens
  • and to found the earth,
    • saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’ ”
• 17 Rouse yourself! Rouse yourself!
  • Stand up, Jerusalem, who have drunk from the hand of Yahweh the cup of his wrath;
• you have drunk the goblet, the cup of staggering;
  • you have drained it out.
• 18 There is no one who guides her among[fn] all the children she has borne,
  • and there is no one who grasps her by the hand among[fn] all the children she raised.
• 19 Two things here have happened to you—who will show sympathy[fn] for you?—
  • devastation and destruction, famine and sword—who will comfort you?
• 20 Your children have fainted;
  • they lie at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in[fn] a snare,
• those who are full of the wrath of Yahweh,
  • the rebuke of your God.
• 21 Therefore hear now this afflicted one
  • and drunken one but[fn] not from wine.
• 22 Thus says your Lord, Yahweh,
  • and your God pleads the cause of his people:
• “Look! I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering.
  • You shall not continue[fn] to drink the goblet, the cup of my wrath, any longer.
• 23 And I will put it in the hand of your tormenters,
  • who have said to you ,[fn] ‘Bow down that[fn] we may pass[fn] over you!’
• And you have made[fn] your back like the ground,
  • and like the street for those who pass[fn] over you.”