“For just as the new heavens and the new earth I am about to make will remain standing before me,” says the Lord, “so your descendants and your name will remain.

Don’t be afraid, for you will not be put to shame! Don’t be intimidated, ¹  for you will not be humiliated! You will forget about the shame you experienced in your youth; you will no longer remember the disgrace of your abandonment. ² 

Why do you forget ¹  the Lord, who made you, who stretched out the sky ²  and founded the earth? Why do you constantly tremble all day long ³  at the anger of the oppressor, when he makes plans to destroy? Where is the anger of the oppressor? ⁴ 

Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen this? Can a country ¹  be brought forth in one day? Can a nation be born in a single moment? Yet as soon as Zion goes into labor she gives birth to sons!

Indeed, they are barely planted; yes, they are barely sown; yes, they barely take root in the earth, and then he blows on them, causing them to dry up, and the wind carries them away like straw.

He wears his desire for justice ¹  like body armor, ²  and his desire to deliver is like a helmet on his head. ³  He puts on the garments of vengeance ⁴  and wears zeal like a robe.

who fulfills the oracles of his prophetic servants ¹  and brings to pass the announcements ²  of his messengers, who says about Jerusalem, ³  ‘She will be inhabited,’ and about the towns of Judah, ‘They will be rebuilt, her ruins I will raise up,’

The Lord will divide ¹  the gulf ²  of the Egyptian Sea; ³  he will wave his hand over the Euphrates River ⁴  and send a strong wind, ⁵  he will turn it into seven dried-up streams, ⁶  and enable them to walk across in their sandals.

‘What right do you have to be here? What relatives do you have buried here? ¹  Why ²  do you chisel out a tomb for yourself here? He chisels out his burial site in an elevated place, he carves out his tomb on a cliff.

his form was so marred he no longer looked human ¹  – so now ²  he will startle ³  many nations. Kings will be shocked by his exaltation, ⁴  for they will witness something unannounced to them, and they will understand something they had not heard about.

The one who slaughters a bull also strikes down a man; ¹  the one who sacrifices a lamb also breaks a dog’s neck; ²  the one who presents an offering includes pig’s blood with it; ³  the one who offers incense also praises an idol. ⁴  They have decided to behave this way; ⁵  they enjoy these disgusting practices. ⁶ 

So I will assign him a portion with the multitudes, ¹  he will divide the spoils of victory with the powerful, ²  because he willingly submitted ³  to death and was numbered with the rebels, when he lifted up the sin of many and intervened ⁴  on behalf of the rebels.”

So I will choose severe punishment ¹  for them; I will bring on them what they dread, because I called, and no one responded, I spoke and they did not listen. They did evil before me; ²  they chose to do what displeases me.”

Listen to this, O family of Jacob, ¹  you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’ and are descended from Judah, ²  who take oaths in the name of the Lord, and invoke ³  the God of Israel – but not in an honest and just manner. ⁴ 

You must ¹  observe the Sabbath ²  rather than doing anything you please on my holy day. ³  You must look forward to the Sabbath ⁴  and treat the Lord’s holy day with respect. ⁵  You must treat it with respect by refraining from your normal activities, and by refraining from your selfish pursuits and from making business deals. ⁶ 

You will no longer be called, “Abandoned,” and your land will no longer be called “Desolate.” Indeed, ¹  you will be called “My Delight is in Her,” ²  and your land “Married.” ³  For the Lord will take delight in you, and your land will be married to him. ⁴ 

So the Lord is furious ¹  with his people; he lifts ²  his hand and strikes them. The mountains shake, and corpses lie like manure ³  in the middle of the streets. Despite all this, his anger does not subside, and his hand is ready to strike again. ⁴ 

Never again will one of her infants live just a few days ¹  or an old man die before his time. ²  Indeed, no one will die before the age of a hundred, ³  anyone who fails to reach ⁴  the age of a hundred will be considered cursed.

Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves, ¹  when he shouts at ²  them, they will flee to a distant land, driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills, or like dead thistles ³  before a strong gale.

Certainly the Lord will console Zion; he will console all her ruins. He will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the Garden of the Lord. Happiness and joy will be restored to ¹  her, thanksgiving and the sound of music.