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1 Listen to me, islands, and pay attention, peoples from afar.
The LORD called me from the womb;
from my mother’s body he spoke my name.
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword;
in the shadow of his hand he hid me.
He made me a polished arrow;
in his quiver he concealed me.
3 He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will show my glory.”
4 But I said, “I have labored in vain;
I have spent my strength for emptiness and futility.
Yet my cause is with the LORD, and my recompense with my God.”
5 Now the LORD speaks, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to him.
I am honored in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has been my strength.
6 He says, “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the preserved of Israel.
I will also give you as a light to the nations, to be my salvation to the ends of the earth.”
7 This is what the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, says to the one despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers: “Kings will see and rise;
princes will bow down, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
8 This is what the LORD says: “In a time of favor I answered you, and in a day of salvation I helped you.
I will keep you and give you as a covenant for the people, to restore the land and apportion the desolate inheritances,
9 saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out!’ and to those in darkness, ‘Show yourselves!’ They will graze along the roads, and on all the bare heights will be their pasture.
10 They will neither hunger nor thirst, and neither scorching heat nor sun will strike them.
For the one who has compassion on them will lead them and guide them beside springs of water.
11 I will turn all my mountains into a road, and my highways will be raised up.
12 Look, these will come from afar;
look, those from the north and the west, and these from the land of Sinim.”
13 Sing for joy, heavens, and rejoice, earth!
Break into singing, mountains!
For the LORD has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.
14 But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me;
the Lord has forgotten me.”
15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.
16 Look, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are always before me.
17 Your children hurry;
your destroyers and those who laid you waste will go out from you.
18 Lift up your eyes all around and see: all of them gather and come to you.
As I live,” declares the LORD, “you will wear them all like an ornament and bind them on like a bride.
19 As for your ruins, your desolate places, and your devastated land, now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants, and those who devoured you will be far away.
20 The children of your bereavement will yet say in your hearing, ‘This place is too narrow for me;
make room for me to live.’
21 Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has borne these for me?
I was bereaved and alone, exiled and put away.
Who raised these?
Look, I was left alone;
where were these?’ ”
22 This is what the Lord GOD says: “Look, I will lift my hand to the nations and raise my banner to the peoples.
They will bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.
23 Kings will be your guardians and their princesses your nursing mothers.
They will bow down to you with their faces to the ground and lick the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the LORD;
those who wait for me will not be ashamed.”
24 Can plunder be taken from a warrior, or the captive of a righteous man escape?
25 For this is what the LORD says: “Even the captives of a warrior will be taken away, and the plunder of the ruthless will be rescued.
I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.
26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they will be drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine.
All flesh will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”