G N¹ w¹ 1-. Listen to Me. Righteousness.
x¹ -1,2. Illustration. Abraham and Sarah.
y¹ 3. Yahaveh. Comfort and Joy.
N² w² 4,5. Listen to Me. People.
x² 6-. Illustration. Heavens and earth.
y² -6. Yahaveh. Salvation and Righteousness.
N³ w³ 7. Listen to Me. Righteous.
x³ 8-. Illustration. Moth and worm.
y³ -8.Yahaveh. Righteousness and Salvation. 603-588 B.C.
Isaiah 51)
1 Listen to Me (note the call to hear), all you that follow after righteousness, all you that seek the Lord:
look to the rock from which place you all were hewn, and to the hollow of the quarry from which place you all were dug.
2 Look well to Abraham your father, and to Sarah that bare you (see Gen. 12, &c.; 24:36): for I called him alone (cp. Ezek. 33:24. Mal. 2:5), and blessed him, and increased him.
3 For the Lord shall comfort Zion: He will comfort all her waste places (cp.40:1; 49:13); and He will make her wilderness like Eden (see Gen. 2 and 3), and her desert like the garden of the Lord (this is a quotation from Gen. 13:10); joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of music (or, Psalmody).
4 Listen to Me, My People; and give ear to me, O My nation: for a law shall proceed from Me (i.e. the law of Moses, which was Yahaveh's revealed instruction. Cp. Mal. 4:4), and I will make My judgment to rest (= establish) for a light of the peoples.
5 My righteousness is near; My salvation is gone forth, and My arms shall judge the peoples; the maritime-countries shall wait upon Me (cp. 42:4; 60:9), and on My arm shall they hope.
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heaven [ages] will have vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die so: (there is no ancient authority for "as a gnat", as some render it)
but My salvation shall be for ever, and My righteousness shall not be abolished.
7 Listen to Me, all you that take note of righteousness, the People in whose heart is My law; fear you all not the reproach of mortal men, neither be you all afraid of their revilings.
8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool:
but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.
H O¹ 51:9,10. "Awake, awake". Call to Yehovah.
P¹ 51:11-16. Comfort.
O² 51:17-20. "Awake, awake". Call to Jerusalem.
P² 51:21-23. Comfort.
O³ 52:1,2. ""Awake, awake". Call to Zion.
P³ 52:3-12. Comfort.
9 Awake, awake (see 52:1), put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Are You not It that has cut Egypt, and wounded the crocodile?
10 Are You not It which has dried the sea (see Ex. 14:29), the waters of the great deep; That has made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? (by price, or blood. Cp. Ex. 6:6)
11 Therefore the redeemed (by power) of the Lord shall return (see Ex. 13:13), and come with singing to Zion (cp. 35:10); and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (see 21:2)
12 I, even I, Am He that comforts you: who are you, that you should be afraid of a mortal man that shall die, and of the son of mankind which shall be made as grass;
13 And forget the Lord your Maker, That has stretched forth the heavens (see Gen.1 and 2), and laid the foundations of the earth; and has feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he (some codices read "who was": referring doubtless to the Anti-Christ's effort in "the great tribulation") were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?
14 The captive exile hastens that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.
15 But I Am the Lord your God, that divided the sea (see Ex.14:21), whose waves roared: the Lord of hosts is His name.
16 And I have put My words in your mouth (see 50:4 ["that I should know"]. See Deut.18:18), and I have covered you in the shadow of My hand, [in order] that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, 'You are My People.'
17 Rouse you, rouse you, stand up, O Jerusalem, which has drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury; you have drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.
18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth; neither is there any that takes her by the hand of all the sons that she has brought up.
19 These two things are come to you; who shall be sorry for you? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort you?
20 Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of your Elohim.
21 Therefore hear now this, you afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:
22 Thus says your the Lord GOD, and Your God That pleads the cause of His People, "Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of My fury; you shall no more drink it again: (all this refers therefore to the final restoration of Israel)
23 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict you; which have said to you, 'Bow down, that we may go over:' and you have laid your body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over."