Isaiah 49-55

New Catholic Bible

¹ Listen to me, O coastlands.
    Pay attention, you distant peoples.
The Lord called me before I was born;
    while I was still in my mother’s womb
    he gave me my name.
² He made my tongue like a sharp sword
    and hid me in the shadow of his hand.
He formed me into a polished arrow,
    and he concealed me in his quiver.
³ He said to me, “You are my servant,
    Israel, through whom I will manifest my glory.”
⁴ I formerly believed that I had labored in vain
    and had exhausted my strength for nothing
    and for no discernible purpose.
⁵ Yet now the Lord has spoken;
    he formed me in the womb to be his servant
so that I could bring back Jacob to him
    and enable Israel to be gathered to him.
For I am honored in the sight of the Lord,
    and my God is the source of my strength.
⁶ It is not enough for you to be my servant, he says,
    to raise up the tribes of Jacob
    and to bring back the survivors of Israel.
I will make you a light to the nations
    so that my salvation may reach
    to the ends of the earth.
⁷ Thus says the Lord,
    the redeemer, the Holy One of Israel,
to the one who is despised
    and whom the people abhor,
    the slave of tyrants:
Kings will rise up when they see you,
    and princes will prostrate themselves in homage,
because of the Lord who is faithful,
    the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.

^{8     [b]}Thus says the Lord:
    In a time of my favor I have answered you;
    on the day of salvation I have helped you.
I have formed you and have destined you
    to be a covenant to the people,
to restore the land
    and to allot the desolate heritages,
⁹ to say to the prisoners, “Come out,”
    and to those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves.”
They will find sustenance along the way,
    and any bare height will serve as their pasture.
¹⁰ They will not hunger or thirst,
    and neither scorching wind nor sun will weaken them,
for he who pities them will lead them,
    and he will guide them beside springs of water.
¹¹ I will blaze a path through all my mountains,
    and my roads will be level.
¹² Behold, some will come from far away,
    others from the north and the west,
    and still others from the land of Syene.^[c]
13 Sing for joy, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth;
    break forth into song, O mountains.
For the Lord has comforted his people,
    and he will show mercy to his afflicted ones.
¹⁴ But Zion cried out, “The Lord has forsaken me;
    my Lord has forgotten me.”
¹⁵ Can a woman forget the infant at her breast;
    or feel no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget,
    I will never forget you.
¹⁶ Behold, I have inscribed your name
    on the palms of my hands;
    your walls are continually before my eyes.
¹⁷ Those who rebuild you do so far more swiftly
    than those who destroyed you.
¹⁸ Lift up your eyes and look around you;
    they are all gathering to come to you.
As I live, says the Lord,
    you will put all of them on like jewels;
    you will adorn yourself with them like a bride.
¹⁹ You had lived in a desolate wasteland,
    amid devastated ruins.
Now the land is too tiny for its inhabitants,
    while those who destroyed you will be far away.
²⁰ The children born during your bereavement
    will say in your hearing,
“This place is too cramped for me;
    make room for me to live in.”
²¹ Then you will say to yourself,
    “Who bore these children for me?
I was bereaved and barren,
    I was exiled and repudiated;
    who has reared them?
I was left all alone;
    where then have these come from?”
²² Thus says the Lord God:
    Behold, I will beckon to the nations
    and raise my signal to the peoples.
Then they will bring your sons in their arms,
    and they will carry your daughters on their shoulders.
²³ Kings will be your foster-fathers,
    and their princesses will serve as your nursing mothers.
They will bow down to you
    with their faces to the ground
    and lick the dust from your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord;
    those who hope in me will not be disappointed.
²⁴ Can spoil be taken from a warrior,
    or can the tyrant’s captives be set free?
²⁵ Thus says the Lord:
    Even a warrior’s captives can be rescued,
    and booty can be retrieved from a tyrant.
I myself will contend with those who oppose you,
    and I will deliver your children.
²⁶ I will force your oppressors to eat their own flesh,
    and they will become drunk on their own blood
    as if with wine.
Then all mankind will know
    that I, the Lord, am your Savior
    and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

