Isaiah 52-53
International Standard Version
The Redemption of Zion
52 Awake, awake!
Clothe yourself with strength,[a] O Zion!
Put on your beautiful garments,
O Jerusalem, the holy city,
for the uncircumcised and the unclean won’t enter you.[b]
2 Shake yourself from the dust and[c] arise,
and[d] sit on your throne, O Jerusalem!
Loosen the bonds from your neck,
O captive daughter of Zion.
3 For this is what the Lord says: “You were sold for nothing, and you’ll be redeemed without money.”
4 For this is what the Lord[e] says: “My people went down long ago into Egypt to live[f] there; the Assyrian, too, has oppressed them without cause.
5 “Now therefore, what[g] am I doing here,” asks[h] the Lord, “seeing that my people are taken away without cause? Those who rule over them are deluded,”[i] says the Lord, “and continuously, all the day long, my name is blasphemed. 6 Therefore my people will know my name; in that day[j] they’ll know that it is I who speaks, ‘Here I am!’
7 “How beautiful[k] on the mountains
are the feet of the one who brings news of peace,[l]
who announces good things,
who announces salvation,[m]
who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’
8 Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices,[n]
together they sing for joy;
for they will see in plain sight
the return of the Lord to Zion with compassion.[o]
9 “Break forth together into singing,[p]
you ruins of Jerusalem;
for the Lord has comforted his people,
and[q] he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord has bared his holy arm[r]
in the eyes of all the nations;
and all the ends of the earth will see
the salvation of our God.
11 “Depart! Depart! Go out from there;
touch no unclean thing;
go out from the midst of her;
purify yourselves,
you who carry the vessels of the Lord.
12 For you won’t go out in haste,
nor will you go in flight;
for the Lord will go before you;
and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
He is called the God of all the earth.”[s]
The Suffering Servant
13 “Look! My servant will prosper,
and[t] he will be exalted and lifted up,
and will be very high.
14 Just as many were astonished at you[u]—
so was he marred in[v] his appearance, more than any human,
and his form beyond that of human semblance[w]—
15 so will he startle[x] many nations.
Kings will shut their mouths at him;
for what had not been told them they will see,
and what they had not heard they will understand.
53 “Who[y] has believed our message,
and[z] to[aa] whom has the arm[ab] of the Lord been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a tender plant,
and like a root out of a dry ground;
he had no form and he had[ac] no majesty that we should look at him,[ad]
and there is no attractiveness that we should desire him.[ae]
3 “He was despised and rejected by others,
and[af] a man of sorrows,
intimately familiar with[ag] suffering;
and like one from whom people hide their faces;
and[ah] we despised him[ai]
and did not value him.
4 “Surely he has borne our sufferings
and carried our sorrows;
yet we considered him stricken,
and[aj] struck down by God,
and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions,
and[ak] he was crushed for our iniquities,
and[al] the punishment that made us whole was upon him,
and by his bruises we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray,
we have turned, each of us, to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he didn’t open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
as[am] a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open[an] his mouth.
8 “From detention and[ao] judgment he was taken away[ap]—
and who can even think about his descendants?[aq]
For he was cut off from the land of the living,
he was stricken[ar] for the transgression of my people.
9 Then they made[as] his grave with the wicked,
and with rich people[at] in his death,[au]
although he had committed no violence,
nor was there any deceit in his mouth.”
The Exaltation of the Servant
10 “Yet the Lord was willing to crush him,
and he made him suffer.[av]
Although you make his soul an offering for sin,
he[aw] will see his offspring,
and[ax] he will prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will triumph in his hand.
11 Out of the suffering of his soul he will see light[ay]
and[az] find satisfaction.
