1 Hearken unto me, ye that follow righteousness and seek the LORD. Look unto the rock ye were cut out, and to the cave and pit ye were digged out.
2 Look unto Abraham your father and unto Sarah that bare you: how I called him only, and blessed him and multiplied him.
3 For the LORD hath compassion on Zion and hath compassion on all that is decayed therein, and will make her wilderness as paradise, and her desert as the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, with thanksgiving and the voice of praise.
4 Hearken unto me, my people; and turn your ears to me, my folk. There shall a law go out from me, and my judgment will I establish to be a light unto nations.
5 My righteousness is nigh, and my salvation shall go out, and mine arms shall judge nations, and islands shall look for me and shall tarry after mine arm.
6 Lift up your eyes to heaven and behold the earth beneath. For heaven shall vanish away as smoke, and the earth shall wear away as a vesture, and the inhabiters thereof shall perish away after the same manner: but my salvation shall endure ever, and my righteousness shall not perish.
7 Hearken unto me ye that know righteousness, and so let the people that have my law in their hearts. Fear not the rebukes of man neither faint for their blasphemies.
8 For worms shall eat them as a garment, and moths shall devour them as it were wool. But my righteousness shall continue ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.
9 Wake up, wake up, and be strong: O thou arm of the LORD: wake up, like as in times past, ever, and since the world began.
10 Art not thou he, that hast wounded that proud Egypt, and hewn the dragon in pieces? Art not thou even he, which hast dried up the deep of the sea, which hast made plain the sea ground, that the delivered might go through?
11 That the redeemed of the LORD, which turned again, might come with joy unto Zion, there to endure forever? That mirth and gladness might be with them? That sorrow and woe might flee from them?
12 Yea I, I am even he, that in all things giveth you consolation. What art thou then, that fearest a mortal man; the child of man, which goeth away as doeth the flour,
13 and forgettest the LORD that made thee, that spread out the heavens and laid the foundation of the earth? But thou art ever afraid for the sight of thine oppressor, which is ready to do harm: Where is the wrath of the oppressor?
14 It cometh on fast, it maketh haste to appear: It shall not perish, that it should not be able to destroy, neither shall it fail for fault of nourishing.
15 I am the LORD thy God, that make the sea to be still, and to rage: whose name is the LORD of Hosts.
16 I shall put my word also in thy mouth, and defend thee with the turning of my hand: that thou mayest plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, "Thou art my people."
17 Awake, awake, and stand up, O Jerusalem: thou that from the hand of the LORD, hast drunken out the cup of his wrath; thou that hast supped of and sucked out the slumbering cup to the bottom.
18 For among all the sons whom thou hast begotten, there is not one that may hold thee up: and not one to lead thee by the hand, of all the sons that thou hast nourished.
19 Both these things are happened unto thee, but who is sorry for it? Yea, destruction, wasting, hunger and sword: but who hath comforted thee?
20 Thy sons lie comfortless at the head of every street like a taken venison, and are full of the terrible wrath of the LORD, and punishment of thy God.
21 And therefore thou miserable and drunken - howbeit not with wine - Hear this!
22 Thus sayeth thy LORD, thy LORD and God, the defender of his people: Behold, I will take the slumbering cup out of thy hand, even the cup with the dregs of my wrath, that from henceforth thou shalt never drink it more.
23 And will put it in their hand that trouble thee: which have spoken to thy soul, "Stoop down, that we may go over thee: make thy body even with the ground, and as the street to go upon."