1 T hus says the Lord: Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce with which I put her away, O Israel? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions was your mother put away.

2 W hy, when I came, was there no man? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Is My hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink because there is no water, and they die of thirst.

3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.

4 ' > Servant of God says] The Lord God has given Me the tongue of a disciple and of one who is taught, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He wakens Me morning by morning, He wakens My ear to hear as a disciple.

5 T he Lord God has opened My ear, and I have not been rebellious or turned backward.

6 I gave My back to the smiters and My cheeks to those who plucked off the hair; I hid not My face from shame and spitting.

7 F or the Lord God helps Me; therefore have I not been ashamed or confounded. Therefore have I set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.

8 H e is near Who declares Me in the right. Who will contend with Me? Let us stand forth together! Who is My adversary? Let him come near to Me.

9 B ehold, the Lord God will help Me; who is he who will condemn Me? Behold, they all will wax old and be worn out as a garment; the moth will eat them up.

10 W ho is among you who fears the Lord, who obeys the voice of His Servant, yet who walks in darkness and deep trouble and has no shining splendor ? Let him rely on, trust in, and be confident in the name of the Lord, and let him lean upon and be supported by his God.

11 B ehold, all you who attempt to kindle your own fires, who surround and gird yourselves with momentary sparks, darts, and firebrands that you set aflame!—walk by the light of your self-made fire and of the sparks that you have kindled! But this shall you have from My hand: you shall lie down in grief and in torment.