97 lines
3.9 KiB
Markdown
97 lines
3.9 KiB
Markdown
# Chapter 51
|
||
1 “Listen to me, all who hope for deliverance—
|
||
all who seek the Lord!
|
||
Consider the rock from which you were cut,
|
||
the quarry from which you were mined.
|
||
2 Yes, think about Abraham, your ancestor,
|
||
and Sarah, who gave birth to your nation.
|
||
Abraham was only one man when I called him.
|
||
But when I blessed him, he became a great nation.”
|
||
3 The Lord will comfort Israel again
|
||
and have pity on her ruins.
|
||
Her desert will blossom like Eden,
|
||
her barren wilderness like the garden of the Lord.
|
||
Joy and gladness will be found there.
|
||
Songs of thanksgiving will fill the air.
|
||
4 “Listen to me, my people.
|
||
Hear me, Israel,
|
||
for my law will be proclaimed,
|
||
and my justice will become a light to the nations.
|
||
5 My mercy and justice are coming soon.
|
||
My salvation is on the way.
|
||
My strong arm will bring justice to the nations.
|
||
All distant lands will look to me
|
||
and wait in hope for my powerful arm.
|
||
6 Look up to the skies above,
|
||
and gaze down on the earth below.
|
||
For the skies will disappear like smoke,
|
||
and the earth will wear out like a piece of clothing.
|
||
The people of the earth will die like flies,
|
||
but my salvation lasts forever.
|
||
My righteous rule will never end!
|
||
7 “Listen to me, you who know right from wrong,
|
||
you who cherish my law in your hearts.
|
||
Do not be afraid of people’s scorn,
|
||
nor fear their insults.
|
||
8 For the moth will devour them as it devours clothing.
|
||
The worm will eat at them as it eats wool.
|
||
But my righteousness will last forever.
|
||
My salvation will continue from generation to generation.”
|
||
9 Wake up, wake up, O Lord! Clothe yourself with strength!
|
||
Flex your mighty right arm!
|
||
Rouse yourself as in the days of old
|
||
when you slew Egypt, the dragon of the Nile.
|
||
10 Are you not the same today,
|
||
the one who dried up the sea,
|
||
making a path of escape through the depths
|
||
so that your people could cross over?
|
||
11 Those who have been ransomed by the Lord will return.
|
||
They will enter Jerusalem singing,
|
||
crowned with everlasting joy.
|
||
Sorrow and mourning will disappear,
|
||
and they will be filled with joy and gladness.
|
||
12 “I, yes I, am the one who comforts you.
|
||
So why are you afraid of mere humans,
|
||
who wither like the grass and disappear?
|
||
13 Yet you have forgotten the Lord, your Creator,
|
||
the one who stretched out the sky like a canopy
|
||
and laid the foundations of the earth.
|
||
Will you remain in constant dread of human oppressors?
|
||
Will you continue to fear the anger of your enemies?
|
||
Where is their fury and anger now?
|
||
It is gone!
|
||
14 Soon all you captives will be released!
|
||
Imprisonment, starvation, and death will not be your fate!
|
||
15 For I am the Lord your God,
|
||
who stirs up the sea, causing its waves to roar.
|
||
My name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
|
||
16 And I have put my words in your mouth
|
||
and hidden you safely in my hand.
|
||
I stretched out the sky like a canopy
|
||
and laid the foundations of the earth.
|
||
I am the one who says to Israel,
|
||
‘You are my people!’”
|
||
17 Wake up, wake up, O Jerusalem!
|
||
You have drunk the cup of the Lord’s fury.
|
||
You have drunk the cup of terror,
|
||
tipping out its last drops.
|
||
18 Not one of your children is left alive
|
||
to take your hand and guide you.
|
||
19 These two calamities have fallen on you:
|
||
desolation and destruction, famine and war.
|
||
And who is left to sympathize with you?
|
||
Who is left to comfort you?
|
||
20 For your children have fainted and lie in the streets,
|
||
helpless as antelopes caught in a net.
|
||
The Lord has poured out his fury;
|
||
God has rebuked them.
|
||
21 But now listen to this, you afflicted ones
|
||
who sit in a drunken stupor,
|
||
though not from drinking wine.
|
||
22 This is what the Sovereign Lord,
|
||
your God and Defender, says:
|
||
“See, I have taken the terrible cup from your hands.
|
||
You will drink no more of my fury.
|
||
23 Instead, I will hand that cup to your tormentors,
|
||
those who said, ‘We will trample you into the dust
|
||
and walk on your backs.’” |