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1 “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,
look to the rock you were cut from,
and to the hold of the pit you were dug from.
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 will be found in it,
thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
and give ear to me, my nation;
for a law will go out from me,
and I will establish my justice
for a light of the peoples.
my salvation is gone forth
and my arms will judge the peoples;
the islands will wait for me,
and on my arm will they trust.
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens
and look on the earth beneath;
for the heavens will vanish away like smoke
and the earth will grow old like a garment;
and those who dwell in it will die in the same way:
but my salvation will be forever,
and my righteousness will not be abolished.
7 Listen to me, you who know righteousness,
the people in whose heart is my law;
do not fear the reproach of men,
neither be dismayed at their insults.
8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment,
and the worm will eat them like wool;
but my righteousness will be forever,
and my salvation to all generations.”
put on strength, arm of Yahweh;
awake, as in the days of old,
the generations of ancient times.
Isn’t it you who 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 And the ransomed of Yahweh will return
and will come to Zion with singing,
and everlasting joy will be on their heads.
Joy and gladness will overtake them.
Sorrow and sighing will flee away.
12 “I, even I, am he who comforts you;
who are you, that you are afraid of man who will die,
and of the son of man who will 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 will speedily be freed,
and he will not die and go down into the pit,
neither will his bread fail.
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar;
Yahweh of Armies 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 Wake yourself, wake yourself;
you who have drunk from the hand of Yahweh
you who have drunk to the dregs the bowl,
the cup that causes people to stagger.
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 have happened to you.
Who will bemoan you?
Desolation and destruction
and the famine and the sword;
how will I comfort you?
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 not with wine:
22 This is what your Lord Yahweh,
and your God who pleads
the cause of his people, says:
“Behold, I have taken out of your hand
the cup of staggering,
even the bowl of the cup of my wrath;
you will 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 walk over you,’
and you have laid your back as the ground
and as the street to those who walk over.”
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