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51. Everlasting Salvation for Zion

¹ “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness
   and who seek the LORD:
Look to the rock from which you were cut
   and to the quarry from which you were hewn;
² look to Abraham, your father,
   and to Sarah, who gave you birth.
When I called him he was only one man,
   and I blessed him and made him many.
³ The LORD will surely comfort Zion
   and will look with compassion on all her ruins;
he will make her deserts like Eden,
   her wastelands like the garden of the LORD.
Joy and gladness will be found in her,
   thanksgiving and the sound of singing.

    ⁴ “Listen to me, my people;
   hear me, my nation:
Instruction will go out from me;
   my justice will become a light to the nations.
⁵ My righteousness draws near speedily,
   my salvation is on the way,
   and my arm will bring justice to the nations.
The islands will look to me
   and wait in hope for my arm.
⁶ Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
   look at the earth beneath;
the heavens will vanish like smoke,
   the earth will wear out like a garment
   and its inhabitants die like flies.
But my salvation will last forever,
   my righteousness will never fail.

    ⁷ “Hear me, you who know what is right,
   you people who have taken my instruction to heart:
Do not fear the reproach of mere mortals
   or be terrified by their insults.
⁸ For the moth will eat them up like a garment;
   the worm will devour them like wool.
But my righteousness will last forever,
   my salvation through all generations.”

    ⁹ Awake, awake, arm of the LORD,
   clothe yourself with strength!
Awake, as in days gone by,
   as in generations of old.
Was it not you who cut Rahab to pieces,
   who pierced that monster through?
¹⁰ Was it not you who dried up the sea,
   the waters of the great deep,
who made a road in the depths of the sea
   so that the redeemed might cross over?
¹¹ Those the LORD has rescued will return.
   They will enter Zion with singing;
   everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
   and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

    ¹² “I, even I, am he who comforts you.
   Who are you that you fear mere mortals,
   human beings who are but grass,
¹³ that you forget the LORD your Maker,
   who stretches out the heavens
   and who lays the foundations of the earth,
that you live in constant terror every day
   because of the wrath of the oppressor,
   who is bent on destruction?
For where is the wrath of the oppressor?
    ¹⁴ The cowering prisoners will soon be set free;
they will not die in their dungeon,
   nor will they lack bread.
¹⁵ For I am the LORD your God,
   who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
   the LORD Almighty is his name.
¹⁶ I have put my words in your mouth
   and covered you with the shadow of my hand—
I who set the heavens in place,
   who laid the foundations of the earth,
   and who say to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”

The Cup of the LORD’s Wrath

    ¹⁷ Awake, awake!
   Rise up, Jerusalem,
you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD
   the cup of his wrath,
you who have drained to its dregs
   the goblet that makes people stagger.
¹⁸ Among all the children she bore
   there was none to guide her;
among all the children she reared
   there was none to take her by the hand.
¹⁹ These double calamities have come upon you—
   who can comfort you?—
ruin and destruction, famine and sword—
   who can Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint, Vulgate and Syriac; Masoretic Text / how can I console you?
²⁰ Your children have fainted;
   they lie at every street corner,
   like antelope caught in a net.
They are filled with the wrath of the LORD,
   with the rebuke of your God.

    ²¹ Therefore hear this, you afflicted one,
   made drunk, but not with wine.
²² This is what your Sovereign LORD says,
   your God, who defends his people:
“See, I have taken out of your hand
   the cup that made you stagger;
from that cup, the goblet of my wrath,
   you will never drink again.
²³ I will put it into the hands of your tormentors,
   who said to you,
   ‘Fall prostrate that we may walk on you.’
And you made your back like the ground,
   like a street to be walked on.”

18. There is no one to guide her. He describes the sorest calamity of the Church; for the heaviest and sorest of all undoubtedly is, that she receives no sympathy or consolation from her own children. This accumulated misery is described by him, in order that, though her condition be desperate, she may still expect consolation from God, who will never disappoint his servants, though they be sunk to the depth of hell. Although the Church has been forsaken by men, and even by those whom she nourished in her bosom and carried in her arms, yet she shall receive assistance from God. No affliction more severe can befall a mother than to be deserted by her children, who ought in their turn to have treated her with kindness. Such ingratitude and want of natural affection is certainly much liarder to bear than the violent and unbridled cruelty of enemies; for why does she give birth to children, and why does she bring them up, but in expectation of being supported by them in return? Since her children do not perform their duty, what remains but that she shall think that to have born and reared them has been of no advantage to her? Although therefore the Church has performed the duty of a mother, and has brought up her children to the age of maturity, yet the Prophet declares that she must not expect any assistance or consolation from ungrateful persons.

Yet his discourse conveys something more, and pronounces those children who have rendered no assistance to their mother to be bastards and reprobates, with the view of inducing her to bear the loss of them more patiently. It was sad and distressing for the Church to be deprived of all her offspring, and to be reduced to childlessness; though this has sometimes happened. But the Prophet reminds the mother that the children do not deserve that she should mourn for them, and that, on the contrary, she ought to desire additional offspring, as it is said by the Psalmist,

“The people that shall be created shall praise the Lord.” (Psalm 103:18.)

What is here described by the Prophet is entirely applicable to our own age; for many boast of being the children of the Church; but where is the man that cares about his mother’s distresses? Who is grieved for her ruin? Who is moved so deeply as to put his shoulders to her support? How many betray her, and, under presence of this title, persecute her more cruelly than open and avowed enemies? Accordingly, after all her calamities this is added as the copestone of her miseries. Moreover, they who wish to be regarded as holding the first rank in the Church, and who not only boast of being children, but vaunt of being called fathers, treacherously desert her when she implores their aid. We need not wonder, therefore, if God shall drive them out, in order to make way for the increase of his Church by lawful and dutiful children. ³⁴³⁴ “Afin de donner puis apres a son Eglise des enfans legitimes qui luy assistent.” “In order afterwards to give to his Church lawful children to assist her.”