49
1 Listen, O iyim (islands), unto Me;*
and pay heed, ye nations afar off;
Hashem hath called Me from the beten (belly, womb),†
from the inward parts of immi hath He remembered My Shem.
2 And He hath made My mouth like a sharpened cherev;
in the tzel (shadow) of His Yad hath He concealed Me,
and made Me a polished arrow;
in His quiver hath He hid Me;
3 And said unto Me:‡ Thou art Avdi, O Yisroel,
Thou in Whom I glorify Myself.
4 Then I§ said, I have toiled in vain,
I have spent My ko'ach for tohu, and hevel;
yet surely My mishpat is with Hashem,
and My peulah with Elohai.
5 And now, saith Hashem:
My Yotzer from the beten
to be Eved of Him,
to bring back Ya'akov to Him,
so that Yisroel would be gathered to Him;
so shall I* be honored in the eyes of Hashem,
and Elohai shall be My oz (strength).
6 And He said:
It is too small a thing that Thou shouldest be Eved to Me
to raise up the Shivtei Ya'akov,
and to bring back the Netzurei Yisroel (Preserved of Israel, the She'erit);
I will also give Thee for Ohr Goyim,
that Thou mayest be My Yeshu'ah (Salvation) unto the ketzeh ha'aretz.
7 Thus saith Hashem,
the Go'el Yisroel, and His Kadosh,
to Him of despised nefesh,†
to Him whom the Goy‡(Nation) abhorreth,
to the Eved Moshelim:
Melachim shall see and arise,
Sarim also shall worship,§
because of Hashem Who is Ne'eman
and the Kadosh Yisroel, that hath chosen Thee.
8 Thus saith Hashem:
In a time of [My] ratzon (favor) have I answered Thee,*
and in a Yom Yeshu'ah have I helped Thee;
and I will preserve Thee,
and give Thee for a Brit Am†
to raise up Eretz,
to reapportion desolate nechalot‡(inheritances).§
9 That thou mayest say to the asurim (the prisoners, those of the Golus): Go forth;
to them that are in choshech: Reveal yourselves.
They shall feed in the derakhim
and their pastures shall be in kol shefayim (high hills).
10 They shall not hunger nor thirst;
neither shall the sharav* nor shemesh beat on them;
for He that hath rachamim on them shall guide them,
even by the springs of mayim shall He lead them.
11 And I will make all My harim into derech,
and My highways shall be exalted.
12 Hinei, these shall come from afar;
and, hinei, these from the tzafon and from the yam;
and these from Eretz Sinim.†
13 Sing joyfully, O Shomayim; and rejoice, O Eretz;
and break forth into singing, O Harim;
for Hashem hath comforted His people,
and will have rachamim upon his afflicted ones.
14 But Tziyon said: Hashem hath forsaken me,
and Adonoi hath forgotten me.
15 Can an isha forget her nursing baby,
that she should not have rachamim on her ben beten?
Indeed, they may forget,
yet I will not forget thee.
16 Behold, I have engraved thee upon the palms of My hands;
thy chomot are continually before Me.
17 Thy banim shall make haste;‡
thy destroyers and they that laid thee waste
shall depart from thee.
18 Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold;
all these gather themselves together, and come to thee.
As I live, saith Hashem,
thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all,
as with jewelry and put them on like a kallah.
19 For thy ruins and thy desolate places,
and the eretz of thy devastation,
shall even now be too narrow for the inhabitants,§
and they that devoured thee shall be far away.
20 Furthermore, the Bnei Shikkulayich (the Children of thy Bereavement, i.e., the sons born while the Mother was bereaved of other children lost)
shall say again in thine oznayim:
The makom is too cramped for me;
geshah (fall back, make room, give place) to me that I may dwell.
21 Then shalt thou say in thine lev:
Who hath begotten me these,
seeing I am shekhulah (bereaved) of my children, and am galmudah (barren, incapable of having children),
a captive of the Golus, and thrust away as rejected?
So who has reared these?
Behold I was left a lone survivor;
these, where were they? Where did they come from?
22 Thus saith Adonoi Hashem:
Hinei, I will lift up Mine Yad to the Goyim,
and set up My nes (banner, rallying flag)* to the Nations;
and they shall bring thy banim in their arms,
and thy banot shall be carried upon their shoulders.
23 And melachim shall be thy omenim (foster fathers, supporters, nurturers),
and their sarot thy wet nurses;
they shall bow down before thee with their face toward eretz,
and lick the aphar of thy raglayim;
and thou shalt know that I am Hashem;
for they shall not be put to shame that wait for Me.
24 Shall the malko'ach (plunder, prey, booty) be taken from the gibbor;
shall the shevi tzaddik be delivered?
25 But thus saith Hashem:
Even the Shevi gibbor shall be taken,
and the malko'ach of the aritz (the fierce, the tyrant) shall escape;
for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee,
and I will save thy banim.
26 And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own basar;
and they shall be shikkor (drunk) with their own dahm, as with asis (new wine);
and kol basar shall know that I Hashem am thy Moshi'a
and thy Go'el, the Avir Ya'akov (Mighty One of Jacob).
* 49:1 Moshiach † 49:1 See Isa 7:14; Gn 3:15; Ps 22:9 f; Mic 5:1-2 ‡ 49:3 Moshiach, i.e., the She'erit of the She'erit, the true and worthy Israel and also the King who personifies the People § 49:4 Moshiach * 49:5 Moshiach † 49:7 See 53:3,11 ‡ 49:7 i.e., Israel; see Isa 53:3,8 § 49:7 52:15 * 49:8 Moshiach † 49:8 See Jer 31:31-34; Mk 14:24 ‡ 49:8 see Yehoshua chapters 13-21 § 49:8 T.N. Notice that in the previous verse the Moshiach is depicted as a new Yehoshua, which is also his namesake, Yehoshua Tzemach Shmo, Zech 6:11-12. * 49:10 35:7 † 49:12 Sinites ‡ 49:17 to return from the Golus § 49:19 of Tziyon returned from the Golus * 49:22 i.e., Moshiach; see Isa 11:10