Isaiah 52

¹ Awake, awake! Clothe yourself in strength, Zion. Put on your finest clothes, Jerusalem, Holy City; forthe uncircumcised and the unclean will enter you no more.

² Shake off your dust; get up, captive Jerusalem! The chains have fal en from your neck, captivedaughter of Jerusalem!

³ For Yahweh says this, 'You were sold for nothing; you wil be redeemed without money.'

⁴ For the Lord Yahweh says this, 'Long ago my people went to Egypt and settled there as aliens; final yAssyria oppressed them for no reason.

⁵ So now what is to be done,' declares Yahweh, 'since my people have been carried off for nothing, theirmasters howl in triumph,' declares Yahweh, 'and my name is held in contempt all day, every day?

⁶ Because of this my people wil know my name, because of this they will know when the day comes,that it is I saying, Here I am!'

⁷ How beautiful on the mountains, are the feet of the messenger announcing peace, of the messenger ofgood news, who proclaims salvation and says to Zion, 'Your God is king!'

⁸ The voices of your watchmen! Now they raise their voices, shouting for joy together, for with their owneyes they have seen Yahweh returning to Zion.

⁹ Break into shouts together, shouts of joy, you ruins of Jerusalem; for Yahweh has consoled his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.

¹⁰ Yahweh has bared his holy arm for al the nations to see, and al the ends of the earth have seen thesalvation of our God.

¹¹ Go away, go away, leave that place, do not touch anything unclean. Get out of her, purify yourselves,you who carry Yahweh's vessels!

¹² For you are not to hurry away, you are not to leave like fugitives. No, Yahweh marches at your headand the God of Israel is your rearguard.

¹³ Look, my servant will prosper, wil grow great, wil rise to great heights.

¹⁴ As many people were aghast at him -- he was so inhumanly disfigured that he no longer looked like aman-

¹⁵ so many nations wil be astonished and kings wil stay tight-lipped before him, seeing what had neverbeen told them, learning what they had not heard before.