You are My Servant
1 Listen, islands, to me.
Listen, you peoples, from afar:
The Lord called me while I was still in the womb.
From the inside of my mother,
he has mentioned 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 sharpened arrow.
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 in vain for nothing,
yet surely the justice due to me is with the Lord,
and my reward with my God.”
5 Now the Lord,
who who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
says to bring Jacob back to him,
and to gather Israel to him,
for I am honorable in the eyes of the Lord,
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 make you a light to the nations,
that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.”
7 The Lord, 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 will see You and rise up,
and princes will bow down,
because of the Lord who is faithful,
the Holy One of Israel, he has chosen you.”
The Restoration of Israel
8 This is what the Lord says:
“In a time of favor, I will answer you.
I will help you in the day of salvation.
I will preserve you and appoint you as a covenant of the people,
to restore the land, to give them an inheritance from desolate heritages,
9 saying to those who are bound, ‘Come out!’
to those who are in darkness, ‘Come into the light!’
They shall feed along the paths,
and their pasture shall be on all treeless heights.
10 They will neither hunger nor thirst,
nor will the scorching heat or sun beat down on them,
for he who has compassion on them will lead them.
He will guide them by springs of water.
11 I will make all my mountains a road,
and my highways shall be exalted.
12 They will come from afar,
from the north and from the west,
and from the land of Sinim.”
13 Sing, heavens, and be joyful, earth!
Break out into singing, mountains,
for the Lord comforts his people
and has compassion on his suffering ones.
14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me.
The Lord has forgotten me.”
15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child,
that she would not have compassion
on the son from her womb?
Even if she could forget,
yet I will not forget you!
16 I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.
Your walls are continually before me.
17 Your builders hurry to return.
Those who destroyed and laid you to waste will depart.
18 Lift up your eyes all around and see.
They all gather themselves together and come to you.
As surely as I live,” declares the Lord,
“you shall surely clothe yourself with all of them like 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 that land will be too small for the inhabitants,
and those who consumed you will be far away.
20 Your descendants born in exile will say in your ears,
‘This place is too small for us.
Give us a place with room to live in.’
21 Then you will say in your heart,
‘Who has conceived all these descendants for me,
since I have been barren and alone,
in exile, wandering back and forth?
Who has brought them up?
I was left alone. Where did they come from?’ ”
22 This is what the Lord God says:
“Hear this! I will lift up my hand to the nations,
and lift up my banner to the peoples.
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.
Then you will know that I am the Lord,
and those who wait for me shall not be disappointed.”
24 Can the prey be taken from the mighty,
or captives released from the tyrant?
25 But the Lord says,
“Indeed, the captives of the mighty will be released,
and the prey retrieved from the fierce,
for I will contend with him who contends with you,
and I will save your children.
26 I will make your oppressors feed on their own flesh,
and they will be drunk on their own blood, as if it were sweet wine.
Then all mankind will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior
and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”