The Servant, Hope of Israel
50 Thus says the Lord:
Where is the certificate of divorce
by which I sent your mother away?
Or to which of My creditors
did I sell you?
For your iniquities you were sold,
and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
2 Why, when I came, was there no man?
When I called, was there no one to answer?
Is My hand so short that it cannot redeem?
Or have I no power to deliver?
Indeed, at My rebuke I dry up the sea,
I make the rivers a wilderness;
Their fish stink because there is no water,
and die for thirst.
3 I clothe the heavens with blackness,
and I make sackcloth their covering.
4 The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned,
that I may know how to sustain him who is weary with a word;
He awakens me morning by morning;
He awakens my ear to listen as the learned.
5 The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious,
nor did I turn back.
6 I gave my back to those who struck me,
and my cheeks to those who plucked out my beard;
I did not cover my face
from shame and spitting.
7 For the Lord God will help me;
therefore, I shall not be disgraced;
therefore, I have set my face like a flint,
and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
8 He who vindicates me is near;
who will contend with me?
Let us stand up to each other.
Who is my adversary?
Let him come near to me.
9 Certainly the Lord God will help me;
who is he who condemns me?
Indeed they all shall grow old as a garment;
the moth shall eat them up.
10 Who among you fears the Lord,
who obeys the voice of His servant,
who walks in darkness
and has no light?
Let him trust in the name of the Lord,
and rely upon his God.
11 But now, all you who kindle a fire,
who encompass yourselves with sparks:
Walk in the light of your fire
and among the sparks that you have ignited.
This you shall have from My hand:
You shall lie down in sorrow.