CHAPTER 49
1 Isles, hear ye, and peoples afar, perceive ye; the Lord called me from the womb, he thought on my name from the womb of my mother.
2 And he hath set [or put] my mouth as a sharp sword, he defended me in the shadow of his hand, and setted [or put] me as a chosen arrow; he hid me in his arrow case,
3 and said to me, Israel, thou art my servant, for I shall have glory in thee.
4 And I said, I travailed in vain, I wasted my strength without cause, and vainly; therefore my doom is with the Lord, and my work is with my God.
5 And now the Lord, forming me a servant to himself from the womb, saith these things, that I bring again Jacob to him. And Israel shall not be gathered together; and I am glorified in the eyes of the Lord, and my God is made my strength.
6 And he said, It is little, that thou be a servant to me, to raise the lineages of Jacob, and to convert the dregs of Israel; I gave thee into the light of heathen men, that thou be mine health till to the last part of [the] earth.
7 The Lord, [the] again-buyer of Israel, the Holy thereof, saith these things to a despisable soul, and to a folk had in abomination, to the servant of lords, Kings shall see, and princes shall rise together, and shall worship, for the Lord, for he is faithful, and for the Holy of Israel, that chose thee.
8 The Lord saith these things, In a pleasant time I heard thee, and in the day of health I helped thee; and I kept thee, and gave thee into a bond of peace of the people, that thou shouldest raise tillage upon the earth, and have in possession heritages, that be destroyed;
9 that thou shouldest say to them that be bound, Go ye out, and to them that be in darknesses, Be ye showed. They shall be fed in ways, and the pastures of them shall be in all plain things.
10 They shall not hunger, and they shall no more thirst; and heat, and the sun shall not smite them; for the merciful doer of them shall govern them, and shall give drink to them at the wells of waters.
11 And I shall set all mine hills [or put my mountains] into [a] way, and my paths shall be enhanced.
12 Lo! these men shall come from [a] far, and lo! they shall come from the north, and from the sea, and these from the south land.
13 Heavens, praise ye, and thou earth, make full out joy; hills, sing ye heartily praising; for the Lord [hath] comforted his people, and shall have mercy on his poor men.
14 And Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me.
15 Whether a woman may forget her young child, that she have not mercy on the son of her womb? though she forget, nevertheless I shall not forget thee.
16 Lo! I have written thee in mine hands; thy walls, be ever before mine eyes.
17 The builders be come; they that destroy thee, and scatter, shall go away from thee.
18 Raise [up] thine eyes in compass, and see; all these men be gathered together, they be come to thee. I live, saith the Lord, for thou shalt be clothed with all these as with an ornament, and thou as a spousess shalt bind them to thee.
19 For why thy deserts, and thy wildernesses, and the land of thy falling, now shall be strait for [the] inhabiters; and they shall be driven away [a] far, that swallowed thee.
20 Yet the sons of thy barrenness shall say in thine ears, The place is strait to me, make thou a space to me for to dwell.
21 And thou shalt say in thine heart, Who engendered these sons to me? I am barren, not bearing child; I am led over, and prisoner; and who nourished these sons? I am destitute, and alone; and where were these?
22 The Lord God saith these things, Lo! I raise mine hand to heathen men, and I shall enhance my sign to peoples; and they shall bring thy sons in arms, and they shall bear thy daughters on shoulders.
23 And kings shall be thy nursers or nourishers, and queens shall be thy nurses; with cheer cast down into [the] earth they shall worship thee, and they shall lick the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know, that I am the Lord, on whom they shall not be shamed, that abide him.
24 Whether prey shall be taken away from a strong man? either that that is taken of a stalworthy man, may be safe?
25 For the Lord saith these things, Soothly and [the] captivity shall be taken away from the strong man, and that that is taken away of a stalworthy man, shall be saved. Forsooth I shall deem them that deemed thee, and I shall save thy sons.
26 And I shall feed thine enemies with their fleshes, and they shall be greatly filled with their blood, as with must; and each man shall know, that I am the Lord, saving thee, and thine again-buyer, the Strong of Jacob.