^{1     [d]}Thus says the Lord:
    Where is your mother’s bill of divorce
    by which I repudiated her?
Or which creditor of mine was it
    to whom I sold you?
No, you were sold because of your sins,
    and your mother was repudiated,
    because of your rebellious acts.
² Why was no one there when I came?
    Why did no one answer when I called?
Is my hand too short to redeem?
    Have I no power to deliver?
By my rebuke I can dry up the sea
    and turn the rivers into a desert.
Their fish rot for lack of water
    and die of thirst.
³ Did I not clothe the heavens in black
    and cover them with sackcloth?
^{4     [e]}The Lord God has given me
    the tongue of one who has been well taught
so that I am able to console the weary
    with a message of encouragement.
Morning after morning he opens my ears
    so that I may listen to their concerns.
⁵ And I have not rebelled,
    I have not turned away.
⁶ I offered my back to those who struck me,
    my cheeks to those who plucked my beard.
I did not shield my face
    from insults and spitting.
⁷ The Lord God is my help;
    therefore I have not been disgraced.
Rather, I have set my face like flint,
    knowing that I will not be put to shame.
⁸ He who upholds me is near;
    thus, if anyone wishes to oppose me,
    let us confront each other.
Is there anyone who has a case against me?
    Let him come forward.
⁹ The Lord God is my defender;
    who then will dare to condemn me?
All of them will wear out like a garment
    the moth will devour them.
¹⁰ Who among you fears the Lord
    and obeys his servant’s voice?
Who among you walks in darkness
    without any light?
Let him trust in the name of the Lord
    and rely on his God.
¹¹ But all of you kindle a fire
    and arm yourselves with firebrands.
Walk by the light of your fire
    and the firebrands that you have set ablaze.
This is what you will receive from my hand:
    you will lie down in torment.

¹ Listen to me, you who pursue justice,
    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 gave birth to you.
When I called him, he was but one,
    but I blessed him and made him many.
³ The Lord will comfort Zion
    and have pity on all her ruins.
He will make her deserts like Eden
    and her wastelands into the garden of the Lord.
Joy and gladness will resound in her,
    thanksgiving and the sound of music.
⁴ Listen attentively to me, my people,
    and pay heed to me, my nation.
For the law will issue forth from me,
    and my justice will serve as a light to the nations.
⁵ My justice will issue forth swiftly,
    my salvation will appear,
    and I will judge the nations with my arm.
The coastlands and the islands
    will place their hope in me
    and trust in my protection.
⁶ Raise your eyes to the heavens
    and gaze down on the earth below.
For the heavens will vanish like smoke,
    and the earth will wear out like a garment
    as its inhabitants die like flies.
But my salvation will be everlasting
    and my justice will never cease.
⁷ Listen to me,
    you who truly comprehend the meaning of justice
    and who have my teaching in your hearts.
Do not fear the reproach of others
    or allow their reviling to dismay you.
⁸ For they will be like a garment eaten away by moths,
    like wool devoured by grubs.
But my saving justice will be everlasting
    and my deliverance for all generations.
⁹ Awake, awake, O arm of the Lord!
    Clothe yourself in strength.
Awake as in the days of old,
    in ages long past.
Was it not you who hacked Rahab^[g] to pieces
    and pierced the dragon through?
¹⁰ Was it not you who dried up the sea,
    the waters of the great deep,
and turned the depths of the sea into a path
    for the redeemed to pass over?
¹¹ Therefore, those whom the Lord has redeemed will return
    and enter Zion singing,
    their heads crowned with everlasting joy.
They shall experience joy and gladness,
    while sorrow and mourning will disappear.
¹² I, I alone, am the one who comforts you.
    Why then do you fear mortal men who must die,
    human beings who must perish like grass?
¹³ You have forgotten the Lord, your maker,
    who stretched out the heavens
    and laid the foundations of the earth.
You are in constant fear every moment of the day,
    dreading the fury of the oppressor
    who is bent on your destruction.
But where now is the oppressor’s fury?
¹⁴     The oppressed will soon be set free;
they will not die in the dungeon,
    nor will they be without food.
¹⁵ For I am the Lord, your God
    who stirs up the sea and makes its waves roar;
    the Lord of hosts is my name.
¹⁶ I have put my words into your mouth
    and sheltered you in the shadow of my hand,
I who stretched out the heavens
    and laid the foundations of the earth,
and who say to Zion,
    You are my people.

