1   Heare ye ilands, and attend ye peoples ^note from a farre. The Lord hath called me from the wombe, from my mothers bellie he hath bene mindful of my name.

2   And he hath made my mouth as a sharpe sword: in the shadow of his hand he hath protected me, & hath made me as a chosen arrow in his quiuer he hath hidden me.

3   And he sayd to me: Thou art my seruant Israel, because in thee wil I glorie.

4   And I sayd: I haue laboured in vayne, without cause, and in vayne haue I spent my strength: therfore my iudgement is with the Lord, and my worke with my God.

5   And now sayth the Lord, that formed me from the wombe to be his seruant, that I may reduce Iacob vnto him, and Israel wil not be gathered together: and I am glorified in the eies of the Lord, and my God is made my strength.

6   And he sayd: It is a final thing that thou shouldest be my seruant to rayse vp the tribes of Iacob, and to conuert the dregges of Israel. Behold, I haue geuen thee to be the light of the Gentiles, that thou mayst be saluation euen to the fardest part of the earth.

7   Thus sayth our Lord the redemer of Israel, the holie one therof, to the contemptible soule, to the nation that is abhorred, to the seruant of lordes: kinges shal see, & princes shal rise, & adore for our Lords sake, because he is faythful, & for the holie one of Israel who hath chosen thee.

8   Thus sayth our Lord: In time acceptable I haue heard thee, and in the day of saluation I haue holpen thee: and I haue kept thee, and geuen thee to be a couenant of the people, that thou mightest rayse vp the land, and possesse the inheritances dissipated:

9   that thou mightest say to them, that are bound: Come forth: & to them that are in darknesse: Be ye discouered. Vpon the wayes shal they feede, & their pastures shal be in al plaines.

10   They shal not hunger, nor thirst, & heate and sunne shal not strike them: because he that is merciful to them, shal gouerne them, and al the fountaines of waters shal geue them drinke.

11   And I wil make al my mountaines to be a way, & my pathes shal be exalted.

12   Behold these shal come from farre, & behold they from

the North and the sea, and these from the South countrie.

13   Ye heauens prayse, and earth reioyce, ye mountaynes geue prayse with iubilation: because our Lord hath comforted his people, and wil haue mercie on his poore ones.

14   And ^note Sion sayd: Our Lord hath forsaken me, & our Lord hath forgotten me.

15   Why, ^note can a woman forget her infant, that she wil not haue pitie on the sonne of her wombe? And if she should forget, yet wil not I forget thee.

16   Behold, I haue writen thee in my handes: thy walles are before myne eies alwayes.

17   Thy builders are come: they that destroy thee, and dissipate thee shal goe out of thee.

18   Lift vp thine eies round about, and see, al these are gathered together, they are come to thee: I liue, saith our Lord, for thou shalt be clothed with al these as with an ornament, and as a bride thou shalt put them about thee.

19   Because thy deserts, and thy solitarie places, and the land of thy ruine shal now be straite by reason of the inhabitants, and they shal be chased far away that swalowed thee vp.

20   As yet shal the children of thy barrennesse say in thine eares: The place is straite for me, make me space to dwel.

21   And thou shalt say in thy hart: Who hath begot me these? I am barren & not bearing, ledde into transmigration, and captiue: and these who hath brought vp? I destitute and alone: & these where were they?

22   Thus sayth our Lord God: Behold I wil lift vp my hand to the Gentiles, & to the peoples I wil exalt my signe. And shal carie thy sonnes in their armes, and thy daughters vpon their shoulders.

23   And kinges shal be thy nourcing fathers, & queenes thy nources: with countenance cast downe toward the ground they shal adore thee, & they shal licke vp the dust of thy feete. And thou shalt know that I am the Lord, vpon whom they shal not be confounded that expect him.

24   Shal a praye be taken from the strong? or can that which was caught of the mightie be saued?

25   Because thus sayth our Lord: Yea verely, euen the captiuitie shal be taken away from the strong: and that which was taken by the mightie, shal be saued. But those that haue iudged thee, wil I iudge, and thy children I wil saue.

26   And I wil feede thine enemies with their owne flesh: and as with new wine, so shal they be embrewed with their owne bloud: and al flesh shal know, that I am the Lord that saue thee, and thy redemer the mightie one of Iacob.

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