1 Hear me, you coastlands; pay attention, you distant peoples! The LORD called me before I was born; from my mother's womb he spoke my name.
2 He made my mouth like a sharpened sword and hid me in the shadow of his hand; he made me a polished arrow and kept me hidden in his quiver.
3 He said to me, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my glory."
4 But I said, "I have toiled for nothing; I have used up my strength for emptiness and vanity. Yet my cause is with the LORD, and my reward is with my God."
5 And now the LORD says, he who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him and to gather Israel to him (for I am honored in the LORD's eyes, and my God has become my strength):
6 he says, "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and bring back the survivors of Israel; I will also make you a light for the nations, so that my salvation may reach the end of the earth."
7 This is what the LORD says, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to the one whose life is despised, to the one the nation loathes, to the servant of rulers: "Kings will see and stand up, princes will see and bow low, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you."
8 This is what the LORD says: "In a time of favor I have answered you, on a day of salvation I have helped you; I will guard you and make you a covenant for the people, to raise up the land and to hand out the desolate inheritances,
9 telling the prisoners, 'Come out,' and those in darkness, 'Come into the open.' They will graze along the roads, and every bare hill will be their pasture.
10 They will not be hungry or thirsty, and neither scorching heat nor sun will strike them, for the one who pities them will guide them and lead them to springs of water.
11 I will turn all my mountains into a road, and my highways will be built up.
12 See, these are coming from far away, see, these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Sinim."
13 Shout for joy, you heavens; be glad, you earth; burst into song, you mountains! For the LORD has comforted his people and shows compassion to his afflicted ones.
14 But Zion said, "The LORD has abandoned me; the Lord has forgotten me."
15 "Can a woman forget the baby at her breast, and feel no compassion for the child she bore? Even if these should forget, I will not forget you.
16 See, I have carved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are always before me.
17 Your children are hurrying home; those who demolished you and laid you waste are leaving you.
18 Raise your eyes and look all around: they are all gathering and coming to you. As I live," declares the LORD, "you will wear them all like jewelry; you will tie them on as a bride does.
19 For your ruins, your desolate places, your devastated land, will now be too cramped for those who live there, and those who devoured you will be far away.
20 The children born in your time of bereavement will yet say in your hearing, 'This place is too cramped for me; make room for me so that I can settle.'
21 Then you will say to yourself, 'Who fathered these for me? I was bereaved and barren, exiled and driven away. Who raised these? I was left all alone; where did these come from?'"
22 This is what the Lord GOD says: "See, I will raise my hand toward the nations and lift up my signal to the peoples; they will bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.
23 Kings will be your guardians, and their princesses your nurses. They will bow down to you with their faces to the ground and lick the dust from your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who wait for me will not be disappointed."
24 Can plunder be taken away from a warrior, or the captives of a righteous man get away?
25 Yet this is what the LORD says: "Even the warrior's captives will be taken away, and the tyrant's plunder will get away. I myself will oppose those who oppose you, and I myself will save your children.
26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they will get drunk on their own blood as on new wine. Then all flesh will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob."