n°23 / Isaiah 51 :

1Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD : look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.
2Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you : for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.
3For the LORD shall comfort Zion : he will comfort all her waste places ; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD ; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
4Hearken unto me, my people ; and give ear unto me, O my nation : for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.
5My righteousness is near ; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people ; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust.
6Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath : for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner : but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
7Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law ; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.
8For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool : but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.
9Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD ; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon ?
10Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep ; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over ?
11Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion ; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head : they shall obtain gladness and joy ; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
12I, even I, am he that comforteth you : who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass ;
13And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth ; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy ? and where is the fury of the oppressor ?
14The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.
15But I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared : The LORD of hosts is his name.
16And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.
17Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury ; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.
18There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth ; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up.
19These two things are come unto thee ; who shall be sorry for thee ? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword : by whom shall I comfort thee ?
20Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net : they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God.
21Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine :
22Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury ; thou shalt no more drink it again :
23But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee ; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over : and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.