Study Desk

But I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely the justice [due] to me is with Yahweh, and my recompense with my God.

And now says Yahweh that formed me from the womb to be his slave, to bring Jacob again to him, and that Israel be gathered to him (for I am honorable in the eyes of Yahweh, and my God has become my strength);

yes, he says, It is too light a thing that you should be my slave to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give you for a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.

Thus says Yahweh, In an acceptable time I have answered you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you; and I will preserve you, and give you for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages:

They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that has mercy on them will lead them, even by springs of water he will guide them.

Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for Yahweh has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted.

For, as for your waste and your desolate places, and your land that has been destroyed, surely now you shall be too strait for the inhabitants, and those that swallowed you up shall be far away.

The sons of your bereavement shall yet say in your ears, The place is too strait for me; give a place to me that I may dwell.

And kings shall be your nursing fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers: they shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of your feet; and you shall know that I am Yahweh; and those that wait for me shall not be put to shame.

But thus says Yahweh, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; for I will contend with him that contends with you, and I will save your sons.

Thus says Yahweh, Where is the bill of your mother's divorce, with which I have put her away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Look, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was put away.

Why, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it can't redeem? or have I no power to deliver? Look, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stink, because there is no water, and die for thirst.

For the Lord Yahweh will help me; therefore I have not been confounded: therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.

Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah that bore you; for when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him, and made him many.

For Yahweh has comforted Zion; he has comforted all her waste places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Yahweh; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

Attend to me, O my people; and give ear to me, O my nation: for a law shall go forth from me, and I will establish my justice for a light of the peoples.

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

Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment; and those that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.

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.

Is it not you that dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; that made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?