Isaiah 50:1-11
50 This is what Jehovah has said: “Where, then, is the divorce certificate+ of the mother of YOU people, whom I sent away?+ Or which one of my creditors is it to whom I have sold YOU people?+ Look! Because of YOUR own errors+ YOU have been sold, and because of YOUR own transgressions YOUR mother has been sent away.+
2 Why is it that, when I came in, there was no one?*+ When I called, there was nobody answering?+ Has my hand become in fact so short that it cannot redeem,+ or is there in me no power to deliver? Look! With my rebuke+ I dry up the sea;+ I make rivers a wilderness.+ Their fish stink due to there being no water, and they die because of thirst.+
3 I clothe the heavens with obscurity,+ and I make sackcloth itself their covering.”+
4 The Sovereign Lord Jehovah himself has given me the tongue of the taught ones,*+ that I may know how to answer the tired one with a word.+ He awakens morning by morning; he awakens my ear to hear like the taught ones.+
5 The Sovereign Lord Jehovah himself has opened my ear, and I, for my part, was not rebellious.+ I did not turn in the opposite direction.+
6 My back I gave to the strikers, and my cheeks+ to those plucking off [the hair]. My face I did not conceal from humiliating things* and spit.+
7 But the Sovereign Lord Jehovah himself will help me.+ That is why I shall not have to feel humiliated. That is why I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.+
8 The One declaring me righteous* is near.+ Who can contend with me? Let us stand up together.+ Who is my judicial antagonist?*+ Let him approach me.+
9 Look! The Sovereign Lord Jehovah himself will help me. Who is there that can pronounce me wicked?*+ Look! All of them, like a garment, will wear out.+ A mere moth will eat them up.+
10 Who among YOU people is in fear+ of Jehovah, listening to the voice of his servant,+ who has walked in continual darkness+ and for whom there has been no brightness? Let him trust in the name of Jehovah+ and support himself upon his God.*+
11 “Look! All YOU who are igniting a fire, making sparks light up,* walk in the light of YOUR fire, and amid the sparks that YOU have set ablaze. From my hand YOU will certainly come to have this: In sheer pain YOU will lie down.+
Footnotes
^ Or, “man.” Heb., ʼish.
^ Or, “the disciples (followers).”
^ Or, “from insults.”
^ Or, “pronouncing me innocent.”
^ “My judicial antagonist.” Lit., “the owner [Heb., vaʹʽal, from baʹʽal] of my judgment.”
^ Or, “can condemn me?”
^ “Upon his God.” Heb., bEʼ·lo·havʹ.
^ By a correction; lit., “closely girding on the sparks (fiery arrows).”
