Dual Panel1HEARKEN TO Me, you who follow after rightness {and} justice, you who seek {and} inquire of [and require] the Lord [claiming Him by necessity and by right]: look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the hole in the quarry from which you were dug;
2Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for I called him when he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many.
3For the Lord 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 the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song {or} instrument of praise.
4Listen to Me [the Lord], O My people, and give ear to Me, O My nation; for a [divine] law will go forth from Me, and I will establish My justice for a light to the peoples.
5My rightness {and} justice are near, My salvation is going forth, and My arms shall rule the peoples; the islands shall wait for {and} expect Me, and on My arm shall they trust {and} wait with hope.
6Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall be dissolved {and} vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner [like gnats]. But My salvation shall be forever, and My rightness {and} justice [and faithfully fulfilled promise] shall not be abolished.
7Listen to Me, you who know rightness {and} justice {and} right standing with God, the people in whose heart is My law {and} My instruction: fear not the reproach of men, neither be afraid {nor} dismayed at their revilings.
8For [in comparison with the Lord they are so weak that things as insignificant as] the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool. But My rightness {and} justice [and faithfully fulfilled promise] shall be forever, and My salvation to all generations.
9[Zion now cries to the Lord, the God of Israel] Awake, awake, put on strength {and} might, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, as in the generations of long ago. Was it not You Who cut Rahab [Egypt] in pieces, Who pierced the dragon [symbol of Egypt]?
10Was it not You Who dried up the Red Sea, the waters of the great deep, Who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? [Why then are we left so long in captivity?]
11[The Lord God says] And the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing to Zion; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
12I, even I, am He Who comforts you. Who are you, that you should be afraid of man, who shall die, and of a son of man, who shall be made [as destructible] as grass,
13That you should forget the Lord your Maker, Who stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and fear continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he makes ready to destroy {or} even though he did so? And where is the fury of the oppressor?
14The captive exile {and} he who is bent down by chains shall speedily be released; and he shall not die and go down to the pit of destruction, nor shall his food fail.
15For I am the Lord your God, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar {and} Who by rebuke restrains it--the Lord of hosts is His name.
16And I have put My words in your mouth and have covered you with the shadow of My hand, that I may fix the [new] heavens as a tabernacle and lay the foundations of a [new] earth and say to Zion, You are My people.
17Arouse yourself, awake! Stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of His wrath, you who have drunk the cup of staggering {and} intoxication to the dregs.
18There is none to guide her among all the sons she has borne; neither is there anyone to take her by the hand among all the sons whom she has brought up.
19Two kinds of calamities have befallen you--but who feels sorry for {and} commiserates you?--they are desolation and destruction [on the land and city], and famine and sword [on the inhabitants]--how shall I comfort you {or} by whom?
20Your sons have fainted; they lie [like corpses] at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in a net; they are full [from drinking] of the wrath of the Lord, the rebuke of your God.
21Therefore, now hear this, you who are afflicted, and [who are] drunk, but not with wine [but thrown down by the wrath of God].
22Thus says your Lord, the Lord, and your God, Who pleads the cause of His people: Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering {and} intoxication; the cup of My wrath you shall drink no more.
23And I will put it into the hands of your tormentors {and} oppressors, those who said to you, Bow down, that we may ride {or} tread over you; and you have made your back like the ground and like the street for them to pass over.