An exhortation, after the pattern of Abraham, to trust in Christ,

51:1 “Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness,
you who seek Yahweh:
look to the rock whence you were cut,
and to the hold of the pit whence you were dug.

51:2 Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you;
for when he was but one I called him,
and I blessed him, and made him many.

1 Peter 3:6

by reason of his comfortable promises,

51:3 For Yahweh has comforted Zion;
he has comforted all her waste places,
and has made her wilderness like Eden,
and her desert like the garden of Yahweh;
joy and gladness shall be found therein,
thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

Isaiah 51:12

of his righteous salvation,

51:4 “Attend to me, my people; and give ear to me, my nation:
for a law shall go forth from me,
and I will establish my justice for a light of the peoples.

51:5 My righteousness is near, my salvation is gone forth,
and my arms shall judge the peoples;
the islands shall wait for me,
and on my arm shall they trust.

51:6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and look on the earth beneath;
for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke,
and the earth shall wax old like a garment;
and those who dwell therein shall die in like manner:
but my salvation shall be forever,
and my righteousness shall not be abolished.

and man's mortality.

51:7 “Listen to me, you who know righteousness,
the people in whose heart is my law;
don’t fear the reproach of men,
neither be dismayed at their insults.

Isaiah 35:4

51:8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment,
and the worm shall eat them like wool;
but my righteousness shall be forever,
and my salvation to all generations.”

Christ by his sanctified arm defends his from the fear of man.

51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of Yahweh;
awake, as in the days of old,
the generations of ancient times.
Isn’t it you who cut Rahab in pieces,
who pierced the monster?

51:10 Isn’t it you who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep;
who made the depths of the sea
a way for the redeemed to pass over?

51:11 The ransomed of Yahweh shall return,
and come with singing to Zion;
and everlasting joy shall be on their heads:
they shall obtain gladness and joy;
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

51:12 “I, even I, am he who comforts you:
who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die,
and of the son of man who shall be made as grass;

Isaiah 51:19

51:13 and have forgotten Yahweh your Maker,
who stretched forth the heavens,
and laid the foundations of the earth;
and fear continually all the day because of the fury
of the oppressor, when he makes ready to destroy?
and where is the fury of the oppressor?

51:14 The captive exile shall speedily be freed;
and he shall not die and go down into the pit,
neither shall his bread fail.

51:15 For I am Yahweh your God, who stirs up the sea,
so that its waves roar:
Yahweh of Armies is his name.

51:16 I have put my words in your mouth,
and have covered you in the shadow of my hand,
that I may plant the heavens,
and lay the foundations of the earth, and tell Zion,
‘You are my people.’”

He bewails the afflictions of Jerusalem,

51:17 Awake, awake, stand up, Jerusalem,
that have drunk at the hand of Yahweh
the cup of his wrath; you have drunken the bowl
of the cup of staggering, and drained it.

51:18 There is none to guide her among all the sons
whom she has brought forth;
neither is there any who takes her by the hand
among all the sons who she has brought up.

51:19 These two things have happened to you.
Who will bemoan you? Desolation and destruction,
and the famine and the sword; how shall I comfort you?

Jeremiah 31:13

51:20 Your sons have fainted,
they lie at the head of all the streets,
as an antelope in a net;
they are full of the wrath of Yahweh, the rebuke of your God.

and promises deliverance.

51:21 Therefore hear now this, you afflicted,
and drunken, but not with wine:

51:22 Thus says your Lord Yahweh, and your God who pleads the cause of his people,

“Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering,
even the bowl of the cup of my wrath;
you shall no more drink it again:

51:23 and I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you,
who have said to your soul,
‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’
and you have laid your back as the ground,
and as the street, to those who walk over.”