Remember Where You Came From
Listen closely, you who are chasing after what’s right: Remember the rock you were carved from, the quarry where you were dug out.
Look back to Abraham, your ancestor, and to Sarah who gave birth to you. When I called him, he was alone. But I blessed him and multiplied his family.
The Lord will comfort Zion. He’ll restore all her ruined places. He’ll turn her wasteland into Eden, her desert into the Lord’s garden. You’ll find joy and celebration there, thanksgiving and music everywhere.
God’s Justice Will Shine
Listen closely, my people. Pay attention, my nation. I’m giving you my law, and my justice will shine as a light for all people.
My justice is coming soon. My rescue is already on its way, and my power will bring justice to the nations. Distant lands are waiting for me. They’re putting their trust in my strength.
Look up at the sky. Look down at the earth beneath your feet. The heavens will vanish like smoke. The earth will wear out like old clothes, and everyone living on it will die just the same. But my rescue will last forever. My justice will never fade.
Don’t Fear Those Who Mock You
Listen closely, you who know what’s right, you whose hearts carry my law: Don’t be afraid when people insult you. Don’t let their mockery shake you.
Moths will eat them up like clothing. Worms will devour them like wool. But my justice will last forever, my rescue from one generation to the next.
Wake Up, Lord!
Wake up! Wake up! Show your strength, mighty arm of the Lord! Rise up like you did in the ancient days. Weren’t you the one who cut down Rahab and pierced the dragon?
Weren’t you the one who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep? Didn’t you make a road through the ocean floor so the rescued could cross over?
So the Lord’s rescued people will return. They’ll come singing into Zion with everlasting joy and holiness resting on them. They’ll find gladness and celebration. Sorrow and grief will run away.
Why Fear Mortals?
I am the one who comforts you. So why are you afraid of mortal men who will die, of human beings who are no more lasting than grass?
You’ve forgotten the Lord who made you, who stretched out the heavens and laid the earth’s foundations. You’ve been living in constant fear of your oppressor’s rage, as if he were ready to destroy you any moment. But where is that oppressor’s fury now?
The imprisoned exile is rushing to be set free, so he won’t die in that pit, so his food won’t run out.
But I am the Lord your God, whose waves roar. The Lord of Hosts—that’s my name.
I’ve put my words in your mouth. I’ve covered you with the shadow of my hand so I could stretch out new heavens and lay the earth’s foundations, and say to Zion: 'Look, you are my people.'
Jerusalem’s Cup of Suffering
Wake up! Wake up! Stand up, Jerusalem! You’ve drunk from the Lord’s hand the cup of his fury. You’ve drained the cup of trembling down to the dregs.
Of all the sons she gave birth to, none are left to guide her. Of all the sons she raised, none are there to take her hand.
These two things have happened to you—who can feel sorry enough for you? Devastation and destruction, famine and the sword. Who can comfort you?
Your sons have collapsed—all except these two. They’re lying at the corner of every street like a wild bull caught in a net. They’re filled with the Lord’s fury, with your God’s rebuke.
So hear this now, you who are suffering, you who are drunk but not from wine.
This is what your Lord says—the Lord, your God who defends his people: 'Look, I’ve taken the cup of trembling out of your hand, the dregs of my fury. You’ll never have to drink from it again.
Instead, I’ll put it in the hands of those who tormented you, who said to you: 'Bow down so we can walk over you.' And you made your back like the ground, like a street for them to walk on.'
Rise Up and Be Free
Wake up! Wake up! Put on your strength, Zion! Put on your beautiful clothes, Jerusalem, holy city! From now on, the unclean and unholy will never enter you again.
Shake the dust off yourself. Get up and sit in your place of honor, Jerusalem. Break free from the chains around your neck, captive daughter of Zion.
Influences
- 8:1 — Isaiah 51:1 (KJV)Hearken 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.
- 8:2 — Isaiah 51:2 (KJV)Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.
- 8:3 — Isaiah 51:3 (KJV)For 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.
- 8:4 — Isaiah 51:4 (KJV)Hearken 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.
- 8:5 — Isaiah 51:5 (KJV)My 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.
- 8:6 — Isaiah 51:6 (KJV)Lift 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.
- 8:7 — Isaiah 51:7 (KJV)Hearken 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.
- 8:8 — Isaiah 51:8 (KJV)For 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.
- 8:9 — Isaiah 51:9 (KJV)Awake, 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?
- 8:10 — Isaiah 51:10 (KJV)Art 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?
- 8:11 — Isaiah 51:11 (KJV)Therefore 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.
- 8:12 — Isaiah 51:12 (KJV)I, 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;
- 8:13 — Isaiah 51:13 (KJV)And 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?
- 8:14 — Isaiah 51:14 (KJV)The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.
- 8:15 — Isaiah 51:15 (KJV)But I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of hosts is his name.
- 8:16 — Isaiah 51:16 (KJV)And 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.
- 8:17 — Isaiah 51:17 (KJV)Awake, 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.
- 8:18 — Isaiah 51:18 (KJV)There 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.
- 8:19 — Isaiah 51:19 (KJV)These 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?
- 8:20 — Isaiah 51:20 (KJV)Thy 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.
- 8:22 — Isaiah 51:22 (KJV)Thus 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:
- 8:23 — Isaiah 51:23 (KJV)But 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.
- 8:24 — Isaiah 52:1 (KJV)Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.
- 8:25 — Isaiah 52:2 (KJV)Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.