1Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the LORD. Look at the rock you were cut from, and at the hole of the pit you were dug from.
2Look at Abraham your father, and at Sarah who gave birth to you. For when I called him he was only one man, and I blessed him, and made him many.
3For the LORD will comfort Zion. He will comfort all her ruined places. 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 singing.
4Listen to me, my people; hear me, my nation. For a law will go out from me, and I will set my justice as a light for the peoples.
5My 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 in my arm.
6Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath. For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment, and those who live in it will die in the same way. But my salvation will last for ever, and my righteousness will never be ended.
7Listen to me, you who know righteousness, you people who have my law in your heart. Do not fear the insults of men, and do not be afraid when they speak against you.
8For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool. But my righteousness will last for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.
9Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of the LORD. Awake, as in the days long ago, in the generations of old. Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, and wounded the dragon?
10Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep? You who made the depths of the sea a road for the ransomed to pass over?
11So those the LORD has redeemed will return, and come to Zion with singing. Everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning will flee away.
12I, even I, am the one who comforts you. Who are you, that you should be afraid of a man who will die, and of a son of man who will be made like grass,
13and that you forget the LORD your maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth? You have been afraid without ceasing, every day, because of the rage of the one who oppresses you, as if he were ready to destroy. And where is the rage of the oppressor now?
14The captive who is in exile hurries to be set free, so that he may not die in the pit, and so that his bread may not run out.
15But I am the LORD your God, who divided the sea so that its waves roared. The LORD of hosts is his name.
16I have put my words in your mouth, and I have covered you in the shadow of my hand, so that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, "You are my people."
17Awake, awake, stand up, Jerusalem. You have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury. You have drunk the cup that makes people stagger, and drained it to the last drop.
18Of all the sons she gave birth to, there is none to guide her. Of all the sons she brought up, there is none to take her by the hand.
19These two things have come to you. Who will be sorry for you? Ruin and destruction, and famine and the sword. By whom shall I comfort you?
20Your sons have fainted. They lie at the top of every street, like a wild bull caught in a net. They are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.
21So hear this now, you who are afflicted, and drunk, but not with wine.
22This is what your Lord the LORD says, your God who pleads the cause of his people: "Look, I have taken out of your hand the cup that makes people stagger, the dregs of the cup of my fury. You will never drink it again."
23"But I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who said to you, 'Lie down, so that we may walk over you.' And you made your back like the ground, like a street for them to walk over."