Chronological Plan

¹Listen to Me, you islands, And pay attention, you peoples from afar. The LORD called Me from the womb; From the body of My mother He named Me.

²He has made My mouth like a sharp sword, In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me; And He has also made Me a sharpened arrow, He has hidden Me in His quiver.

³He said to Me, “You are My Servant, Israel, In whom I will show My glory.”

⁴But I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent My strength for nothing and futility; Nevertheless, the justice due to Me is with the LORD, And My reward is with My God.”

⁵And now says the LORD, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him (For I am honored in the sight of the LORD, And My God is My strength),

⁶He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the protected ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

⁷This is what the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One, Says to the despised One, To the One abhorred by the nation, To the Servant of rulers: “Kings will see and arise, Princes will also bow down, Because of the LORD who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You.”

⁸This is what the LORD says: “At a favorable time I answered You, And on a day of salvation I helped You; And I will watch over You and make You a covenant of the people, To restore the land, to give as inheritances the deserted hereditary lands;

⁹Saying to those who are bound, ‘Go free,’ To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ They will feed along the roads, And their pasture will be on all bare heights.

¹⁰They will not hunger or thirst, Nor will the scorching heat or sun strike them down; For He who has compassion on them will lead them, And He will guide them to springs of water.

¹¹I will make all My mountains a road, And My highways will be raised up.

¹²Behold, these will come from afar; And behold, these will come from the north and from the west, And these from the land of Aswan.”

¹³Shout for joy, you heavens! And rejoice, you earth! Break forth into joyful shouting, mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people And will have compassion on His afflicted.

¹⁴But Zion said, “The LORD has abandoned me, And the Lord has forgotten me.”

¹⁵“Can a woman forget her nursing child And have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.

¹⁶Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me.

¹⁷Your builders hurry; Your destroyers and devastators Will leave you.

¹⁸Raise your eyes and look around; All of them gather together, they come to you. As I live,” declares the LORD, “You will certainly put them all on as jewelry and bind them on as a bride.

¹⁹For your ruins and deserted places and your destroyed land— Now you will certainly be too cramped for the inhabitants, And those who swallowed you will be far away.

²⁰The children you lost will yet say in your ears, ‘The place is too cramped for me; Make room for me that I may live here.’

²¹Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has fathered these for me, Since I have been bereaved of my children And cannot conceive, and I am an exile, and a wanderer? And who has raised these? Behold, I was left alone; Where are these from?’ ”

²²This is what the Lord GOD says: “Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations And set up My flag to the peoples; And they will bring your sons in their arms, And your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.

²³Kings will be your guardians, And their princesses your nurses. They will bow down to you with their faces to the ground And lick the dust from your feet; And you will know that I am the LORD; Those who hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame.

²⁴“Can the prey be taken from a mighty man, Or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?”

²⁵Indeed, this is what the LORD says: “Even the captives of the mighty man will be taken away, And the prey of a tyrant will be rescued; For I will contend with the one who contends with you, And I will save your sons.

²⁶I will feed your oppressors with their own flesh, And they will become drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine; And humanity will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

¹This is what the LORD says: “Where is the certificate of divorce By which I have sent your mother away? Or to whom of My creditors did I sell you? Behold, you were sold for your wrongdoings, And for your wrongful acts your mother was sent away.

²Why was there no one when I came? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Is My hand so short that it cannot redeem? Or do I have no power to rescue? Behold, I dry up the sea with My rebuke, I turn rivers into a wilderness; Their fish stink for lack of water, And die of thirst.

³I clothe the heavens with blackness, And make sackcloth their covering.”

⁴The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of disciples, So that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.

⁵The Lord GOD has opened My ear, And I was not disobedient, Nor did I turn back.

⁶I gave My back to those who strike Me, And My cheeks to those who pull out My beard; I did not hide My face from insults and spitting.

⁷For the Lord GOD helps Me, Therefore, I am not disgraced; Therefore, I have made My face like flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed.

⁸He who vindicates Me is near; Who will contend with Me? Let us stand up to each other. Who has a case against Me? Let him approach Me.

⁹Behold, the Lord GOD helps Me; Who is he who condemns Me? Behold, they will all wear out like a garment; A moth will eat them.

¹⁰Who is among you who fears the LORD, Who obeys the voice of His servant, Who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.

¹¹Behold, all you who kindle a fire, Who encircle yourselves with flaming arrows, Walk in the light of your fire And among the flaming arrows you have set ablaze. This you will have from My hand: You will lie down in torment.

¹“Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness, Who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were cut, And to the quarry from which you were dug.

²Look to Abraham your father And to Sarah who gave birth to you in pain; When he was only one I called him, Then I blessed him and multiplied him.”

³Indeed, the LORD will comfort Zion; He will comfort all her ruins. And He will make her wilderness like Eden, And her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, Thanksgiving and the sound of a melody.

⁴“Pay attention to Me, My people, And listen to Me, My nation; For a law will go out from Me, And I will bring My justice as a light of the peoples.