¹⁷ Awake, awake!
    Rise up, O Jerusalem!
You have drunk from the Lord’s hand
    the cup of his wrath;
and have drained to the dregs
    the goblet that causes men to become inebriated.
¹⁸ Of all the sons you have brought forth,
    there is no one to guide you;
of all the sons you have reared,
    there is no one to take you by the hand.
¹⁹ Who is there to grieve with you
    about the twofold disaster you have suffered?
Devastation and destruction, famine and sword:
    who can comfort you?
²⁰ Your children are lying helpless
    at the corner of every street
    like antelopes trapped in a net.
They are filled with the wrath of the Lord,
    with the rebuke of your God.
²¹ Therefore, hear this, you who are afflicted,
    you who are drunk although not with wine.
²² Thus says your sovereign Lord,
    your God who defends his people:
I have taken from your hand
    the cup of inebriation;
    you will never again drink
    from the bowl of my wrath.
²³ I will hand it over to your tormentors,
    those who said to you,
“Lie on the ground
    so that we may walk over you.”
And you flattened your back
    like ground beneath their feet,
    like a road for them to walk on.^[h]

¹ Awake, awake!
    Clothe yourself in strength, O Zion.
Put on your glorious garments,
    O Jerusalem, the holy city.
For the uncircumcised and the unclean
    will no longer enter you.
² Shake off the dust from yourself and rise up
    O captive Jerusalem.
Remove the chains from your neck,
    O captive daughter of Zion.
³ For thus says the Lord:
    You were sold for nothing
    and you will be redeemed without money.
⁴ Then the Lord God continues:
    Long ago my people went down to Egypt
and settled there as aliens;
    the Assyrians also oppressed them without cause.
⁵ Therefore, says the Lord,
    what should now be done?
My people have been carried off without cause;
    their rulers boast triumphantly,
and my name is constantly reviled
    throughout the day, declares the Lord.
⁶ Therefore, on that day,
    my people will know my name
and understand that it is I who say:
    Here I am!
⁷ How beautiful upon the mountains
    are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
who bears good news and proclaims glad tidings,
    announcing salvation and saying to Zion,
    “Your God is king.”
⁸ Listen! Your watchmen raise a cry
    and together they shout for joy,
for with their own eyes they clearly behold
    the return of the Lord to Zion.
⁹ Burst forth together with songs of joy,
    you ruins of Jerusalem.
For the Lord has comforted his people;
    he has redeemed Jerusalem.
¹⁰ The Lord has bared his holy arm
    in the sight of all the nations.
All the ends of the earth will see
    the salvation of our God.
¹¹ Depart, depart! Leave that place behind!
    Touch nothing that is unclean.
Go forth from its midst and purify yourselves,
    you who carry the vessels of the Lord.^[i]
12 But you need not rush forth in haste,
    nor should you take flight like fugitives.
For the Lord will go before you,
    and your rear guard will be the God of Israel.

¹³ Behold, my servant will prosper;
    he will be exalted and raised to great heights.
¹⁴ Just as many people recoiled at the sight of him—
    he was so disfigured
    that he no longer appeared to be human—
¹⁵ so will he startle many nations,
    and kings will be speechless before him.
For they will see what they had not been told,
    and they will contemplate
    what they had not previously heard.

¹ Who has believed what we have heard?
    And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² He grew up before him like a sapling,
    like a shoot in arid ground.
He had no beauty or majesty
    that would cause us to look at him;
    nothing in his appearance would attract us to him.
³ He was despised and shunned by others,
    a man of sorrows who was no stranger to suffering.
We loathed him and regarded him as of no account,
    as one from whom men avert their gaze.
⁴ Although it was our afflictions that he bore,
    our sufferings that he endured,
we thought of him as stricken,
    as struck down by God and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our offenses
    and crushed for our iniquity;
the punishment that made us whole fell upon him,
    and by his bruises we have been healed.
⁶ We had all gone astray like sheep,
    each of us following his own way,
but the Lord laid upon him
    the guilt of us all.
⁷ Although harshly treated and afflicted,
    he did not open his mouth.
Like a lamb led to the slaughter
    and like a sheep that keeps silent before its shearers,
    he did not open his mouth.
⁸ Unjustly condemned, he was taken away,
    and who gave any thought to his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the living
    and stricken for the sins of his people.
⁹ They assigned him a grave with the wicked
    and a burial place with evildoers,
even though he had done no act of violence
    nor had he ever spoken deceitfully.
¹⁰ Yet it was the will of the Lord
    to crush him with pain.
For if he gives his life as a sacrifice for sin,
    he will see his offspring and prolong his life,
    and through him the will of the Lord will be accomplished.
¹¹ As a result of his anguish
    my servant will behold the light and be content.
Through his humiliation he will justify many,
    and their guilt he will bear.
¹² Therefore, I will allot him a portion among the great,
    and he will divide the spoils with the mighty,
because he exposed himself to death
    and was counted among the transgressors,
even though he bore the sins of many
    and interceded for the transgressors.

