October 13

50:1 Thus says the Lord:
“Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce,
 with which I sent her away?
Or which of my creditors is it
 to whom I have sold you?
Behold, for your iniquities you were sold,
 and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
2 Why, when I came, was there no man;
 why, when I called, was there no one to answer?
Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem?
 Or have I no power to deliver?
Behold, by my rebuke I dry up the sea,
 I make the rivers a desert;
their fish stink for lack of water
 and die of thirst.
3 I clothe the heavens with blackness
 and make sackcloth their covering.”

4 The Lord God has given me
 the tongue of those who are taught,
that I may know how to sustain with a word
 him who is weary.
Morning by morning he awakens;
 he awakens my ear
 to hear as those who are taught.
5 The Lord God has opened my ear,
 and I was not rebellious;
 I turned not backward.
6 I gave my back to those who strike,
 and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
 from disgrace and spitting.

7 But the Lord God helps me;
 therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like a flint,
 and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
 8 He who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
 Let us stand up together.
Who is my adversary?
 Let him come near to me.
9 Behold, the Lord God helps me;
 who will declare me guilty?
Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment;
 the moth will eat them up.

10 Who among you fears the Lord
 and obeys the voice of his servant?
Let him who walks in darkness
 and has no light
trust in the name of the Lord
 and rely on his God.
11 Behold, all you who kindle a fire,
 who equip yourselves with burning torches!
Walk by the light of your fire,
 and by the torches that you have kindled!
This you have from my hand:
 you shall lie down in torment.

51:1 “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 he was but one when I called him,
 that I might bless him and multiply him.
3 For the Lord comforts Zion;
 he comforts all her waste places
and makes her wilderness like Eden,
 her desert like the garden of the Lord;
joy and gladness will be found in her,
 thanksgiving and the voice of song.

4 “Give attention to me, my people,
 and give ear to me, my nation;
for a law [1] will go out from me,
 and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.
5 My righteousness draws near,
 my salvation has gone out,
 and my arms will judge the peoples;
the coastlands hope for me,
 and for my arm they wait.
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
 and look at the earth beneath;
for the heavens vanish like smoke,
 the earth will wear out like a garment,
 and they who dwell in it will die in like manner; [2]
but my salvation will be forever,
 and my righteousness will never be dismayed.

7 “Listen to me, you who know righteousness,
 the people in whose heart is my law;
fear not the reproach of man,
 nor be dismayed at their revilings.
8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment,
 and the worm will eat them like wool;
but my righteousness will be forever,
 and my salvation to all generations.”

9 Awake, awake, put on strength,
 O arm of the Lord;
awake, as in days of old,
 the generations of long ago.
Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces,
 who pierced the dragon?
10 Was 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 And 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 who comforts you;
 who are you that you are afraid of man who dies,
 of the son of man who is made like grass,
13 and have forgotten the Lord, your Maker,
 who stretched out the heavens
 and laid the foundations of the earth,
and you fear continually all the day
 because of the wrath of the oppressor,
when he sets himself to destroy?
 And where is the wrath of the oppressor?
14 He who is bowed down shall speedily be released;
 he shall not die and go down to the pit,
 neither shall his bread be lacking.
15 I am the Lord your God,
 who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
 the Lord of hosts is his name.
16 And I have put my words in your mouth
 and covered you in the shadow of my hand,
establishing [3] the heavens
 and laying the foundations of the earth,
 and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”

17 Wake yourself, wake yourself,
 stand up, O Jerusalem,
you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord
 the cup of his wrath,
who have drunk to the dregs
 the bowl, the cup of staggering.
18 There 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 These two things have happened to you—
 who will console you?—
devastation and destruction, famine and sword;
 who will comfort you? [4]
20 Your sons have fainted;
 they lie at the head of every street
 like an antelope in a net;
they are full of the wrath of the Lord,
 the rebuke of your God.

21 Therefore hear this, you who are afflicted,
 who are drunk, but not with wine:
22 Thus says your Lord, the Lord,
 your God who pleads the cause of his people:
“Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering;
the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more;
23 and I will put it into the hand of your tormentors,
 who have said to you,
 ‘Bow down, that we may pass over’;
and you have made your back like the ground
 and like the street for them to pass over.”

52:1 Awake, awake,
 put on your strength, O Zion;
put on your beautiful garments,
 O Jerusalem, the holy city;
for there shall no more come into you
 the uncircumcised and the unclean.
2 Shake yourself from the dust and arise;
 be seated, O Jerusalem;
loose the bonds from your neck,
 O captive daughter of Zion.

7 How beautiful upon the mountains
 are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
 who publishes salvation,
 who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
8 The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice;
 together they sing for joy;
for eye to eye they see
 the return of the Lord to Zion.
9 Break forth together into singing,
 you waste places of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people;
 he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord has bared his holy arm
 before the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see
 the salvation of our God.

11 Depart, depart, go out from there;
 touch no unclean thing;
go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves,
 you who bear the vessels of the Lord.
12 For you shall not go out in haste,
 and you shall not go in flight,
for the Lord will go before you,
 and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; [5]
 he shall be high and lifted up,
 and shall be exalted.
14 As many were astonished at you—
 his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
 and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—
15 so shall he sprinkle [6] many nations;
 kings shall shut their mouths because of him;
for that which has not been told them they see,
 and that which they have not heard they understand.