1 Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, who seek Jehovah: Look to the rock from which you have been hewn, and to the hole of the pit from which you have been dug.
2 Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.
3 For Jehovah will comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Jehovah. Joy and gladness shall be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.
4 Listen to Me, My people; and give ear to Me, O My nation; for a law shall go out from Me, and I will make My justice to rest for a light of the people.
5 My righteousness is near; My salvation has gone forth, and My arms shall judge the people; the coastlands shall wait upon Me, and on My arm they shall trust.
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 become old like a garment; and its inhabitants shall die in the same way. But My salvation shall be forever, and My righteousness shall not be broken.
7 Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is My Law; do not fear the reproach of men, nor 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 forever, and My salvation from generation to generation.
9 Awake! awake! Put on strength, O arm of Jehovah. Awake, as in the days of antiquity, in the generations of old. Was it not You who cut Rahab into pieces, wounding 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 way for the redeemed to pass over?
11 Therefore the redeemed of Jehovah shall return and come with singing into Zion; and everlasting joy shall be on their head. Gladness and joy shall overtake them; sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
12 I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you, that you should fear a man, who shall die; or the son of man, who shall be made as grass?
13 And you forget Jehovah your Maker, who has stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. And you dread continually, every day, because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy. And where is the fury of the oppressor?
14 Stooped over he hurries to be loosed, so that he should not die in the pit, nor lack his bread.
15 But I am Jehovah your God, who divided the sea, whose waves roared; Jehovah of Hosts is His name.
16 And I have put My Words in your mouth, and I have covered you in the shadow of My hand, that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, You are My people.
17 Awake! Awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, who has drunk the cup of His fury from the hand of Jehovah; you have drunk the dregs of the cup of staggering, and wrung them out.
18 There is no one to guide her among all the sons she has borne; and no one takes her by the hand of all the sons that she has raised.
19 These two things have come upon you, who shall be sorry for you? Desolation, and destruction, and famine, and the sword. By whom shall I comfort you?
20 Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets like a wild animal in a net, filled with the fury of Jehovah, the rebuke of your God.
21 Therefore now hear this, you afflicted one, and drunk, but not with wine.
22 Thus says your Lord, Jehovah, and your God who pleads the case of His people: Behold, I have taken the cup of staggering out of your hand, even the dregs of the cup of My fury; you shall never drink it again.
23 But I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, Bow down so that we may pass over; and lay your back on the ground, even as the street, for those who cross over.