⁵My righteousness is near, My salvation has gone forth, And My arms will judge the peoples; The coastlands will wait for Me, And they will wait expectantly for My arm.

⁶Raise your eyes to the sky, Then look to the earth beneath; For the sky will vanish like smoke, And the earth will wear out like a garment And its inhabitants will die in the same way. But My salvation will be forever, And My righteousness will not fail.

⁷Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, A people in whose heart is My Law; Do not fear the taunting of people, Nor be terrified of their abuses.

⁸For the moth will eat them like a garment; Yes, the moth will eat them like wool. But My righteousness will be forever, And My salvation to all generations.”

⁹Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; Awake as in the days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not You who cut Rahab in pieces, Who pierced the dragon?

¹⁰Was it not You who dried up the sea, The waters of the great deep; Who made the depths of the sea a pathway For the redeemed to cross over?

¹¹And the redeemed of the LORD will return And come to Zion with joyful shouting, And everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away.

¹²“I, I Myself, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you are afraid of mortal man, And of a son of man who is made like grass,

¹³That you have forgotten the LORD your Maker, Who stretched out the heavens And laid the foundations of the earth, That you fear continually all day long because of the fury of the oppressor, As he makes ready to destroy? And where is the rage of the oppressor?

¹⁴The exile will soon be set free, and will not die in the dungeon, nor will his bread be lacking.

¹⁵For I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar (the LORD of armies is His name).

¹⁶And I have put My words in your mouth and have covered you with the shadow of My hand, to establish the heavens, to found the earth, and to say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’ ”

¹⁷Pull yourself up! Pull yourself up! Arise, Jerusalem! You who have drunk from the LORD’S hand the cup of His anger; The chalice of staggering you have drunk to the dregs.

¹⁸There is no one to guide her among all the sons to whom she has given birth, Nor is there anyone to take her by the hand among all the sons she has raised.

¹⁹These two things have happened to you; Who will mourn for you? The devastation and destruction, famine and sword; How shall I comfort you?

²⁰Your sons have fainted, They lie helpless at the head of every street, Like an antelope in a net, Full of the wrath of the LORD, The rebuke of your God.

²¹Therefore, listen to this, you afflicted, Who are drunk, but not with wine:

²²This is what your Lord, the LORD, your God Who contends for His people says: “Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering, The chalice of My anger; You will never drink it again.

²³I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, Who have said to you, ‘Lie down so that we may walk over you.’ You have also made your back like the ground, And like the street for those who walk over it.”

¹Awake, awake, Clothe yourself in your strength, Zion; Clothe yourself with your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city; For the uncircumcised and the unclean Will no longer come into you.

²Shake yourself from the dust, rise up, Captive Jerusalem; Release yourself from the chains around your neck, Captive daughter of Zion.

³For this is what the LORD says: “You were sold for nothing, and you will be redeemed without money.”

⁴For this is what the Lord GOD says: “My people went down to Egypt first to reside there; then the Assyrian oppressed them without reason.

⁵And now, what do I have here,” declares the LORD, “seeing that My people have been taken away without reason?” Again the LORD declares, “Those who rule over them howl, and My name is continually reviled all day long.

⁶Therefore, My people shall know My name; therefore on that day I am the one who is speaking, ‘Here I am.’ ”

⁷How delightful on the mountains Are the feet of one who brings good news, Who announces peace And brings good news of happiness, Who announces salvation, And says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

⁸Listen! Your watchmen raise their voices, They shout joyfully together; For they will see with their own eyes When the LORD restores Zion.

⁹Be cheerful, shout joyfully together, You ruins of Jerusalem; For the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem.

¹⁰The LORD has bared His holy arm In the sight of all the nations, So that all the ends of the earth may see The salvation of our God.

¹¹Depart, depart, go out from there, Do not touch what is unclean; Go out of the midst of her, purify yourselves, You who carry the vessels of the LORD.

¹²But you will not go out in a hurry, Nor will you go as fugitives; For the LORD will go before you, And the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

¹³Behold, My Servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.

¹⁴Just as many were appalled at you, My people, So His appearance was marred beyond that of a man, And His form beyond the sons of mankind.

¹⁵So He will sprinkle many nations, Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; For what they had not been told, they will see, And what they had not heard, they will understand.

¹Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

²For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of dry ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we would look at Him, Nor an appearance that we would take pleasure in Him.

³He was despised and abandoned by men, A man of great pain and familiar with sickness; And like one from whom people hide their faces, He was despised, and we had no regard for Him.

⁴However, it was our sicknesses that He Himself bore, And our pains that He carried; Yet we ourselves assumed that He had been afflicted, Struck down by God, and humiliated.

⁵But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, And by His wounds we are healed.

⁶All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the wrongdoing of us all To fall on Him.

⁷He was oppressed and afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.

⁸By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off from the land of the living For the wrongdoing of my people, to whom the blow was due?

⁹And His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

¹⁰But the LORD desired To crush Him, causing Him grief; If He renders Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.

¹¹As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, For He will bear their wrongdoings.

¹²Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the plunder with the strong, Because He poured out His life unto death, And was counted with wrongdoers; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the wrongdoers.