#ScriptureReflection - Isaiah 54 (4.20.19)

The New Zion

¹ Raise a glad cry, you barren one who never bore a child,
    break forth in jubilant song, you who have never been in labor,
For more numerous are the children of the deserted wife
    than the children of her who has a husband,
    says the Lord.
² Enlarge the space for your tent,
    spread out your tent cloths unsparingly;
    lengthen your ropes and make firm your pegs.
³ For you shall spread abroad to the right and left;
    your descendants shall dispossess the nations
    and shall people the deserted cities.

⁴ Do not fear, you shall not be put to shame;
    do not be discouraged, you shall not be disgraced.
For the shame of your youth you shall forget,
    the reproach of your widowhood no longer remember.
⁵ For your husband is your Maker;
    the Lord of hosts is his name,
Your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel,
    called God of all the earth.

⁶ The Lord calls you back,
    like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit,
A wife married in youth and then cast off,
    says your God.
⁷ For a brief moment I abandoned you,
    but with great tenderness I will take you back.
⁸ In an outburst of wrath, for a moment
    I hid my face from you;
But with enduring love I take pity on you,
    says the Lord, your redeemer.

⁹ This is for me like the days of Noah:
As I swore then that the waters of Noah
    should never again flood the earth,
So I have sworn now not to be angry with you,
    or to rebuke you.
¹⁰ Though the mountains fall away
    and the hills be shaken,
My love shall never fall away from you
    nor my covenant of peace be shaken,
    says the Lord, who has mercy on you.

¹¹ O afflicted one, storm-battered and unconsoled,
    I lay your pavements in carnelians,
    your foundations in sapphires;
¹² I will make your battlements of rubies,
    your gates of jewels,
    and all your walls of precious stones.
¹³ All your children shall be taught by the Lord;
    great shall be the peace of your children.
¹⁴ In justice shall you be established,
    far from oppression, you shall not fear,
    from destruction, it cannot come near.
¹⁵ If there be an attack, it is not my doing;
    whoever attacks shall fall before you.

¹⁶ See, I have created the smith
    who blows on the burning coals
    and forges weapons as his work;
It is I also who have created
    the destroyer to work havoc.
¹⁷ Every weapon fashioned against you shall fail;
    every tongue that brings you to trial
    you shall prove false.

This is the lot of the servants of the Lord,
    their vindication from me—oracle of the Lord.