Isaiah 51

A Call to Remember the Lord

1 Listen to Me, you who chase righteousness, you who seek the Lord. Look back to the rock you were cut from, the quarry you were dug from.

2 Look to Abraham your father and Sarah who gave you birth. When I called him, he was just one man, but I blessed him and made him a whole nation.

3 The Lord will comfort Zion, have mercy on her ruins. He will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy, gladness, thanksgiving, and singing will fill her again.

4 God’s justice will stand. Pay attention to Me, My people. Listen, My nation. My law will go out, and My justice will become a light for the nations.

5 My righteousness is coming near. My salvation is on the way. My arm will bring justice to the nations. The islands will wait for Me and put their hope in My strength.

6 Lift up your eyes and look to the sky. Look at the earth beneath. The sky will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and its people will die like flies. But My salvation will last forever, and My righteousness will never fade.

Fear God, Not Man

7 Listen to Me, you who know what is right, you who carry My teaching in your heart. Do not fear insults from people, and do not be crushed by their hate.

8 They will be eaten like cloth by moths, devoured like wool by bugs. But My righteousness will last forever, and My salvation for all generations.

A Prayer for God to Act

9 Wake up, wake up, Lord! Put on strength, like in the old days, in generations long ago. Were You not the One who cut Rahab down and crushed the sea monster,

10 Were You not the One who dried up the sea, the waters of the deep, and made a road through the sea so the redeemed could cross,

11 The Lord’s ransomed ones will return, singing as they enter Zion. Everlasting joy will crown their heads. Happiness and joy will overtake them, sorrow and sighing will run away.

God Comforts His People

12 “I, yes, I, am the One who comforts you. So why are you afraid of humans who die, people who fade like grass?”

13 “You forgot the Lord your Maker, the One who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, but all day long you are scared of human anger and destruction.” Where is that anger now,

14 The prisoner will be freed soon. He will not die in the pit or lack bread.

15 “For I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea and makes the waves roar, the Lord of Armies is My name.”

16 “I put My words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of My hand. I set the heavens in place, laid the foundations of the earth, and said to Zion, ‘You are My people.’”

The Cup of Wrath Removed

17 Wake up, wake up, Jerusalem, you who drank the cup of the Lord’s wrath. You drained it to the dregs, the cup that makes people stagger.

18 No one led you, no one took you by the hand of all the children you bore.

19 Two disasters hit you, ruin and destruction, famine and sword. And there was no one to comfort you.

20 Your children fainted, lying at every street corner like antelope caught in a net, full of the Lord’s anger.

God Takes the Cup Away

21 So listen, you suffering one, drunk, but not from wine:

22 This is what your Lord says, the Lord your God who defends His people: “I am taking the cup of staggering out of your hand, the cup of My wrath. You will never drink it again.”

23 “I will give it to those who made you suffer, the ones who said, ‘Bow down so we can walk on you,’ and you lay flat so they could march over your back.”