1  Hear this, O house of Jacob,

who are called by the name of Israel,

and who came from the waters of Judah,

who swear by the name of the Lord

and confess the God of Israel,

but not in truth or right.

2  For they call themselves after the holy city,

and stay themselves on the God of Israel;

^kthe Lord of hosts is his name.

3  “The former things I ^ldeclared of old;

they went out from my mouth, and I announced them;

then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.

4  Because I know that you are ^mobstinate,

and your neck is an iron sinew

and your forehead brass,

5  I declared them to you from of old,

before they came to pass I announced them to you,

lest you should say, ‘My idol did them,

my carved image and my metal image commanded them.’

6  “You have heard; now see all this;

and will you not declare it?

From this time forth I announce to you ⁿnew things,

^ohidden things that you have not known.

7  They are created now, not long ago;

before today you have never heard of them,

lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’

8  You have never heard, you have never known,

from of old your ear has not been opened.

For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously,

and that ^pfrom before birth you were called a rebel.

9  “For my name’s sake I defer my anger;

for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,

that I may not cut you off.

10  Behold, I have ^qrefined you, but not as silver;

I have tried¹ you in the furnace of affliction.

11  ^rFor my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,

for how should my name² be profaned?

^sMy glory I will not give to another.

12  “Listen to me, O Jacob,

and Israel, whom I called!

^tI am he; ^uI am the first,

and I am the last.

13  My hand ^vlaid the foundation of the earth,

and my right hand spread out the heavens;

when I call to them,

they stand forth together.

14  “Assemble, all of you, and listen!

Who among them has declared these things?

The Lord loves him;

he shall perform his purpose on Babylon,

and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.

15  ^wI, even I, have spoken and called him;

I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.

16  Draw near to me, hear this:

from the beginning I ^xhave not spoken in secret,

from the time it came to be I have been there.”

And now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit.

17  Thus says the Lord,

your ^yRedeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

“I am the Lord your God,

who teaches you to profit,

who leads you in the way you should go.

18  ^zOh that you had paid attention to my commandments!

Then your ^apeace would have been like a river,

and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;

19  ^byour offspring would have been like the sand,

and your descendants like its grains;

their name would never be cut off

or destroyed from before me.”

20  ^cGo out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea,

declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it,

send it out to the end of the earth;

say, “The Lord ^dhas redeemed his servant Jacob!”

21  They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;

^ehe made water flow for them from the rock;

he split the rock and the water gushed out.

22  ^f“There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”

1  ^gListen to me, O coastlands,

and give attention, you peoples from afar.

The Lord called me ^hfrom the womb,

from the body of my mother he named my name.

2  He made my mouth like a ⁱsharp sword;

^jin the shadow of his hand he hid me;

he made me a polished arrow;

in his quiver he hid me away.

3  And he said to me, “You are ^kmy servant,

Israel, ^lin whom I will be glorified.”³

4  But I said, “I have labored in vain;

I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;

yet surely my right is with the Lord,

and my recompense with my God.”

5  And now the Lord says,

he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,

to bring Jacob back to him;

and that Israel might be ^mgathered to him—

for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord,

and my God has become my strength—

6  he says:

“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant

to raise up the tribes of Jacob

and to bring back the preserved of Israel;

ⁿI will make you as a ^olight for the nations,

that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

7  Thus says the Lord,

the ^pRedeemer of Israel and his Holy One,

to one deeply ^qdespised, abhorred by the nation,

the servant of rulers:

^r“Kings shall see and arise;

princes, and they shall prostrate themselves;

because of the Lord, who is faithful,

the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

8  Thus says the Lord:

^s“In a time of favor I have answered you;

in a day of salvation I have helped you;

I will keep you and ^tgive you

as a covenant to the people,

to establish the land,

to apportion the desolate heritages,

9  ^usaying to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’

to those who are in darkness, ‘Appear.’

They shall feed along the ways;

on all bare heights shall be their pasture;

10  ^vthey shall not hunger or thirst,

neither scorching wind nor ^wsun shall strike them,

for he who has pity on them will lead them,

and by springs of water will ^xguide them.

11  And I will make all my ^ymountains a road,

and my highways shall be raised up.

12  Behold, these shall come from afar,

and behold, these ^zfrom the north and from the west,⁴

and these from the land of ^aSyene.”⁵

13  ^bSing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;

break forth, O mountains, into singing!

For the Lord has ^ccomforted his people

and will have compassion on his afflicted.

14  But Zion said, ^d“The Lord has forsaken me;

my Lord has forgotten me.”

15  “Can a woman forget her nursing child,

that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?

Even these may forget,

yet ^eI will not forget you.

16  Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;

your walls are continually before me.

17  Your builders make haste;⁶

your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you.

18  ^fLift up your eyes around and see;

they all gather, they come to you.

As I live, declares the Lord,

you shall put them all on as an ornament;

you shall bind them on as a bride does.

19  “Surely your waste and your desolate places

and your devastated land—

surely now you will be ^gtoo narrow for your inhabitants,

and those who swallowed you up will be far away.

20  The children of your bereavement

will yet say in your ears:

‘The place is too narrow for me;

make room for me to dwell in.’

21  Then you will say in your heart:

‘Who has borne me these?

I was bereaved and barren,

exiled and put away,

but who has brought up these?

Behold, I was left alone;

from where have these come?’”

22  Thus says the Lord God:

“Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations,

and ^hraise my signal to the peoples;

and they shall ⁱbring your sons in their arms,⁷

^jand your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.

23  Kings shall be your foster fathers,

and their queens your ^knursing mothers.

With their faces to the ground ^lthey shall bow down to you,

and ^mlick the dust of your feet.

Then you will know that I am the Lord;

those who ⁿwait for me shall not be put to shame.”

24  Can the prey be taken from the mighty,

or the captives of a tyrant⁸ be rescued?

25  For thus says the Lord:

“Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken,

and the prey of the tyrant be rescued,

for I will contend with those who contend with you,

and I will save your children.

26  I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,

and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine.

Then all flesh shall know

that I am the Lord ^oyour Savior,

and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”