Yesha 'yahu (Isa) 50

¹Adonai says:

“Where is your mother’s divorce document

which I gave her when I divorced her?

Or: to which of my creditors

did I sell you?

You were sold because of your sins;

because of your crimes was your mother divorced.

²Why was no one here when I came?

Why, when I called, did nobody answer?

Is my arm too short to redeem?

Have I too little power to save?

With my rebuke I dry up the sea;

I turn rivers into desert,

their fish rot for lack of water

and they die of thirst;

³I dress the heavens in black to mourn

and make their covering sackcloth.”

⁴Adonai Elohim has given me

the ability to speak as a man well taught,

so that I, with my words,

know how to sustain the weary.

Each morning he awakens my ear

to hear like those who are taught.

⁵Adonai Elohim has opened my ear,

and I neither rebelled nor turned away.

⁶I offered my back to those who struck me,

my cheeks to those who plucked out my beard;

I did not hide my face

from insult and spitting.

⁷For Adonai Elohim will help.

This is why no insult can wound me.

This is why I have set my face like flint,

knowing I will not be put to shame.

⁸My vindicator is close by;

let whoever dares to accuse me

appear with me in court!

Let whoever has a case against me step forward!

⁹Look, if Adonai Elohim helps me,

who will dare to condemn me?

Here, they are all falling apart

like old, moth-eaten clothes.

¹⁰Who among you fears Adonai ?

Who obeys what his servant says?

Even when he walks in the dark,

without any light,

he will trust in Adonai ’s reputation

and rely on his God.

¹¹But all of you who are lighting fires

and arming yourselves with firebrands:

go, walk in the flame of your own fire,

among the firebrands you lit!

From my hands this [fate] awaits you:

you will lie down in torment.