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ISA C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21 C22 C23 C24 C25 C26 C27 C28 C29 C30 C31 C32 C33 C34 C35 C36 C37 C38 C39 C40 C41 C42 C43 C44 C45 C46 C47 C48 C49 C50 C51 C52 C53 C54 C55 C56 C57 C58 C59 C60 C61 C62 C63 C64 C65 C66

UST ISA Chapter 52

◄ ISA 52 ► ║ ═ ©

52 You people of Zion, become alert!

Become strong again!

You people of the holy city of Jerusalem

should stop mourning by wearing sackcloth and wear beautiful clothes

because foreign enemies will not invade your city again.

2 You people of Jerusalem should stop mourning by sitting on the ground.

Shake off the dust and sit in an honorable seat.

Take the chains off your necks,

you captive people of Zion!

3 Do that because Yahweh says this:

“Your enemies did not pay me anything when they took you as their slaves.

So I am not going to pay them any money when I set you free.”

4 Yahweh, the Lord, also says this:

“My people originally went to Egypt to live there,

but the Egyptians enslaved them.

Later, the Assyrians made them their slaves without paying anything for them.”

5 Yahweh declares, “I should not be in a situation now

in which an enemy has taken my people away without paying anything for them.”

Yahweh declares, “Because of this, their captors mock me,

“and they continually speak with contempt about my reputation.

6 So I am going to show my people what I am really like by rescuing them.

Then they will realize that I have done what I promised.

I am ready to act!”

7 How wonderful it is when a messenger comes over the mountains

and announces that God is going to save his people

and make them peaceful and prosperous again.

He tells the people of Zion, “Your God is ruling as king!”

8 Listen to the watchmen of your city!

They are all shouting and singing joyfully,

because they see clearly

that Yahweh is bringing back the people of Zion.

9 If they could, the ruins of Jerusalem should all sing joyfully,

because Yahweh has encouraged his people

and has rescued the exiles from that city.

10 Yahweh will show his holy power in such a way

that all foreign nations will recognize it.

People throughout the world

will see our God saving his people.

11 You must certainly leave Babylon!

Do not touch anything that is ritually unclean.

You will be bringing back the articles that the Babylonians took from Yahweh’s temple.

So become ritually clean and depart from among the Babylonians.

12 You will have the time to do that because

you will not need to leave quickly.

That is because Yahweh will be leading you,

and he, the God of you Israelites, will also protect you from behind.

13 Yahweh says, “Pay attention!

My servant will accomplish what I send him to do,

and I will honor him greatly.

14 Many people will stare at him in shock

because his enemies will beat him so badly

that he will no longer look like a human being.

15 But he will purify the people of many nations,

the way the priests sprinkled blood on objects to purify them.

Kings will be speechless because of him,

because they will have seen something that no one had ever told them about,

and they will have understood something that they had never heard of before.”