"Oh, yes! Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens will be your nursing mothers. They will bow to you with their faces to the ground, and lick the dust from your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.

My Lord GOD has opened my ears, and I did not rebel; I did not shrink back.

I gave my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not turn away my face from insults and spitting.

"Awake! Awake! Clothe yourself with strength, you arm of the LORD! Awake, as in days gone by, as in generations of long ago. Was it not you who split apart Rehob, who pierced that sea monster through?

Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made a road in the depths of the sea so that the redeemed could cross over?"

Now listen to this, you afflicted one, made drunk, but not with wine:

so will he startle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths at him; for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand.

"He was despised and rejected by others, and a man of sorrows, intimately familiar with suffering; and like one from whom people hide their faces; and we despised him and did not value him.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he didn't open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

For the mountains may collapse and the hills may reel, but my gracious love will not depart from you, neither will my covenant of peace totter," says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

"O afflicted one, passed back and forth, and not comforted, Look! I am about to set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires.

Watch! If anyone does attack you, it will not be from me; whoever may attack you will fall because of you.

Why spend your money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in rich food.

"Look! You will call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that does not know you will run to you, because of the LORD your God, even the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you."

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.

"For just as the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, yielding seed for the sower and bread for eating,

Instead of thornbushes, pine trees will grow, and instead of briers, myrtles will grow; and they will be a sign for the LORD, and an everlasting name that will not be cut off."

to them I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.

Whom are you mocking? And against whom do you make a wide mouth and stick out your tongue? Are you not children of transgression, the offspring of lies,

You grew tired with your many wanderings, but you wouldn't say: "It is hopeless.' You found new strength for your desire, and so you did not falter.

"Whom did you so dread and while you feared me that you lied, and you did not remember me, and did not lay to heart these things? Haven't I remained silent for a long time, and still you don't fear me?"

"I will denounce your righteousness and your works, for your collections of idols will not benefit you.

But the wicked are tossed like the sea; for it is not able to keep still, and its waters toss up mire and mud.

They seek me day after day, and are eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practices righteousness and has not forsaken the justice of their God. "They ask me to reveal just decisions; they are eager to draw near to God.

"Why have we fasted,' they ask, "but you do not see? "Why have we humbled ourselves,' they ask, "but you take no notice?'" "Look! On your fast day you serve your own interest and oppress all your workers.

Isn't it to share your bread with the hungry, and to bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him with clothing, and not to raise yourself up from your own flesh and blood?"

if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the needs of afflicted souls, then your light will rise in darkness, and your night will be like noonday.

"If you keep your feet from trampling the Sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD's holy day honorable; and if you honor it by not going your own ways and seeking your own pleasure or speaking merely idle words,

"See, the LORD's hand is not too short to save, nor are his ears too dull to hear.

The pathway of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their courses. They have made their roads crooked; no one who walks in them will know peace."

"So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We wait for light, but look there is darkness; we wait for brightness, but we walk in deep darkness.

Your gates will always stand open by day or night, and they will not be shut, so that nations will bring you their wealth, with their kings led in procession.

For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish; those nations will be utterly ruined.

"The sun will no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness will the moon shine on you by night for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.

"Upon your walls, Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen; all day and all night they won't remain silent. You who make mention of the LORD, take no rest,

People will call them, "The Holy People,' "The Redeemed of the LORD'; and they will call you, "Sought After,' "The City Not Deserted.'"

who led them through the depths? Like a horse in the open desert, they did not stumble;

But you are our Father, even Abraham does not know us and Israel has not acknowledged us; you are he, O LORD, our Father, from long ago, "Our Redeemer' is your name.

Why, LORD, do you make us wander from your ways and harden our hearts, so that we do not fear you? Turn back for the sake of your servants, for the sake of the tribes that are your heritage.

For a long time we have been those you do not rule, those who are not called by your name.

who sit among graves, and spend the night in secret places; who eat pigs' meat, with the broth of detestable things in their pots;

This is what the LORD says: "Just as new wine is found in the cluster, and people have said, "Don't destroy it, for there is a gift in it,' so I'll act for my servants' sake, by not destroying them all.

"And there will no longer be in it a young boy who lives only a few days, or an old person who does not live out his days; for one who dies at a hundred years will be thought a mere youth, and one who falls short of a hundred years will be considered accursed.

Am I to open the womb and not deliver?" asks the LORD. "And when I bring to delivery, am I to close the womb?" asks your God.

"I will put up signs among them, and from them I will send survivors to the nations to Tarshish, Libya, and Lydia, (who draw the bow), to Tubal and Greece, to the far off coastlands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. Then they will proclaim my glory among the nations.

"Then they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of the people who rebelled against me. For their worm will not die, nor will their fire be extinguished, and they will remain an object of revulsion to all humanity."