Isaiah 51 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

The Lord’s Comfort for Zion

(cf. Gen 12:1–3 )

Isa 51:1“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,
you who seek the LORD:
look to the rock from which you were hewn,
and to the quarry from which you were dug.

Isa 51:2

Isa 51:2Look to Abraham your father
and to Sarah who bore you;
for he was but one when I called him,
that I might bless him and multiply him.

Isa 51:3

Isa 51:3For the LORD comforts Zion;
he comforts all her waste places
and makes her wilderness like Eden,
her desert like the garden of the LORD;
joy and gladness will be found in her,
thanksgiving and the voice of song.

Isa 51:4

Isa 51:4“Give attention to me, my people,
and give ear to me, my nation;
for a law[fn] will go out from me,
and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.

Isa 51:5

Isa 51:5My righteousness draws near,
my salvation has gone out,
and my arms will judge the peoples;
the coastlands hope for me,
and for my arm they wait.

Isa 51:6

Isa 51:6Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and look at the earth beneath;
for the heavens vanish like smoke,
the earth will wear out like a garment,
and they who dwell in it will die in like manner;[fn]
but my salvation will be forever,
and my righteousness will never be dismayed.

Isa 51:7

Isa 51:7“Listen to me, you who know righteousness,
the people in whose heart is my law;
fear not the reproach of man,
nor be dismayed at their revilings.

Isa 51:8

Isa 51:8For the moth will eat them up like a garment,
and the worm will eat them like wool,
but my righteousness will be forever,
and my salvation to all generations.”

Isa 51:9

Isa 51:9Awake, awake, put on strength,
O arm of the LORD;
awake, as in days of old,
the generations of long ago.
Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces,
who pierced the dragon?

Isa 51:10

Isa 51:10Was it not you who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep,
who made the depths of the sea a way
for the redeemed to pass over?

Isa 51:11

Isa 51:11And the ransomed of the LORD shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Isa 51:12

Isa 51:12“I, I am he who comforts you;
who are you that you are afraid of man who dies,
of the son of man who is made like grass,

Isa 51:13

Isa 51:13and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker,
who stretched out the heavens
and laid the foundations of the earth,
and you fear continually all the day
because of the wrath of the oppressor,
when he sets himself to destroy?
And where is the wrath of the oppressor?

Isa 51:14

Isa 51:14He who is bowed down shall speedily be released;
he shall not die and go down to the pit,
neither shall his bread be lacking.

Isa 51:15

Isa 51:15I am the LORD your God,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
the LORD of hosts is his name.

Isa 51:16

Isa 51:16And I have put my words in your mouth
and covered you in the shadow of my hand,
establishing[fn] the heavens
and laying the foundations of the earth,
and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”

Isa 51:17

Isa 51:17Wake yourself, wake yourself,
stand up, O Jerusalem,
you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD
the cup of his wrath,
who have drunk to the dregs
the bowl, the cup of staggering.

Isa 51:18

Isa 51:18There is none to guide her
among all the sons she has borne;
there is none to take her by the hand
among all the sons she has brought up.

Isa 51:19

Isa 51:19These two things have happened to you—
who will console you?—
devastation and destruction, famine and sword;
who will comfort you?[fn]

Isa 51:20

Isa 51:20Your sons have fainted;
they lie at the head of every street
like an antelope in a net;
they are full of the wrath of the LORD,
the rebuke of your God.

Isa 51:21

Isa 51:21Therefore hear this, you who are afflicted,
who are drunk, but not with wine:

Isa 51:22

Isa 51:22Thus says your Lord, the LORD,
your God who pleads the cause of his people:
“Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering;
the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more;

Isa 51:23

Isa 51:23and I will put it into the hand of your tormentors,
who have said to you,
‘Bow down, that we may pass over’;
and you have made your back like the ground
and like the street for them to pass over.”

See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

ESV Footnotes

(51:4)

Or for teaching; also verse 7

(51:6)

Or will die like gnats

(51:16)

Or planting

(51:19)

Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate; Masoretic Text how shall I comfort you

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