Isaiah 51 YLT
Summary: The LORD calls those who pursue righteousness to look to Abraham and Sarah, from whom He made a multitude out of one, and promises to comfort Zion, turning her wilderness into Eden with joy and thanksgiving, while His righteousness and salvation will endure forever, His law a light to the peoples. He recalls His ancient power in drying up the sea for the redeemed to pass over and cutting Rahab (Egypt) in pieces, urging Zion to awake as in days of old, and assures that those He comforts will have everlasting joy, sorrow and sighing fled away. Jerusalem, having drunk the cup of the LORD's fury to its dregs and suffered devastation, sons fainting in the streets, is now told that cup will be taken from her hand and put instead into the hand of her tormentors. The chapter closes with this reversal, comfort replacing wrath for God's afflicted people.
1Hearken unto Me, ye pursuing righteousness, Seeking Jehovah, Look attentively unto the rock--ye have been hewn, And unto the hole of the pit--ye have been digged.
2Look attentively unto Abraham your father, And unto Sarah--she bringeth you forth, For--one--I have called him, And I bless him, and multiply him.
3For Jehovah hath comforted Zion, He hath comforted all her wastes, And He setteth her wilderness as Eden, And her desert as a garden of Jehovah, Joy, yea, gladness is found in her, Confession, and the voice of song.
4Attend unto Me, O My people, And, O My nation, unto Me give ear. For a law from Me goeth out, And My judgment to the light, Peoples I do cause to rest.
5Near is My righteousness, Gone out hath My salvation and Mine arms, Peoples they judge, on Me isles do wait, Yea, on Mine arm they do wait with hope.
6Lift ye up to the heavens your eyes, And look attentively unto the earth beneath, For the heavens as smoke have vanished, And the earth as a garment weareth out, And its inhabitants as gnats do die, And My salvation is to the age, And My righteousness is not broken.
7Hearken unto Me, ye who know righteousness, A people, in whose heart is My law, Fear ye not the reproach of men, And for their reviling be not affrighted,
8For as a garment eat them doth a moth, And as wool eat them doth a worm, And My righteousness is to the age, And My salvation to all generations.
9Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of Jehovah, Awake, as in days of old, generations of the ages, Art not Thou it that is hewing down Rahab, Piercing a dragon!
10Art not Thou it that is drying up a sea, Waters of a great deep? That hath made deep places of a sea A way for the passing of the redeemed?
11And the ransomed of Jehovah turn back, And they have come to Zion with singing, And joy age-during is on their head, Gladness and joy they attain, Fled away have sorrow and sighing,
12I--I am He--your comforter, Who art thou--and thou art afraid of man? he dieth! And of the son of man--grass he is made!
13And thou dost forget Jehovah thy maker, Who is stretching out the heavens, and founding earth, And thou dost fear continually all the day, Because of the fury of the oppressor, As he hath prepared to destroy. And where is the fury of the oppressor?
14Hastened hath a wanderer to be loosed, And he doth not die at the pit, And his bread is not lacking.
15And I am Jehovah thy God, Quieting the sea, when its billows roar, Jehovah of Hosts is His name.
16And I put My words in thy mouth, And with the shadow of My hand have covered thee, To plant the heavens, and to found earth, And to say to Zion, `My people art thou.'
17Stir thyself, stir thyself, rise, Jerusalem, Who hast drunk from the hand of Jehovah The cup of His fury, The goblet, the cup of trembling, thou hast drunk, Thou hast wrung out.
18There is not a leader to her Out of all the sons she hath borne, And there is none laying hold on her hand Out of all the sons she hath nourished.
19These two are meeting thee, who is moved for thee? Spoiling and destruction--Famine and sword, who--I comfort thee?
20Thy sons have been wrapped up, they have lain down, At the head of all out places, as a wild ox in a net, They are full of the fury of Jehovah, The rebuke of Thy God.
21Therefore, hear, I pray thee, this, O afflicted and drunken one, and not with wine,
22Thus said thy Lord Jehovah, and thy God, He pleadeth for his people: `Lo, I have taken out of thy hand the cup of trembling, The goblet, the cup of My fury, Thou dost not add to drink it any more.
23And I have put it into the hand of those afflicting thee, Who have said to thy soul, Bow down, and we pass over, And thou makest as the earth thy body, And as the street to those passing by!'
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