The Lord’s Comfort for Zion
a“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,
you who seek the Lord:
look to the rock from which you were hewn,
and to the quarry from which you were dug.
2 Look to Abraham your father
and to Sarah who bore you;
for ahe was but one when I called him,
that I might bless him and multiply him.
3 For the Lord acomforts Zion;
he comforts all her waste places
and makes her wilderness like bEden,
her desert like cthe garden of the Lord;
djoy and gladness will be found in her,
thanksgiving and the voice of song.
4 a“Give attention to me, my people,
and give ear to me, my nation;
bfor a law will go out from me,
and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.
5 aMy righteousness draws near,
my salvation has gone out,
and my arms will judge the peoples;
bthe coastlands hope for me,
and for my arm they wait.
6 aLift up your eyes to the heavens,
and look at the earth beneath;
bfor the heavens vanish like smoke,
the earth will wear out like a garment,
and they who dwell in it will die in like manner;
cbut my salvation will be forever,
and my righteousness will never be dismayed.
7 a“Listen to me, you who know righteousness,
the people bin whose heart is my law;
cfear not the reproach of man,
nor be dismayed at their revilings.
8 aFor the moth will eat them up like a garment,
and the worm will eat them like wool,
bbut my righteousness will be forever,
and my salvation to all generations.”
9 aAwake, awake, bput on strength,
O carm of the Lord;
awake, das in days of old,
the generations of long ago.
Was it not you who cut eRahab in pieces,
who pierced fthe dragon?
10 aWas it not 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 aAnd the ransomed of the Lord shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
12 “I, I am he awho comforts you;
who are you that you are afraid of bman who dies,
of the son of man who is made clike grass,
13 and have forgotten the Lord, your Maker,
awho stretched out the heavens
and blaid the foundations of the earth,
and you fear continually all the day
because of the wrath of cthe oppressor,
when he sets himself to destroy?
And where is the wrath of cthe oppressor?
14 aHe who is bowed down shall speedily be released;
he shall not die and go down bto the pit,
neither shall his bread be lacking.
15 I am the Lord your God,
awho stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
the Lord of hosts is his name.
16 aAnd I have put my words in your mouth
band covered you in the shadow of my hand,
cestablishing the heavens
and dlaying the foundations of the earth,
and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”
17 aWake yourself, wake yourself,
stand up, O Jerusalem,
byou who have drunk from the hand of the Lord
the cup of his wrath,
who have drunk to the dregs
the bowl, cthe cup of staggering.
18 aThere is none to guide her
among all the sons she has borne;
there is none to take her by the hand
among all the sons she has brought up.
19 aThese two things have happened to you—
who will console you?—
devastation and destruction, famine and sword;
who will comfort you?
20 aYour sons have fainted;
they lie at the head of every street
like an bantelope cin a net;
they are full of the wrath of the Lord,
the rebuke of your God.
21 aTherefore hear this, you who are afflicted,
who are drunk, but not with wine:
22 Thus says your Lord, the Lord,
your God awho pleads the cause of his people:
“Behold, I have taken from your hand bthe cup of staggering;
the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more;
23 aand I will put it into the hand of your tormentors,
bwho have said to you,
‘Bow down, that we may pass over’;
and cyou have made your back like the ground
and like the street for them to pass over.”