[1] Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek Yahweh:
look to the rock whence you were hewn, and to the hold of the pit whence
you were dug. [2] Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you;
for when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him, and made him many.
[3] 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. [4] Attend to me, my people; and give ear to me, my
nation: for a law shall go forth from me, and I will establish my justice
for a light of the peoples. [5] My righteousness is near, my salvation is
gone forth, and my arms shall judge the peoples; the isles shall wait for
me, and on my arm shall they trust. [6] Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and look on the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like
smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment; and those who dwell
therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be forever, and my
righteousness shall not be abolished. [7] Listen to me, you who know
righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; don`t you fear the
reproach of men, neither be you dismayed at their insults. [8] 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.
[9] Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of Yahweh; awake, as in the days of
old, the generations of ancient times. Isn`t it you who did cut Rahab in
pieces, who pierced the monster? [10] Isn`t it 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] The ransomed of Yahweh shall return, and come
with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy shall be on their heads: they
shall obtain gladness and joy; [and] sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
[12] I, even I, am he who comforts you: who are you, that you are afraid of
man who shall die, and of the son of man who shall be made as grass; [13]
and have forgotten Yahweh your Maker, who stretched forth the heavens, and
laid the foundations of the earth; and fear continually all the day because
of the fury of the oppressor, when he makes ready to destroy? and where is
the fury of the oppressor? [14] The captive exile shall speedily be loosed;
and he shall not die [and go down] into the pit, neither shall his bread
fail. [15] For I am Yahweh your God, who stirs up the sea, so that the
waves of it roar: Yahweh of Hosts is his name. [16] I have put my words in
your mouth, and have covered you in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant
the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and tell Zion, You are
my people. [17] Awake, awake, stand up, Jerusalem, that have drunk at the
hand of Yahweh the cup of his wrath; you have drunken the bowl of the cup
of staggering, and drained it. [18] There is none to guide her among all
the sons whom she has brought forth; neither is there any who takes her by
the hand among all the sons who she has brought up. [19] These two things
are befallen you, who shall bemoan you? desolation and destruction, and the
famine and the sword; how shall I comfort you? [20] Your sons have fainted,
they lie at the head of all the streets, as an antelope in a net; they are
full of the wrath of Yahweh, the rebuke of your God. [21] Therefore hear
now this, you afflicted, and drunken, but now with wine: [22] Thus says
your Lord Yahweh, and your God who pleads the cause of his people, Behold,
I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the
cup of my wrath; you shall no more drink it again: [23] and I will put it
into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, Bow
down, that we may go over; and you have laid your back as the ground, and
as the street, to those who go over.
