Isaiah 51

Listen to me, you who chase after what is right, you who look for the LORD. Look at the rock you were cut from, and at the quarry you were dug out of.

1Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.

Note"LORD" in small capitals stands in for the personal name of Israel's God, written in Hebrew with four consonants (YHWH); Jewish readers said "the Lord" aloud instead, and English Bibles have followed that practice ever since. The rock and the quarry are a picture of ancestry: the listeners are told to look at the stone they were chipped from, meaning the family they came from, named in the next verse.

2Look at Abraham, your father, and at Sarah, who gave birth to you. When I called Abraham, he was only one man. Then I blessed him and made his family many.

2Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.

NoteAbraham and Sarah were remembered as the first ancestors of Israel, a couple called out of Mesopotamia who had no children until extreme old age. The point of "he was only one man" is the contrast: a single childless person became a whole nation.

3The LORD will comfort Zion. He will comfort all her ruined places. He will make her empty land like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found there, thanks and the sound of singing.

3For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

NoteZion was originally the name of the fortified hill in Jerusalem, and came to be used as a name for the city itself and for the people living there. Prophets often speak of Zion as a woman, a mother, a widow, a city addressed by name. Eden and "the garden of the LORD" are the same place, the well-watered garden of Genesis; naming it here is a way of saying "as fertile as land can be."

4Pay attention to me, my people. Listen to me, my nation. A law will go out from me, and I will set my justice in place as a light for the peoples.

4Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "law" (torah) is wider than a statute book. It covers teaching, instruction, and authoritative direction of any kind, which is why the second half of the verse pairs it with "justice" rather than with punishment.

5The right thing I will do is near. My rescue has already gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples. The coastlands will look to me, and they will put their hope in my arm.

5My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust.

Note"Arm" is a standard Hebrew figure for power in action, the way English speaks of a strong hand. "Coastlands" translates a Hebrew word for islands and far shores, the distant lands around and beyond the Mediterranean, shorthand for the edges of the known world.

6Lift your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth below. The heavens will disappear like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a piece of clothing, and the people living on it will die the same way. But my rescue will last forever, and what I do right will never be brought to an end.

6Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.

NoteThe last clause is genuinely uncertain in Hebrew. The same short word can mean "in the same way" (so the King James: people die as the sky and earth wear out) or can be read as a word for gnats or vermin (so some modern versions: people die like gnats). Both readings are old.

7Listen to me, you who know what is right, you people who carry my law in your hearts. Do not be afraid when people insult you. Do not be crushed by their sneering.

7Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.

8The moth will eat them up like clothing, and the worm will eat them like wool. But what I do right will last forever, and my rescue will go on from one generation to the next.

8For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.

9Wake up, wake up! Put on strength, arm of the LORD. Wake up as you did long ago, in the days of the people of old. Were you not the one who cut Rahab to pieces and ran the dragon through?

9Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?

NoteRahab here is not the woman of Jericho but a name for a sea monster of ancient Near Eastern storytelling, defeated at the beginning of the world; in some prophetic passages Rahab is also used as a nickname for Egypt. "The dragon" (Hebrew tannin) is the same kind of creature, a sea serpent of the deep. The verse deliberately lets the monster and Egypt overlap, since the next verse moves to the drying of the sea.

10Were you not the one who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, and turned the depths of the sea into a road for the rescued to walk across?

10Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?

NoteThe drying of the sea and the road through its depths refer to Israel's escape from Egypt, when the water parted and the people walked across on dry ground. "The great deep" is the same word used for the primeval ocean in the creation account, which is why the sea monster of the previous verse and the escape from Egypt run together here.

11So the people the LORD has bought back will return. They will come into Zion singing, with joy that never ends resting on their heads. Gladness and joy will be theirs, and sorrow and grief will run away.

11Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.

Note"Bought back" (King James "redeemed") is a commercial word from family law: buying a relative out of slavery or debt, or buying back land the family had lost. Applied to a nation it means being reclaimed by someone with a family obligation to do it. This verse repeats, almost word for word, an earlier passage in Isaiah.

