50
The Servant, Israel’s Hope
1Thus says the Lord:
“Where is⚓the certificate of your mother’s divorce,
Whom I have put away?
Or which of My ⚓creditors is it to whom I have sold you?
For your iniquities ⚓you have sold yourselves,
And for your transgressions your mother has been put away.
2Why, when I came, was there no man?
Why, when I called, was there none to answer?
Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem?
Or have I no power to deliver?
Indeed with My ⚓rebuke I dry up the sea,
I make the rivers a wilderness;
Their fish stink because there is no water,
And die of thirst.
3⚓I clothe the heavens with blackness,
⚓And I make sackcloth their covering.”
4“The⚓ Lord God has given Me
The tongue of the learned,
That I should know how to speak
A word in season to him who is⚓weary.
He awakens Me morning by morning,
He awakens My ear
To hear as the learned.
5The Lord God⚓has opened My ear;
And I was not ⚓rebellious,
Nor did I turn away.
6⚓I gave My back to those who struck Me,
And ⚓My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard;
I did not hide My face from shame and ⚓spitting.
7“For the Lord God will help Me;
Therefore I will not be disgraced;
Therefore ⚓I have set My face like a flint,
And I know that I will not be ashamed.
8⚓He is near who justifies Me;
Who will contend with Me?
Let us stand together.
Who is My adversary?
Let him come near Me.
9Surely the Lord God will help Me;
Who is he who will condemn Me?
⚓Indeed they will all grow old like a garment;
⚓The moth will eat them up.
10“Who among you fears the Lord?
Who obeys the voice of His Servant?
Who ⚓walks in darkness
And has no light?
⚓Let him trust in the name of the Lord
And rely upon his God.
11Look, all you who kindle a fire,
Who encircle yourselves with sparks:
Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled—
⚓This you shall have from My hand:
You shall lie down ⚓in torment.