And[ba] through his knowledge his servant,[bb] the righteous one,
will make many righteous,
and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great,[bc]
and he will divide the spoils with the strong;
because he poured out his life to death,
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he carried the sins[bd] of many,
and made intercession for their transgressions.”[be]
Footnotes
- Isaiah 52:1 So 1QIsaa; MT LXX read with your strength
- Isaiah 52:1 So 1QIsaa; MT LXX read you any more
- Isaiah 52:2 So 1QIsaa LXX; 4QIsab MT lack and
- Isaiah 52:2 So 1QIsaa; MT LXX lack and
- Isaiah 52:4 So 1QIsaa LXX; MT reads the Lord God
- Isaiah 52:4 Or sojourn
- Isaiah 52:5 So 1QIsaa LXX; MT reads who
- Isaiah 52:5 Lit. declares
- Isaiah 52:5 So 1QIsaa; MT LXX read them wail; or them taunt
- Isaiah 52:6 So 1QIsaa LXX. MT reads therefore in that day
- Isaiah 52:7 Lit. they are beautiful; so 1QIsaa MTT LXXmss; 4QIsab reads It is beautiful
- Isaiah 52:7 So 1QIsaa; MT LXX read who brings good news
- Isaiah 52:7 So 1QIsaa; MT reads who announces peace, who brings news of good things, who announces salvation; cf. LXX
- Isaiah 52:8 Lit. their voice; so 1QIsaa; MT reads the voice
- Isaiah 52:8 So 1QIsaa LXX; MT lacks with compassion
- Isaiah 52:9 Lit. sing for joy (sing.); so 1QIsaa; MT reads sing for joy (pl.)
- Isaiah 52:9 So 1QIsaa LXX; MT lacks and
- Isaiah 52:10 I.e. the Messiah
- Isaiah 52:12 So 1QIsaa; MT LXX lack this line
- Isaiah 52:13 So 1QIsaa; 1QIsab 4QIsac MT lack and; LXX lacks and he will be exalted
- Isaiah 52:14 So 1QIsaa MT LXX; MTmss Syriac read at him
- Isaiah 52:14 Or was my marring; so 1QIsaa; MT reads was the marring of
- Isaiah 52:14 Lit. of the descendants of humans; so 1QIsaa; LXX reads of the humans; MT reads of the human
- Isaiah 52:15 Or sprinkle
- Isaiah 53:1 So 1QIsaa 1QIsab MT; LXX reads Lord, who
- Isaiah 53:1 So 1QIsaa 1QIsab; MT lacks and
- Isaiah 53:1 So 1QIsaa 1QIsab; MT reads upon
- Isaiah 53:1 I.e. the Messiah
- Isaiah 53:2 So 1QIsaa; 1QIsab MT LXX lack he had
- Isaiah 53:2 So 1QIsaa 1QIsab MT LXX; 1QIsaa may read at ourselves
- Isaiah 53:2 So 1QIsaa MT LXX; 1QIsaa may read desire ourselves
- Isaiah 53:3 So 1QIsaa; 1QIsab MT LXX lack and
- Isaiah 53:3 So 1QIsaa LXX; MT reads and acquainted with; 1QIsab reads and knowing
- Isaiah 53:3 So 1QIsaa 1QIsab; MT LXX lacks and
- Isaiah 53:3 So 1QIsaa; MT LXX read he was despised
- Isaiah 53:4 So 1QIsaa LXX; MT lacks and
- Isaiah 53:5 So 1QIsaa LXX; MT lacks and
- Isaiah 53:5 So 1QIsaa 1QIsab; MT LXX lack and
- Isaiah 53:7 So 1QIsaa; MT LXX read and as
- Isaiah 53:7 So 1QIsaa; MT reads does not open
- Isaiah 53:8 So 1QIsaa MT; 1QIsab lacks and
- Isaiah 53:8 So 1QIsaa MT LXX; 1QIsab reads judgment they took him away
- Isaiah 53:8 Or future
- Isaiah 53:8 So 1QIsaa; MT reads living, an affliction
- Isaiah 53:9 So 1QIsaa; 4QIsad MT read he made; LXX reads I will give
- Isaiah 53:9 So 1QIsaa; 1QIsaa corrector MT read with a rich man
- Isaiah 53:9 So 1QIsaa LXX; MT reads deaths
- Isaiah 53:10 So 1QIsaa; 4QIsad MT read he made him suffer; LXX reads with a blow
- Isaiah 53:10 So MT LXX; 1QIsaa reads And he
- Isaiah 53:10 So 1QIsaa 4QIsad; 1QIsab MT lack and
- Isaiah 53:11 So 1QIsaa 1QIsab 4QIsad LXX; MT reads He will see of the suffering of his soul
- Isaiah 53:11 So 1QIsaa 4QIsad; MT lacks and
- Isaiah 53:11 So 1QIsaa; 4QIsad MT lacks And
- Isaiah 53:11 So 1QIsaa; 4QIsad MT read my servant
- Isaiah 53:12 I.e. an allusion to the resurrection
- Isaiah 53:12 So 1QIsaa 1QIsab 4QIsad LXX; MT reads the sin
- Isaiah 53:12 So 1QIsaa 1QIsab 4QIsad LXX; MT reads for the transgressors
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