A Light to the Nations: Redemption, Suffering, and the Promise of Restoration
Isaiah 49
1 Listen, islands, to me. Listen, you peoples, from afar: Yahweh has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother, he has made mention of my name.
2 He has made my mouth like a sharp sword. He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand. He has made me a polished shaft. He has kept me close in his quiver.
3 He said to me, “You are my servant; Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
4 But I said, “I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely the justice due to me is with Yahweh, and my reward with my God.”
5 Now Yahweh says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel be gathered to him; for I am honorable in Yahweh’s eyes, and my God has become my strength.
6 Indeed, he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give you as a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.”
7 Yahweh, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, says to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and rise up; princes, and they shall worship; because of Yahweh who is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
8 Yahweh says, “In an acceptable time I have answered you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you. I will preserve you, and give you for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritage,
9 saying to those who are bound, ‘Come out!’; to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves!’ “They shall feed along the paths, and their pasture shall be on all treeless heights.
10 They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun strike them: for he who has mercy on them will lead them, even by springs of water he will guide them.
11 I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted.
12 Behold, these shall come from far away; and behold, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.”
13 Sing, heavens; and be joyful, earth; and break out into singing, mountains! For Yahweh has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted.
14 But Zion said, “Yahweh has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.”
15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you!
16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are continually before me.
17 Your children hurry. Your destroyers and those who made you waste will leave you.
18 Lift up your eyes all around, and see: all these gather themselves together, and come to you. As I live,” says Yahweh, “you shall surely clothe yourself with them all as with an ornament, and dress yourself with them, like a bride.
19 “For, as for your waste and your desolate places, and your land that has been destroyed, surely now you shall be too narrow for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up shall be far away.
20 The children of your bereavement will say in your ears, ‘This place is too narrow for me. Give me room to live in.’
21 Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has conceived these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children, and am alone, an exile, and wandering back and forth? Who has brought these up? Behold, I was left alone. Where were these?’”
22 The Lord Yahweh says, “Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and set up my banner to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
23 Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of your feet; and you shall know that I am Yahweh; and those who wait for me shall not be disappointed.”
24 Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captives be delivered?
25 But Yahweh says, “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; for I will contend with him who contends with you, and I will save your children.
26 I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh; and they will be drunk with their own blood, as with sweet wine. Then all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
Isaiah 50
1 Yahweh says, “Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, with which I have put her away? Or to which of my creditors have I sold you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, and your mother was put away for your transgressions.
2 Why, when I came, was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it can’t redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea. I make the rivers a wilderness. Their fish stink because there is no water, and die for thirst.
3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.”
4 The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary. He awakens morning by morning, he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.
5 The Lord Yahweh has opened my ear. I was not rebellious. I have not turned back.
6 I gave my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair. I didn’t hide my face from shame and spitting.
7 For the Lord Yahweh will help me. Therefore I have not been confounded. Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be disappointed.
8 He who justifies me is near. Who will bring charges against me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.
9 Behold, the Lord Yahweh will help me! Who is he who will condemn me? Behold, they will all become old like a garment. The moths will eat them up.
10 Who among you fears Yahweh and obeys the voice of his servant? He who walks in darkness and has no light, let him trust in Yahweh’s name, and rely on his God.
11 Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who adorn yourselves with torches around yourselves; walk in the flame of your fire, and among the torches that you have kindled. You will have this from my hand: you will lie down in sorrow.
Isaiah 51
1 “Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek Yahweh. Look to the rock from which you were cut, and to the quarry from which you were dug.
2 Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, 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 Yahweh’s garden. Joy and gladness shall be found in them, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
4 “Listen to me, my people; and give ear to me, my nation: for a law shall go out from me, and I will establish my justice for a light to the peoples.
5 My righteousness is near. My salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples. The islands will wait for me, and they will trust my arm.
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wear out like a garment; and those who dwell in it shall die in the same way: but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
7 “Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law. Don’t fear the reproach of men, neither be dismayed at their insults.
8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool; but my righteousness shall be forever, and my salvation to all generations.”
9 Awake, awake, 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 Those ransomed by Yahweh will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy shall be on their heads. They shall obtain gladness and joy. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
12 “I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who shall be made as grass?
13 Have you forgotten Yahweh your Maker, who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth? Do you live in fear continually all day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he prepares to destroy? Where is the fury of the oppressor?
14 The captive exile shall speedily be freed; and he shall not die and go down into the pit, neither shall his bread fail.
15 For I am Yahweh your God, 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 Awake, awake! Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from Yahweh’s hand the cup of his wrath. You have drunk the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.
18 There is no one to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth; and there is no one 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 grieve with you?—desolation and destruction, famine and the sword. How will I comfort you?
20 Your sons have fainted. They lie at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in a net. They are full of Yahweh’s wrath, the rebuke of your God.
21 Therefore now hear this, you afflicted, and drunk, but not with wine:
22 Your Lord Yahweh, 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 shall no more drink it again.
23 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.”
Scripture: World English Bible (WEB), public domain.
