49
The Servant, the Light to the Gentiles
1“Listen, ⚓O coastlands, to Me,
And take heed, you peoples from afar!
⚓The Lord has called Me from the womb;
From the matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name.
2And He has made ⚓My mouth like a sharp sword;
⚓In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me,
And made Me ⚓a polished shaft;
In His quiver He has hidden Me.”
3“And He said to me,
⚓‘You are My servant, O Israel,
⚓In whom I will be glorified.’
4⚓Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain;
Yet surely my just reward is with the Lord,
And my work with my God.’ ”
5“And now the Lord says,
Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To bring Jacob back to Him,
So that Israel ⚓is gathered to Him
(For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord,
And My God shall be My strength),
6Indeed He says,
‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also give You as a ⚓light to the Gentiles,
That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”
7Thus says the Lord,
The Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One,
⚓To Him whom man despises,
To Him whom the nation abhors,
To the Servant of rulers:
⚓“Kings shall see and arise,
Princes also shall worship,
Because of the Lord who is faithful,
The Holy One of Israel;
And He has chosen You.”
8Thus says the Lord:
“In an ⚓acceptable time I have heard You,
And in the day of salvation I have helped You;
I will preserve You ⚓and give You
As a covenant to the people,
To restore the earth,
To cause them to inherit the desolate heritages;
9That You may say ⚓to the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’
To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’
“They shall feed along the roads,
And their pastures shall be on all desolate heights.
10They shall neither ⚓hunger nor thirst,
⚓Neither heat nor sun shall strike them;
For He who has mercy on them ⚓will lead them,
Even by the springs of water He will guide them.
11⚓I will make each of My mountains a road,
And My highways shall be elevated.
12Surely ⚓these shall come from afar;
Look! Those from the north and the west,
And these from the land of Sinim.”
13⚓Sing, O heavens!
Be joyful, O earth!
And break out in singing, O mountains!
For the Lord has comforted His people,
And will have mercy on His afflicted.
God Will Remember Zion
14⚓But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,
And my Lord has forgotten me.”
15“Can⚓ a woman forget her nursing child,
And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
⚓Yet I will not forget you.
16See, ⚓I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
Your walls are continually before Me.
17Your sons shall make haste;
Your destroyers and those who laid you waste
Shall go away from you.
18⚓Lift up your eyes, look around and see;
All these gather together and come to you.
As I live,” says the Lord,
“You shall surely clothe yourselves with them all ⚓as an ornament,
And bind them on you as a bride does.
19“For your waste and desolate places,
And the land of your destruction,
⚓Will even now be too small for the inhabitants;
And those who swallowed you up will be far away.
20⚓The children you will have,
⚓After you have lost the others,
Will say again in your ears,
‘The place is too small for me;
Give me a place where I may dwell.’
21Then you will say in your heart,
‘Who has begotten these for me,
Since I have lost my children and am desolate,
A captive, and wandering to and fro?
And who has brought these up?
There I was, left alone;
But these, where were they?’ ”
22⚓Thus says the Lord God:
“Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations,
And set up My standard for the peoples;
They shall bring your sons in their arms,
And your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders;
23⚓Kings shall be your foster fathers,
And their queens your nursing mothers;
They shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth,
And ⚓lick up the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord,
⚓For they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.”
24⚓Shall the prey be taken from the mighty,
Or the captives of the righteous be delivered?
25But thus says the Lord:
“Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away,
And the prey of the terrible be delivered;
For I will contend with him who contends with you,
And I will save your children.
26I will ⚓feed those who oppress you with their own flesh,
And they shall be drunk with their own ⚓blood as with sweet wine.
All flesh ⚓shall know
That I, the Lord, am your Savior,
And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”