5Thus speaks the LORD who is God,
he who created the skies and stretched them out,
who fashioned the earth and all that grows in it,
who gave breath to its people,
the breath of life to all who walk upon it:
6I, the LORD, have called you with righteous purpose
and taken you by the hand;
I have formed you, and appointed you
to be a light to all peoples,
a beacon for the nations,
7to open eyes that are blind,
to bring captives out of prison,
out of the dungeons where they lie in darkness.
8I am the LORD; the LORD is my name;
I will not give my glory to another god,
nor my praise to any idol.
9See how the first prophecies have come to pass,
and now I declare new things;
before they break from the bud I announce them to you.
10Sing a new song to the LORD,
sing his praise throughout the earth,
you that sail the sea, and all sea-creatures,
and you that inhabit the coasts and islands.
11Let the wilderness and its towns rejoice,
and the villages of the tribe of Kedar.
Let those who live in Sela shout for joy
and cry out from the hill-tops.
12You coasts and islands, all uplift his praises;
let all ascribe glory to the LORD.
13The LORD will go forth as a warrior,
he will rouse the frenzy of battle like a hero;
he will shout, he will raise the battle-cry
and triumph over his foes.
14Long have I lain still,
I kept silence and held myself in check;
now I will cry like a woman in labour,
whimpering, panting and gasping.
15I will lay waste mountains and hills
and shrivel all their green herbs;
I will turn rivers into desert wastes
and dry up all the pools.
16Then will I lead blind men on their way
and guide them by paths they do not know;
I will turn darkness into light before them
and straighten their twisting roads.
All this I will do and leave nothing undone.
17Those who trust in an image,
those who take idols for their gods
turn tail in bitter shame.
18Hear now, you that are deaf;
you blind men, look and see:
19yet who is blind but my servant,
who so deaf as the messenger whom I send?
Who so blind as the one who holds my commission,
so deaf as the servant of the LORD?
20You have seen much but remembered little,
your ears are wide open but nothing is heard.
21It pleased the LORD, for the furtherance of his justice,
to make his law a law of surpassing majesty;
22yet here is a people plundered and taken as prey,
all of them ensnared, trapped in holes,
lost to sight in dungeons,
I carried off as spoil without hope of rescue,
as plunder with no one to say, 'Give it back.'
23Hear this, all of you who will,
listen henceforward and give me a hearing:
24who gave away Jacob for plunder,
who gave Israel away for spoil?
Was it not the LORD? They sinned against him,
they would not follow his ways
and refused obedience to his law;
25so in his anger he poured out upon Jacob
his wrath and the fury of battle.
It wrapped him in flames, yet still he did not learn the lesson.
scorched him, yet he did not lay it to heart.
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