Chronological Plan

¹“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God.

²“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and announce to her that her time of forced labor is over, her iniquity has been pardoned, and she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.”

³A voice of one crying out: Prepare the way of the LORD in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert.

⁴Every valley will be lifted up, and every mountain and hill will be leveled; the uneven ground will become smooth and the rough places, a plain.

⁵And the glory of the LORD will appear, and all humanity together will see it, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

⁶A voice was saying, “Cry out!” Another said, “What should I cry out?” “All humanity is grass, and all its goodness is like the flower of the field.

⁷The grass withers, the flowers fade when the breath of the LORD blows on them; indeed, the people are grass.

⁸The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever.”

⁹Zion, herald of good news, go up on a high mountain. Jerusalem, herald of good news, raise your voice loudly. Raise it, do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”

¹⁰See, the Lord GOD comes with strength, and his power establishes his rule. His wages are with him, and his reward accompanies him.

¹¹He protects his flock like a shepherd; he gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them in the fold of his garment. He gently leads those that are nursing.

¹²Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand? Who has gathered the dust of the earth in a measure or weighed the mountains on a balance and the hills on the scales?

¹³Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or who gave him counsel?

¹⁴Who did he consult? Who gave him understanding and taught him the paths of justice? Who taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding?

¹⁵Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are considered as a speck of dust on the scales; he lifts up the islands like fine dust.

¹⁶Lebanon’s cedars are not enough for fuel, or its animals enough for a burnt offering.

¹⁷All the nations are as nothing before him; they are considered by him as empty nothingness.

¹⁸With whom will you compare God? What likeness will you set up for comparison with him?

¹⁹An idol? — something that a smelter casts and a metalworker plates with gold and makes silver chains for?

²⁰A poor person contributes wood for a pedestal that will not rot. He looks for a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not fall over.

²¹Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not considered the foundations of the earth?

²²God is enthroned above the circle of the earth; its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like thin cloth and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

²³He reduces princes to nothing and makes judges of the earth like a wasteland.

²⁴They are barely planted, barely sown, their stem hardly takes root in the ground when he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind carries them away like stubble.

²⁵“To whom will you compare me, or who is my equal?” asks the Holy One.

²⁶Look up and see! Who created these? He brings out the stars by number; he calls all of them by name. Because of his great power and strength, not one of them is missing.

²⁷Jacob, why do you say, and, Israel, why do you assert: “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my claim is ignored by my God”?

²⁸Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the whole earth. He never becomes faint or weary; there is no limit to his understanding.

²⁹He gives strength to the faint and strengthens the powerless.

³⁰Youths may become faint and weary, and young men stumble and fall,

³¹but those who trust in the LORD will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not become weary, they will walk and not faint.

¹“Be silent before me, coasts and islands! And let peoples renew their strength. Let them approach; let them testify; let’s come together for the trial.

²Who has stirred up someone from the east? In righteousness he calls him to serve. The LORD hands nations over to him, and he subdues kings. He makes them like dust with his sword, like wind-driven stubble with his bow.

³He pursues them, going on safely, hardly touching the path with his feet.

⁴Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I am the LORD, the first and with the last  — I am he.”

⁵The coasts and islands see and are afraid, the whole earth trembles. They approach and arrive.

⁶Each one helps the other, and says to another, “Take courage!”

⁷The craftsman encourages the metalworker; the one who flattens with the hammer encourages the one who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, “It is good.” He fastens it with nails so that it will not fall over.

⁸But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham, my friend  —

⁹I brought you from the ends of the earth and called you from its farthest corners. I said to you: You are my servant; I have chosen you; I haven’t rejected you.

¹⁰Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with my righteous right hand.

¹¹Be sure that all who are enraged against you will be ashamed and disgraced; those who contend with you will become as nothing and will perish.

¹²You will look for those who contend with you, but you will not find them. Those who war against you will become absolutely nothing.

¹³For I am the LORD your God, who holds your right hand, who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.

¹⁴Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel. I will help you’ — this is the LORD’s declaration. Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵See, I will make you into a sharp threshing board, new, with many teeth. You will thresh mountains and pulverize them and make hills into chaff.

¹⁶You will winnow them and a wind will carry them away, a whirlwind will scatter them. But you will rejoice in the LORD; you will boast in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷The poor and the needy seek water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. I will answer them. I am the LORD, the God of Israel. I will not abandon them.

¹⁸I will open rivers on the barren heights, and springs in the middle of the plains. I will turn the desert into a pool and dry land into springs.

¹⁹I will plant cedars, acacias, myrtles, and olive trees in the wilderness. I will put juniper trees, elms, and cypress trees together in the desert,

²⁰so that all may see and know, consider and understand, that the hand of the LORD has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.

²¹“Submit your case,” says the LORD. “Present your arguments,” says Jacob’s King.

²²“Let them come and tell us what will happen. Tell us the past events, so that we may reflect on them and know the outcome, or tell us the future.

²³Tell us the coming events, then we will know that you are gods. Indeed, do something good or bad, then we will be in awe when we see it.

²⁴Look, you are nothing and your work is worthless. Anyone who chooses you is detestable.

²⁵“I have stirred up one from the north, and he has come, one from the east who invokes my name. He will march over rulers as if they were mud, like a potter who treads the clay.

²⁶Who told about this from the beginning, so that we might know, and from times past, so that we might say, ‘He is right’? No one announced it, no one told it, no one heard your words.

