1 "Listen to me, you who chase after righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look at the rock you were cut from, and at the quarry pit you were dug from.
2 Look at Abraham your father and at Sarah who gave birth to you; for when I called him he was only one, but I blessed him and made him many."
3 For the LORD will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her ruins. He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found there, thanksgiving and the sound of music.
4 "Pay attention to me, my people; listen to me, my nation; for law will go out from me, and I will set my justice in place as a light for the peoples.
5 My righteousness is near, my salvation is on its way, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands wait for me and put their hope in my arm.
6 Raise your eyes to the heavens and look at the earth below; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants will die like gnats. But my salvation will last forever, and my righteousness will never be shattered.
7 Listen to me, you who know what is right, you people who have my law in your hearts: do not fear human scorn, and do not be shaken by their insults.
8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the grub will devour them like wool; but my righteousness will last forever, and my salvation for all generations."
9 Wake up, wake up, clothe yourself with strength, arm of the LORD! Wake up as in days long past, in generations of old. Was it not you who hacked Rahab to pieces, who pierced the dragon?
10 Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who turned the depths of the sea into a road for the redeemed to cross?
11 The ransomed of the LORD will come back and enter Zion with shouts of joy, everlasting gladness crowning their heads; joy and gladness will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will run away.
12 "I, I am the one who comforts you. Who are you to be afraid of mortal man, of a son of man who is treated like grass,
13 and to forget the LORD your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth, and to live in constant dread all day long of the oppressor's fury, as he gets ready to destroy? Where is the oppressor's fury now?
14 The one who is bent low will soon be let loose; he will not die and go down to the pit, nor will he go without bread.
15 For I am the LORD your God, who churns up the sea so that its waves roar; the LORD of hosts is his name.
16 I have put my words in your mouth and sheltered you in the shadow of my hand, to plant the heavens and found the earth, and to tell Zion, 'You are my people.'"
17 Wake yourself up, wake yourself up, get up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the LORD's hand the cup of his fury; you have drunk the goblet that makes people stagger, you have drained it dry.
18 Of all the sons she bore, there is none to guide her; of all the sons she raised, there is none to take her by the hand.
19 These two things have struck you (who will mourn with you?): ruin and destruction, famine and sword. By whom shall I comfort you?
20 Your sons have collapsed; they lie at the corner of every street like an antelope caught in a net, filled with the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.
21 So please listen to this, you afflicted one, drunk but not with wine:
22 This is what your Lord says, the LORD, your God who defends his people's cause: "See, I have taken out of your hand the cup that makes you stagger, the goblet of my fury; you will never drink from it again.
23 I will put it into the hands of your tormentors, who said to you, 'Lie down flat so we can walk over you'; and you made your back like the ground, like a street for them to walk on."