Isaiah 54
1 Let your voice be loud in song, O woman without children; make melody and sounds of joy, you who did not give birth: for the children of her who had no husband are more than those of the married wife, says the Lord.
Rejoice, you barren that bear not; break forth and cry, you that do not travail: for more are the children of the desolate than of her that has a husband: for the Lord has said,
2 Make wide the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your house be stretched out without limit: make your cords long, and your tent-pins strong.
Enlarge the place of your tent, and of your curtains: fix [the pins], spare not, lengthen your cords, and strengthen your pins;
3 For I will make wide your limits on the right hand and on the left; and your seed will take the nations for a heritage, and make the waste towns full of people.
spread forth [your tent] yet to the right and the left: for your seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and you shall make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
4 Have no fear; for you will not be shamed or without hope: you will not be put to shame, for the shame of your earlier days will go out of your memory, and you will no longer keep in mind the sorrows of your widowed years.
Fear not, because you has been put to shame, neither be confounded, because you was reproached: for you shall forget your former shame, and shall no more at all remember the reproach of your widowhood.
5 For your Maker is your husband; the Lord of armies is his name: and the Holy One of Israel is he who takes up your cause; he will be named the God of all the earth.
For [it is] the Lord that made you; the Lord of hosts is his name: and he that delivered you, he is the God of Israel, [and] shall be called [so] by the whole earth.
6 For the Lord has made you come back to him, like a wife who has been sent away in grief of spirit; for one may not give up the wife of one's early days.
The Lord has not called you as a deserted and faint-hearted woman, nor as a woman hated from [her] youth, says your God.
7 For a short time I gave you up; but with great mercies I will take you back again.
For a little while I left you: but with great mercy will I have compassion upon you.
8 In overflowing wrath my face was veiled from you for a minute, but I will have pity on you for ever, says the Lord who takes up your cause.
In a little wrath I turned away my face from you; but with everlasting mercy will I have compassion upon you, says the Lord that delivers you.
9 For this is like the days of Noah to me: for as I took an oath that the waters of Noah would never again go over the earth, so have I taken an oath that I will not again be angry with you, or say bitter words to you.
From the time of the water of Noe this is my [purpose]: as I sware to him at that time, [saying] of the earth, I will no more be angry with you, neither when you are threatened,
10 For the mountains may be taken away, and the hills be moved out of their places, but my love will not be taken from you, or my agreement of peace broken, says the Lord, who has had mercy on you.
shall the mountains depart, nor shall your hills be removed: so neither shall my mercy fail you, nor shall the covenant of your peace be at all removed: for the Lord [who is] gracious to you has spoken [it].
11 O troubled one, storm-crushed, uncomforted! see, your stones will be framed in fair colours, and your bases will be sapphires.
Afflicted and outcast you has not been comforted: behold, I [will] prepare carbuncle [for] your stones, and sapphire for your foundations;
12 I will make your towers of rubies, and your doors of carbuncles, and the wall round you will be of all sorts of beautiful stones.
and I will make your buttresses jasper, and your gates crystal, and your border precious stones.
13 And all your builders will be made wise by the Lord; and great will be the peace of your children.
And [I will cause] all your sons [to be] taught of God, and your children [to be] in great peace.
14 All your rights will be made certain to you: have no fear of evil, and destruction will not come near you.
And you shall be built in righteousness: abstain from injustice, and you shall not fear; and trembling shall not come near you.
15 See, they may be moved to war, but not by my authority: all those who come together to make an attack on you, will be broken against you.
Behold, strangers shall come to you by me, and shall sojourn with you, and shall run to you for refuge.
16 See, I have made the iron-worker, blowing on the burning coals, and making the instrument of war by his work; and I have made the waster for destruction.
Behold, I have created you, not as the coppersmith blowing coals, and bringing out a vessel [fit] for work; but I have created you, not for ruin, that [I] should destroy [you].
17 No instrument of war which is formed against you will be of any use; and every tongue which says evil against you will be judged false. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness comes from me, says the Lord.
I will not suffer any weapon formed against you to prosper; and every voice that shall rise up against you for judgment, you shall vanquish them all; and your adversaries shall be [condemned] thereby. There is an inheritance to them that serve the Lord, and you shall be righteous before me, says the Lord.
A Dove is Sent Forth from the Ark