²⁷I was the first to say to Zion, ‘Look! Here they are!’ And I gave Jerusalem a herald with good news.

²⁸When I look, there is no one; there is no counselor among them; when I ask them, they have nothing to say.

²⁹Look, all of them are a delusion; their works are nonexistent; their images are wind and emptiness.

¹“This is my servant; I strengthen him, this is my chosen one; I delight in him. I have put my Spirit on him; he will bring justice to the nations.

²He will not cry out or shout or make his voice heard in the streets.

³He will not break a bruised reed, and he will not put out a smoldering wick; he will faithfully bring justice.

⁴He will not grow weak or be discouraged until he has established justice on earth. The coasts and islands will wait for his instruction.”

⁵This is what God, the LORD, says — who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk on it  —

⁶“I am the LORD. I have called you for a righteous purpose, and I will hold you by your hand. I will watch over you, and I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations,

⁷in order to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and those sitting in darkness from the prison house.

⁸I am the LORD. That is my name, and I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.

⁹The past events have indeed happened. Now I declare new events; I announce them to you before they occur.”

¹⁰Sing a new song to the LORD; sing his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea with all that fills it, you coasts and islands with your inhabitants.

¹¹Let the desert and its cities shout, the settlements where Kedar dwells cry aloud. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy; let them cry out from the mountaintops.

¹²Let them give glory to the LORD and declare his praise in the coasts and islands.

¹³The LORD advances like a warrior; he stirs up his zeal like a soldier. He shouts, he roars aloud, he prevails over his enemies.

¹⁴“I have kept silent from ages past; I have been quiet and restrained myself. But now, I will groan like a woman in labor, gasping breathlessly.

¹⁵I will lay waste mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation. I will turn rivers into islands and dry up marshes.

¹⁶I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; I will guide them on paths they have not known. I will turn darkness to light in front of them and rough places into level ground. This is what I will do for them, and I will not abandon them.

¹⁷They will be turned back and utterly ashamed — those who trust in an idol and say to a cast image, ‘You are our gods! ’

¹⁸“Listen, you deaf! Look, you blind, so that you may see.

¹⁹Who is blind but my servant, or deaf like my messenger I am sending? Who is blind like my dedicated one, or blind like the servant of the LORD?

²⁰Though seeing many things, you pay no attention. Though his ears are open, he does not listen.”

²¹Because of his righteousness, the LORD was pleased to magnify his instruction and make it glorious.

²²But this is a people plundered and looted, all of them trapped in holes or imprisoned in dungeons. They have become plunder with no one to rescue them and loot, with no one saying, “Give it back!”

²³Who among you will hear this? Let him listen and obey in the future.

²⁴Who gave Jacob to the robber, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the LORD? Have we not sinned against him? They were not willing to walk in his ways, and they would not listen to his instruction.

²⁵So he poured out his furious anger and the power of war on Jacob. It surrounded him with fire, but he did not know it; it burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart.

¹Now this is what the LORD says — the one who created you, Jacob, and the one who formed you, Israel  — “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine.

²I will be with you when you pass through the waters, and when you pass through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. You will not be scorched when you walk through the fire, and the flame will not burn you.

³For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, and your Savior. I have given Egypt as a ransom for you, Cush and Seba in your place.

⁴Because you are precious in my sight and honored, and I love you, I will give people in exchange for you and nations instead of your life.

⁵Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, and gather you from the west.

⁶I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back!’ Bring my sons from far away, and my daughters from the ends of the earth  —

⁷everyone who bears my name and is created for my glory. I have formed them; indeed, I have made them.”

⁸Bring out a people who are blind, yet have eyes, and are deaf, yet have ears.

⁹All the nations are gathered together, and the peoples are assembled. Who among them can declare this, and tell us the former things? Let them present their witnesses to vindicate themselves, so that people may hear and say, “It is true.”

¹⁰“You are my witnesses”  — this is the LORD’s declaration — “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. No god was formed before me, and there will be none after me.

¹¹I — I am the LORD. Besides me, there is no Savior.

¹²I alone declared, saved, and proclaimed — and not some foreign god among you. So you are my witnesses” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “and I am God.

¹³Also, from today on I am he alone, and none can rescue from my power. I act, and who can reverse it?”

¹⁴This is what the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: Because of you, I will send an army to Babylon and bring all of them as fugitives, even the Chaldeans in the ships in which they rejoice.

¹⁵I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.

¹⁶This is what the LORD says — who makes a way in the sea, and a path through raging water,

¹⁷who brings out the chariot and horse, the army and the mighty one together (they lie down, they do not rise again; they are extinguished, put out like a wick ) —

¹⁸“Do not remember the past events, pay no attention to things of old.

¹⁹Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.

²⁰Wild animals — jackals and ostriches — will honor me, because I provide water in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people.

²¹The people I formed for myself will declare my praise.

²²“But, Jacob, you have not called on me, because, Israel, you have become weary of me.

²³You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings or honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings or wearied you with incense.

²⁴You have not bought me aromatic cane with silver, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities.

²⁵“I — I sweep away your transgressions for my own sake and remember your sins no more.

²⁶Remind me. Let’s argue the case together. Recount the facts, so that you may be vindicated.

²⁷Your first father sinned, and your mediators have rebelled against me.

²⁸So I defiled the officers of the sanctuary, and set Jacob apart for destruction and Israel for scorn.