12I, I myself, am the one who comforts you. So who are you to be afraid of a man, who will die, or of a human being, who is made like grass?

12I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;

NoteThe King James "son of man" is a Hebrew idiom that simply means a human being, a member of the human race; it carries no special title here. The pairing "a man... a son of man" is ordinary poetic repetition.

13You have forgotten the LORD who made you, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. All day long you have lived in terror of the rage of the man crushing you, as if he were set on destroying you. But where is that rage now?

13And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared 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?

14The prisoner bent down will soon be set free. He will not die in the pit, and he will not run out of bread.

14The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.

NoteThis verse is one of the more obscure sentences in the book, and translators differ widely over the opening words, a stooping or bowed captive, a prisoner hurrying, or simply one soon to be released. "The pit" is a cistern or underground hole used as a lockup; prisoners were let down into them and could starve there.

15For I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar. The LORD of Armies is his name.

15But I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of hosts is his name.

NoteThe Hebrew verb can mean either to stir the sea up or to still it, and the King James took it a third way, as the parting of the sea at the exodus. "LORD of hosts" (here "LORD of Armies") is a fixed title; "hosts" means massed armies, and the phrase was understood variously of Israel's fighting forces, of heavenly armies, or of the stars as a marshalled array.

16I have put my words in your mouth, and I have covered you with the shadow of my hand. I did this to set the heavens in place, to lay the foundations of the earth, and to say to Zion, "You are my people."

16And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.

NoteWho "you" is here is disputed and the Hebrew does not settle it: the words could be addressed to the prophet, to the servant figure of the surrounding chapters, or to Zion herself, who is addressed directly in the next verse. Putting words in someone's mouth is the standard idiom for commissioning a spokesman.

17Wake up, wake up! Stand up, Jerusalem. You have drunk from the LORD's hand the cup of his anger. You have drunk the cup that makes people stagger, drained it down to the last drops.

17Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.

NoteA cup handed to someone to drink is a stock image in the prophets for a share of punishment being dealt out, drunk down to the sediment at the bottom. The wine in the cup makes the drinker stagger and collapse, which is why the city is pictured in the following verses as a woman too drunk to stand.

18Of all the sons she gave birth to, there is no one to guide her. Of all the sons she raised, there is no one to take her by the hand.

18There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up.

NoteA woman helpless with drink would be helped up and steadied by her grown sons. The city has none, because her "sons", her inhabitants, are the ones described in verse 20 as lying in the streets.

19These two pairs of troubles have come to you: ruin and destruction, hunger and the sword. Who will feel sorry for you? Who can I find to comfort you?

19These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort thee?

NoteThe Hebrew says "these two," then lists four items; they are read as two pairs, ruin with destruction and famine with the sword. "The sword" is the standard shorthand for war, as "hunger" is for siege and crop failure.

20Your sons have collapsed. They lie at the top of every street like an antelope caught in a net. They are filled with the anger of the LORD, with the scolding of your God.

20Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God.

NoteThe animal is a wild ox or a large antelope, an animal known for its strength, thrashing itself useless once tangled in a hunter's net. "The top of every street" means the corners where the streets begin, the open, public places where the collapsed bodies could not be missed.

21So listen to this now, you who are beaten down, drunk, but not from wine.

21Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:

22This is what your Lord says, the LORD your God, who takes up the case of his people: "Look, I have taken out of your hand the cup that makes people stagger. You will never drink again from that cup, the cup of my anger.

22Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again:

Note"Takes up the case" is courtroom language: to act as someone's advocate, argue their side, and win the verdict for them. The doubled title in the King James ("thy Lord the LORD") renders two different Hebrew words, the ordinary word for a master and the personal divine name.

23I will put it into the hands of those who tormented you, the ones who said to you, 'Lie down, so we can walk over you.' And you made your back like the ground, like a street for them to walk on."

23But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.

NoteConquerors are shown in ancient Near Eastern reliefs and inscriptions treading on the necks or bodies of the defeated, a public act of humiliation rather than a way of killing. The command "lie down so we can walk over you" belongs to that practice.