1. Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness,you who seek the Lord:Look to the rock from which you were hewnand to the quarry from which you were dug.
2. Look to Abraham your fatherand to Sarah who bore you;for I called him alone,and blessed him, and multiplied him.
3. For the Lord shall comfort Zion,He will comfort all her waste places;He will make her wilderness like Eden,and her desert like the garden of the Lord;joy and gladness shall be found in it,thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
4. Listen to Me, O My people;and give ear to Me, O My nation:for a law shall proceed from Me,and I will set My justice as a light of the peoples.
5. My righteousness is near,My salvation has gone forth,and My arms shall judge the peoples;the coastlands shall wait for Me,and for My arm they shall expectantly wait.
6. Lift up your eyes to the heavens,and look on the earth beneath.For the heavens shall vanish away like smoke,and the earth shall grow old like a garment,and those who dwell in it shall die in like manner;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;do not fear the reproach of mennor be afraid of their revilings.
8. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment,and the worm shall eat them like wool;but My righteousness shall be foreverand My salvation from generation to generation.
9. Awake, awake, put on strength,O arm of the Lord.Awake as in the ancient days,in the generations of old.Was it not You who cut Rahab to piecesand wounded the dragon?
10. Was it not You who dried up the sea,the waters of the great deep,who made the depths of the sea a pathwayfor the ransomed to pass over?
11. Therefore, the redeemed of the Lord shall returnand come with singing to Zion,and everlasting joy shall be upon their head.They shall obtain gladness and joy,and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
12. I, even I, am He who comforts you.Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who shall die,and of the son of man who shall be made as grass,
13. and forget the Lord your makerwho has stretched out the heavensand laid the foundations of the earth?And have feared continually every daybecause of the fury of the oppressoras he makes ready to destroy?Yet where is the fury of the oppressor?
14. The exile shall soon be freed,and shall not die in the dungeon,nor will his bread be lacking.
15. But I am the Lord your Godwho divided the sea whose waves roared;the Lord of Hosts is His name.
16. I have put My words in your mouth,and I have covered you in the shadow of My handthat I may plant the heavens,and lay the foundations of the earth,and say to Zion, “You are My people.”
17. Awake, awake,stand up, O Jerusalem,you who have drunk at the hand of the Lordthe cup of His fury;the cup of reelingyou have drained to the dregs.
18. There is no one to guide heramong all the sons she has brought forth;nor is there anyone to take hold of her handof all the sons that she has brought up.
19. These two things have befallen you;who shall be mournful for you?Desolation, and destruction, and famine, and sword—how shall I comfort you?
20. Your sons have fainted;they lie at the head of all the streetsas an antelope in a net;they are full of the fury of the Lord,the rebuke of your God.
21. Therefore please hear this,you afflicted who are drunk but not with wine.
22. Thus says your Lord, the Lord,and your God who pleads the cause of His people:See, I have taken out of your handthe cup of reeling,even 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 have said to you,“Lie down that we may walk over you.”And you have laid your back as the groundand as the street for those who walk on it.