Isaiah, 50
1 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?*1 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.
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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,*1 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.
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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*1 and spit.
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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*1 is near. Who can contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my judicial antagonist?*2 Let him approach me.
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9 Look! The Sovereign Lord Jehovah himself will help me. Who is there that can pronounce me wicked?*1 Look! All of them, like a garment, will wear out. A mere moth will eat them up.
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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.*1
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11 “Look! All YOU who are igniting a fire, making sparks light up,*1 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.
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