Isa 50 | EE | STEP | The LORD says, ‘Your mother (Israel) does not have a divorce-notice. I mean that I did not send her away with a notice. I do not have any debts. So I did not sell you for that reason. I sold you because of your sins. I sent your mother away because of wrong things that she did.

Isaiah 50

1 The LORD says, ‘Your mother (Israel) does not have a divorce-notice. I mean that I did not send her away with a notice. I do not have any debts. So I did not sell you for that reason. I sold you because of your sins. I sent your mother away because of wrong things that she did.

2 Nobody was there when I came. Nobody answered when I spoke to my people. My arm was not too short to ransom you. I was not too weak to save you. Look! With only a word I can make the sea dry. I can make rivers into sandy places. The fish in them will die because there is no water. And they will die because they need water.

3 I can make the sky dark. And I can cause it to be like I have covered it with hairy cloth.’

The Third Song about the Servant

4 (The servant says), ‘The LORD God given a tongue to me. And it has learned what to say. I know what to say to very tired people. So I can cause them to hope for something good. He wakes me every morning. He wakes me like someone that he is teaching. He wakes my ear so that it can listen to him.

5 The LORD God has opened my ears. I have obeyed him and I have not turned back.

6 I offered my back to the people who hit me. And I offered my face to the people who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face when they did those things. They laughed in a bad way at me and they spat at me.

7 The LORD God will help me. So, I will not be ashamed. I have made my face hard like a stone. So, I know that I will not be ashamed.

8 He, the LORD, says that I am right. He is near to me. Some people are saying bad things about me. We should talk to each other! Some people have said that I have done wrong things. We should talk about it together!

9 Watch this happen! The LORD God will help me. Someone may say that I have done wrong things. But people like that will all become like very old clothes. It will seem like the moths will eat them up!’

10 Perhaps someone among you is afraid of the LORD. And perhaps someone obeys the word of his servant. Some people walk in the dark and they have no light. They should believe in the LORD and they should hope for help from their God.

11 But now, go and walk in the light of your fires. Everyone who has lit a fire must do that. So must everybody who has got for themselves something on fire. You must go in the light of the fires that you have made. This is what you will receive from me. You will lie down in very great pain.