¹ Sing with happiness,
    you barren woman who never bore a child.
Burst forth in shouts of joy,
    you who never have been in labor.
For more numerous are the children of the deserted wife
    than are the children of the wedded wife,
    says the Lord.
² Enlarge the site for your dwelling
    and stretch out your tent curtains
    to the greatest possible extent.
Lengthen your ropes
    and strengthen your tent stakes.
³ For you will spread out
    to the right and to the left;
your descendants will dispossess the nations
    and settle in the desolate cities.
⁴ Have no fear, for you will not be put to shame;
    do not be discouraged, for you will not be humiliated.
You will forget the shame of your youth,
    and you will no longer remember
    the reproach of your widowhood.
⁵ For your Creator has now become your husband;
    his name is the Lord of hosts.
The Holy One of Israel is your redeemer;
    he is called the God of the entire world.
⁶ The Lord has called you back
    like a forsaken wife grieved in spirit,
like the repudiated wife of a man’s youth,
    says your God.
⁷ For a brief moment I did forsake you,
    but with great compassion I will take you back.
⁸ In an outburst of anger
    I hid my face from you for a moment,
but with everlasting love
    I will have compassion on you,
    says the Lord, your Redeemer.
⁹ This for me is like the days of Noah.
    Just as I swore that the waters of Noah
    would never again flood the earth,
so I have sworn that I never will be angry with you
    and that I will never rebuke you.
¹⁰ Although the mountains may be shaken
    and the hills may totter,
my steadfast love will not depart from you,
    and my covenant of peace will never be shaken,
    says the Lord who has compassion on you.
¹¹ O afflicted city, storm-battered and not comforted,
    I will build you with precious stones
    and lay your foundations with sapphires.
¹² I will use rubies to make your battlements,
    jewels for your gates,
    and precious stones for all your walls.
¹³ All of your sons will be taught by the Lord,
    and great will be their prosperity.
¹⁴ With justice you will be established;
    you will be free from the fear of oppression,
    and no terror will afflict you.
¹⁵ Should anyone attack you,
    it will not be my doing,
and anyone who does stir up strife
    will fall before you.
¹⁶ It was I who created the blacksmith
    to blow on the coals in the fire
    and produce a weapon suitable for its purpose.
I also created the ravager
    to destroy and wreak havoc.
¹⁷ No weapon used against you will prevail,
    and you will refute every accusation
    that is raised in court against you.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
    their vindication from me, says the Lord.

¹ All you who are thirsty,
    come to the water;
all you who have no money,
    come forward, buy, and eat.
Come, buy wine and milk,
    without money and without cost.
² Why spend money for that which is not bread,
    your wages for that which fails to satisfy.
Listen carefully to me, and you will eat well
    and delight in rich food.
³ Come to me and pay close attention;
    listen so that you may have life.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you
    to love you with the faithful love promised to David.
⁴ I appointed him to be a witness to the peoples,
    a leader and commander of nations.
⁵ You in turn will summon nations unknown to you,
    and nations that do not know you will hasten to you,
because of the Lord, your God,
    the Holy One of Israel,
    for he has glorified you.
⁶ Seek the Lord while he still may be found;
    call to him when he is close at hand.
⁷ Let the wicked abandon their ways
    and those who are evil their thoughts.
Let them return to the Lord
    so that he may have mercy upon them;
and to our God,
    for he is rich in forgiveness.
⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
⁹ As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts above your thoughts.
¹⁰ For just as the rain and the snow
    come down from the heavens
and do not return there
    until they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful,
    giving seed for the one who sows
    and bread for those who eat,
¹¹ so shall my word be
    that issues forth from my mouth.
It will not return to me unfulfilled,
    but it will accomplish my purpose
    and achieve what I sent it forth to do.
¹² Yes, you will go forth in joy,
    and you will be led back in peace.
The mountains and hills before you
    will burst forth into song,
and all the trees in the countryside
    will clap their hands.
¹³ A cypress will grow in place of the thornbush,
    and myrtles will come up instead of briars.
All this will increase the Lord’s renown,
    an everlasting sign that will not be cut off.