Look to the Rock From Which You Were Cut
1 “Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek Yahweh. Look to the rock you were cut from, and to the quarry you were dug from. 2 Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, I blessed him, and made him many. 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 will be found in them, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. 4 “Listen to me, my people; and hear me, my nation, for a law will go out from me, and I will establish my justice for a light to the peoples. 5 My righteousness is near. My salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples. The islands will wait for me, and they will trust my arm. 6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment. Its inhabitants will die in the same way, but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will not be abolished. 7 “Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law. Don’t fear the reproach of men, and don’t be dismayed at their insults. 8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations.” 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? 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? 11 Those ransomed by Yahweh will return, and come with singing to Zion. Everlasting joy shall be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away. 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 will be made as grass? 13 Have you forgotten Yahweh your Maker, who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth? Do you live in fear continually all day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he prepares to destroy? Where is the fury of the oppressor? 14 The captive exile will speedily be freed. He will not die and go down into the pit. His bread won’t fail. 15 For I am Yahweh your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar. Yahweh of Armies is his name. 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.’”
A discouraged remnant is told to look at one childless couple, and the heavens are described as the thing that wears out.
“Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek Yahweh. Look to the rock you were cut from, and to the quarry you were dug from.
The instruction is given to people who feel too few to matter, and the answer is archaeological: go and look at where you came from.
Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, I blessed him, and made him many.
The quarry is a childless couple. The argument is arithmetical — a nation that began with one man has no business concluding anything from its present size — and Sarah is named, which is rare.
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 will be found in them, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment. Its inhabitants will die in the same way, but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will not be abolished.
The two things a person points to when they want an image of permanence are named as the things that will go first. Smoke disperses; a coat wears through at the elbows. What is offered as the stable term of the comparison is a salvation.
7 “Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law. Don’t fear the reproach of men, and don’t be dismayed at their insults. 8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations.”
The same image applied to the people doing the mocking, and it is the chapter's practical point: the insult outlives the insulter by very little.
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?
The people answer back and tell God to wake up. The prayer is bold and the book prints it, and what it appeals to is the exodus, described in the old vocabulary of the sea monster.
Those ransomed by Yahweh will return, and come with singing to Zion. Everlasting joy shall be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
The last verse of chapter thirty-five, repeated word for word. The road built at the end of the first half of the book is still there.
“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 will be made as grass?
The reply to awake, awake is I, even I — and then a question that measures the fear against its object. The oppressor is grass.
Have you forgotten Yahweh your Maker, who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth? Do you live in fear continually all day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he prepares to destroy? Where is the fury of the oppressor?
The last clause is the sharpest thing in the chapter. The dread is described as continuous, all day, every day — and then the question: where is it, actually? The terror had been of something being prepared rather than something happening.
settled What this mark means