Isaiah 51; Isaiah 52:1-12

1 Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look to the rock whence you were hewn, and to the hold of the pit whence you were dug.

2 Look to Avraham 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.

3 For the LORD has comforted Tziyon; 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.

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

6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the eretz beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the eretz shall wax old like a garment; and those who dwell therein shall die in like manner: 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; don't you fear the reproach of men, neither be you dismayed at their insults.

8 For 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.

9 Awake, 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 did cut Rachav in pieces, who pierced the monster?

10 Isn'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?

11 The ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing to Tziyon; and everlasting joy shall be on their heads: they shall obtain gladness and joy; [and] 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;

13 and have forgotten the LORD your Maker, who stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the eretz; 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?

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

15 For I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea, so that the waves of it roar: the LORD of Hosts is his name.

16 I 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 eretz, and tell Tziyon, You are my people.

17 Awake, awake, stand up, Yerushalayim, 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.

18 There 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.

19 These two things are befallen you, who shall bemoan you? desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword; how shall I comfort you?

20 Your 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.

21 Therefore hear now this, you afflicted, and drunken, but now with wine:

22 Thus 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:

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

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

2 Shake yourself from the dust; arise, sit [on your throne], Yerushalayim: loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Tziyon.

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

4 For thus says the Lord GOD, My people went down at the first into Mitzrayim to sojourn there: and the Ashshur has oppressed them without cause.

5 Now therefore, what do I here, says the LORD, seeing that my people is taken away for nothing? those who rule over them do howl, says the LORD, and my name continually all the day is blasphemed.

6 Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore [they shall know] in that day that I am he who does speak; behold, it is I.

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

8 The 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 Tziyon.

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

10 The LORD has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the eretz have seen the yeshu`ah of our God.

11 Depart you, depart you, go you out from there, touch no unclean thing; go you out of the midst of her; cleanse yourselves, you who bear the vessels of the LORD.

12 For you shall not go out in haste, neither shall you go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Yisra'el will be your rearward.