His sufferings will result in Israel’s great blessing
54
📚✭“Sing, O barren one, you who have not borne
a child! Break forth
into singing✭,
and shout aloud,
you who have not travailed
with child!
For the children of the desolate one are
more than the children of
the married woman”, says the LORD.
2 📚✭“Enlarge the place of your tent,
and let them stretch out
the curtains of your dwelling places.
Do not spare.
Lengthen your ropes,
and strengthen your stakes.
3 📚For you will spread out to the right
and to the left,
and your offspring will inherit
the Gentiles✭,
and cause the desolate cities
to be inhabited.
4 📚✭Do not fear,
for you will not be put to shame,
nor be disgraced,
for you will not be humiliated.
For you will forget the shame of your youth✭,
and will no longer remember the reproach
of your widowhood✭.
5 📚✭For your Maker is your husband.
The LORD of hosts is his name.
And your Redeemer is
the Holy One of Israel.
He will be called the God of the
whole earth✭.
6 📚For the LORD has called you,
a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit,
and a youthful wife when
you were rejected,
says your God.
7 📚For a brief moment✭
I have forsaken you,
but with great mercies✭
I will gather you.
8 📚With a little wrath✭ I hid my face
from you for a moment,
but with everlasting kindness
I will have mercy on you,
says the LORD your Redeemer✭.
9 📚✭For this is like the waters
of Noah✭ to me;
for as I swore that the waters
of Noah would not again
flood the earth,
so I have sworn that I would not be angry
with you again,
or rebuke you.
10 📚For the mountains will depart,
and the hills be removed,
but my kindness will not depart
from you,
nor will my covenant of peace✭ be
removed,
says the LORD who has mercy
on you.
11 📚✭“O you afflicted,
tossed with a tempest,
and not comforted, see,
I will lay your stones with
fair colours,
and lay your foundations
with sapphires.
12 And I will make your battlements
of rubies,
and your gates of crystal,
and all your walls of precious stones.
13 📚And all your children will be taught
by the LORD✭,
and great will be the peace✭
of your children.
14 📚In righteousness✭ you will be
established.
You will be far from oppression,
and you will not fear;
and far from terror✭,
for it will not come near you.
15 📚✭See, they will surely attack,
but it will not be
from me;
and whosoever attacks you will fall
for your sake.
16 📚See, I have✭ created the blacksmith
who blows the coals in the fire,
and who brings out an instrument
for his work;
and I have created the destroyer
to produce ruin.
17 📚✭No weapon that is formed against
you will prosper✭;
and you will condemn every tongue
that rises against you
in judgment.
This is the heritage of the servants
of the LORD,
and their righteousness is from me✭”,
says the LORD.