Isaiah - Exile and Hope

Isaiah 52: 1-2, 13-15; 53: 1-8, 54: 2-4, 7-8 (New Revised Standard Version)

Awake, awake,

Put on your strength O Zion!

Put on your beautiful garments...

Shake yourself from the dust and rise up, O captive Jerusalem;

Loose the bonds from your neck,

O captive daughter Zion!

... See, my servant will prosper;

He shall be exalted and lifted up

... So he shall startle many nations;

kings shall shut their mouths because of him;

for that which had not been told them they shall see,

and that which they had not heard

they shall contemplate.

Who has believed what we have heard?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he grew up before him like a young plant,

like a root out of dry ground;

he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by others;

a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;

and as one from whom others hide their faces

he was despised, and we held him of no account.

Surely he has borne our infirmities

and carried our diseases;

yet we accounted him stricken,

struck down by God and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions,

crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the punishment that made us whole,

and by his bruises we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have all turned to our own way,

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

yet he did not open his mouth;

like a lamb he is led to the slaughter,

and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

so he did not open his mouth.

By a perversion of justice he was taken away.

Who could have imagined his future?

Enlarge the site of your tent,

and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out;

do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes.

For you will spread out to the right and to the left,

and your descendents will possess the nations

and will settle the desolate towns.

Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed;

do not be discouraged, for you will not suffer disgrace;

... For a brief moment I abandoned you,

but with great compassion I will gather you.

In overflowing wrath for a moment

I hid my face from you,

but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,

says the Lord, your Redeemer.