Isaiah Chapter 51
Everlasting Salvation for Israel
1 “Listen to me, you that want to be good,
that look to the LORD,
the Rock you were hewn from,
the quarry you came from.
2 Look to Abraham your ancestor,
to Sarah who bore you in pain;
he was just one man when I called him;
then I blessed him and multiplied him.”
3 Indeed, the LORD will comfort Zion again
and have mercy on its desolate places;
he’ll make its wilderness like Eden,
its desert like the LORD’s orchard.
Joy and happiness will be there,
thanksgiving and songs.
Is 51:1-3
4 “Listen, my people;
pay attention, my nation,
because my law will go out from me;
my justice will shine like a light for the nations,
to distant lands that wait for me.
5 My goodness will come soon
to set my deliverance in motion,
my arms will bring justice to the nations;
the distant lands will look to me.
6 Look up at the sky;
then look at the earth below it,
because the sky will dissipate like smoke,
the earth will wear out like a garment,
the people in it will die like gnats;
but my deliverance will be permanent,
my goodness won’t end.
Is 51:4-6
7 Listen, you that know goodness
and have my Law in your heart;
don’t worry about criticism
or be intimidated by scorn;
8 moths will eat away at your adversaries like a cloak;
worms will consume them like wool;
but my goodness will last forever,
my deliverance will continue to all generations.”
9 Wake up, wake up, show your strength, arm of the LORD;
wake up as in the old days, generations ago;
wasn’t it you that cut Rahab in pieces,
that pierced the dragon?
Is 51:7-9
10 Wasn’t it you that dried up the sea,
the water in the great deep,
that made it a path
for the rescued to pass through?
11 The ones the LORD has ransomed will return
to Zion with happy shouts,
crowned with everlasting joy;
sorrow and sighing will disappear.
Is 51:10-11
12 “I’m the One that gives you assurance.
Why be afraid of mortals
that wither like grass?
13 Why forget the LORD your Maker
that stretched out the sky
and laid the foundations for the world?
Why constantly fear your enemies’ fury
when they threaten to destroy you?
Where’s the fury of those oppressors now?
14 Exiles will soon be free;
they won’t starve to death in dungeons,
15 because I’m Yahveh your God
that stirs up the sea and makes its breakers roar.
(“Yahveh of Hosts” is my title.)
16 I’ve put my message in your mouth
and covered you with my hand
to establish the sky,
to found the earth,
to tell Zion, ‘You’re my people.’”
Is 51:12-16
17 Wake up! Jerusalem;
get up, you that drank from the LORD’s hand
the cup of his anger,
that drank to the dregs the chalice
that made you stagger.
18 Out of all the children you’ve borne and raised,
there’s no one to take you by the hand and guide you.
19 Two things have happened to you:
devastation and destruction, sword and famine.
Who’s going to mourn for you?
How can I comfort you?
20 Your children have fainted;
they lie helpless at the head of every street
like an antelope in a net,
full of the LORD’s anger, your God’s rebuke.
Is 51:17-20
21 So listen to this, oppressed people,
drunk but not with wine;
22 this is what your Lord says, the LORD your God
that contends for his people:
‘I’ve taken out of your hand
the cup filled with my anger,
the chalice that made you stagger;
you won’t have to drink it anymore.
23 I’ll hand it to your tormentors to drink
who told you to lie down so they could walk on you.
You made your back like the ground,
like a street for them to tread.”
Is 51:21-23