New Living Translation

Isaiah 51:9-23 New Living Translation (NLT)

9. Wake up, wake up, O  lord! Clothe yourself with strength!Flex your mighty right arm!Rouse yourself as in the days of oldwhen you slew Egypt, the dragon of the Nile.

10. Are you not the same today,the one who dried up the sea,making a path of escape through the depthsso that your people could cross over?

11. Those who have been ransomed by the lord will return.They will enter Jerusalem singing,crowned with everlasting joy.Sorrow and mourning will disappear,and they will be filled with joy and gladness.

12. “I, yes I, am the one who comforts you.So why are you afraid of mere humans,who wither like the grass and disappear?

13. Yet you have forgotten the lord, your Creator,the one who stretched out the sky like a canopyand laid the foundations of the earth.Will you remain in constant dread of human oppressors?Will you continue to fear the anger of your enemies?Where is their fury and anger now?It is gone!

14. Soon all you captives will be released!Imprisonment, starvation, and death will not be your fate!

15. For I am the lord your God,who stirs up the sea, causing its waves to roar.My name is the lord of Heaven’s Armies.

16. And I have put my words in your mouthand hidden you safely in my hand.I stretched out the sky like a canopyand laid the foundations of the earth.I am the one who says to Israel,‘You are my people!’”

17. Wake up, wake up, O Jerusalem!You have drunk the cup of the lord’s fury.You have drunk the cup of terror,tipping out its last drops.

18. Not one of your children is left aliveto take your hand and guide you.

19. These two calamities have fallen on you:desolation and destruction, famine and war.And who is left to sympathize with you?Who is left to comfort you?

20. For your children have fainted and lie in the streets,helpless as antelopes caught in a net.The lord has poured out his fury;God has rebuked them.

21. But now listen to this, you afflicted oneswho sit in a drunken stupor,though not from drinking wine.

22. This is what the Sovereign lord,your God and Defender, says:“See, I have taken the terrible cup from your hands.You will drink no more of my fury.

23. Instead, I will hand that cup to your tormentors,those who said, ‘We will trample you into the dustand walk on your backs.’”