¹“Listen to me,

You who pursue justice,

You who seek the Lord.

Look at the rock from which you have been hewn,

And at the hollow of the pit

From which you have been quarried.

²Look at Abraham your father,

And Sarah who gave birth to you,

For I called him as the only one,

And I will bless him and multiply him.

³For the Lord will comfort Zion;

He will comfort all her desolate places,

And he will make her desert like Eden,

And her arid tract like the Lord's garden.

Rejoicing and happiness will be found in her,

And thanksgiving and the sound of singing.

⁴Listen to me, my people,

And hear me, my nation,

For the law will go out from me,

And I will make my judicature rest

As a light for the nations.

⁵My justice is near,

My salvation has gone out,

And my arms will judge nations.

The coastlands will put their hope in me,

And confide in my arm.

⁶Lift up your eyes to the heavens,

And look at the earth below,

For the heavens will pass away like smoke,

And the earth will wear out like a garment,

And its inhabitants will die in a similar way,

But my salvation will be age-abiding,

And my justice will not be thwarted.

⁷Listen to me, you who know righteousness

– You who are a people with my law in your heart –

Do not fear the reproach of man,

And do not be dismayed at their vilifications.

⁸For the moth will consume them like a garment,

And the larva will consume them like wool,

But my justice will be age-abiding,

As will my salvation

From generation to generation.

⁹Wake up, wake up,

Put on strength,

O arm of the Lord.

Wake up as in former days,

In generations of past ages.

Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces

– Who wounded the land of crocodile?

¹⁰Was it not you who dried up the sea

– The water of the mighty deep –

Who made the depths of the sea

A way for those ransomed to cross over?

¹¹And the Lord's redeemed will return

And come to Zion in jubilation,

With age-abiding joy on their heads.

They will obtain happiness and joy,

Whereas sorrow and sighing will flee.

¹²I, I myself am the one who comforts you.

Who are you to be afraid of mortal man,

Or of a son of Adam

Who will be laid under the grass?

¹³But you are forgetting the Lord your maker,

Who stretched out the heavens,

And who laid the foundations of the earth,

And you have been afraid continually,

All day long,

Of the fury of the oppressor,

Of one as he prepares to bring ruination.

But where is the fury of the oppressor?

¹⁴The exile hastens to be released

And not to die in the pit,

And not to have lack of food.

¹⁵But I am the Lord your God,

Who stirs up the sea

So that its waves roar

– The Lord of hosts is his name.

¹⁶And I will put my words in your mouth;

I will cover you with the shadow of my hand

So as to plant the heavens

And to found the earth,

And to say to Zion,

‘You are my people.’

¹⁷Rouse yourself, rouse yourself, arise, Jerusalem,

You who have drunk from the hand of the Lord

The cup of his fury.

You have drunk;

You have wrung out the goblet

– The cup of reeling.

¹⁸There is no-one from all the sons she has borne

Leading her,

And there is no-one out of all the sons she has brought up

Holding her hand.

¹⁹There are two things which call out to you:

Who will console you?

Regarding the devastation, the ruination, the hunger and the sword,

Who says, ‘I will comfort you’?

²⁰Your sons have fainted;

They lie at the head of all the streets,

Like an oryx in a trap.

They are full of the Lord's fury

– A rebuke from your God.

²¹So then, do hear this,

You afflicted one

– Drunk,

But not from wine.”

²²This is what your Lord the Lord and your God,

Who will contend for his people, says:

“Look, I have taken from your hand the cup of reeling,

The goblet – the cup of my fury.

You will not drink it any more.

²³And I will put it in the hand

Of those who afflict you,

Who have said to you personally,

‘Bow down so that we may pass.’

And you positioned your back like the ground,

And like the street for passers-by to walk on.”