The Servant, Hope of Israel

¹Thus says the Lord :

Where is the certificate of divorce

by which I sent your mother away?

Or to which of My creditors

did I sell you?

Behold, for your iniquities you were sold,

and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.

²Why, when I came, was there no man?

When I called, was there no one to answer?

Is My hand so short that it cannot redeem?

Or have I no power to deliver?

Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea,

I make the rivers a wilderness;

Their fish stink because there is no water,

and die for thirst.

³I clothe the heavens with blackness,

and I make sackcloth their covering.

⁴The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned,[#Ex 4:11–12]

that I may know how to sustain him who is weary with a word;

He awakens me morning by morning;

He awakens my ear to listen as the learned.

⁵The Lord God has opened my ear,

and I was not rebellious,

nor did I turn back.

⁶I gave my back to those who struck me,

and my cheeks to those who plucked out my beard;

I did not cover my face

from shame and spitting.

⁷For the Lord God will help me;

therefore, I shall not be disgraced;

therefore, I have set my face like a flint,

and I know that I shall not be ashamed.

⁸He who vindicates me is near;[#Isa 41:1; Ro 8:32–34]

who will contend with me?

Let us stand up to each other.

Who is my adversary?

Let him come near to me.

⁹Behold, the Lord God will help me;[#Isa 41:10]

who is he who condemns me?

Behold, they all shall grow old as a garment;

the moth shall eat them up.

¹⁰Who among you fears the Lord ,

who obeys the voice of His servant,

who walks in darkness

and has no light?

Let him trust in the name of the Lord ,

and rely upon his God.

¹¹Behold, all you who kindle a fire,

who encompass yourselves with sparks:

Walk in the light of your fire

and among the sparks that you have ignited.

This you shall have from My hand:

You shall lie down in sorrow.