Isaiah 43-45

Common English Bible

Don’t fear

43 But now, says the Lord—
the one who created you, Jacob,
    the one who formed you, Israel:
Don’t fear, for I have redeemed you;
    I have called you by name; you are mine.
²When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
    when through the rivers, they won’t sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you won’t be scorched
    and flame won’t burn you.
³I am the Lord your God,
    the holy one of Israel, your savior.
I have given Egypt as your ransom,
    Cush and Seba in your place.
⁴Because you are precious in my eyes,
    you are honored, and I love you.
    I give people in your place,
        and nations in exchange for your life.
⁵Don’t fear,
    I am with you.
From the east I’ll bring your children;
    from the west I’ll gather you.
⁶I’ll say to the north, “Give them back!”
    and to the south, “Don’t detain them.”
Bring my sons from far away,
    and my daughters from the end of the earth,
⁷    everyone who is called by my name
    and whom I created for my glory,
    whom I have formed and made.

⁸Bring out the blind people who have eyes,
    the deaf ones who have ears.
⁹All the nations are gathered together;
    the peoples are assembled.
Which of them announced this?
    Who predicted to us the past events?
Let them bring their witnesses as a defense;
    let them hear and say, “It’s true!”
¹⁰You are my witnesses, says the Lord,
    my servant, whom I chose,
    so that you would know and believe me
    and understand that I am the one.
Before me no god was formed;
    after me there has been no other.
¹¹I, I am the Lord,
    and there is no savior besides me.
¹²I announced, I saved, I proclaimed,
not some stranger among you.
You are my witnesses, says the Lord,
    and I am God.
¹³From the dawn of time, I am the one.
    No one can escape my power.
    I act, and who can undo it?

Don’t remember

¹⁴The Lord your redeemer,
    the holy one of Israel, says,
For your sake, I have sent an army^[a] to Babylon,
    and brought down all the bars,
    turning the Chaldeans’ singing into a lament.^[b]
¹⁵I am the Lord, your holy one,
    Israel’s creator, your king!
¹⁶The Lord says—who makes a way in the sea
    and a path in the mighty waters,
¹⁷    who brings out chariot and horse,
    army and battalion;
    they will lie down together and will not rise;
    they will be extinguished, extinguished like a wick.
¹⁸Don’t remember the prior things;
    don’t ponder ancient history.
¹⁹Look! I’m doing a new thing;
    now it sprouts up; don’t you recognize it?
I’m making a way in the desert,
    paths^[c] in the wilderness.
²⁰The beasts of the field,
        the jackals and ostriches, will honor me,
    because I have put water in the desert
    and streams in the wilderness
    to give water to my people,
    my chosen ones,
²¹    this people whom I formed for myself,
        who will recount my praise.

²²But you didn’t call out to me, Jacob;
    you were tired of me, Israel.
²³You didn’t bring me lambs for your entirely burned offering;
    you didn’t honor me with your sacrifices.
I didn’t make you worship with offerings;
    I didn’t weary you with frankincense.
²⁴You didn’t buy spices for me with your money,
    or satisfy me with the fat of your sacrifices.
Instead, you have burdened me with your sins
    and wearied me with your evil actions.
²⁵I, I am the one who wipes out your rebellious behavior for my sake. I won’t remember your sin.
²⁶Summon me, and let’s go to trial together;
    you tell your story so that you may be vindicated!
²⁷Your first ancestor sinned,
    and your officials rebelled against me.
²⁸So I made the holy officials impure,
    handed over Jacob to destruction and Israel to abuse.

You are my witnesses

44 But now hear this, Jacob my servant,
    and Israel, whom I have chosen.
²The Lord your maker,
    who formed you in the womb and will help you, says:
    Don’t fear, my servant Jacob,
    Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.
³I will pour out water upon thirsty ground
    and streams upon dry land.
I will pour out my spirit upon your descendants
    and my blessing upon your offspring.
⁴They will spring up from among the reeds
    like willows by flowing streams.
⁵This one will say, “I am the Lord’s,”
        and that one will be named after Jacob.
    Another will write on his hand, “The Lord’s”
        and will take the name Israel.

⁶The Lord, Israel’s king and redeemer,
    the Lord of heavenly forces, says:
I am the first, and I am the last,
    and besides me there are no gods.
⁷Who is like me?
    Let them speak up, explain it, and lay it out for me.
Who announced long ago what is to be?^[d]
    Let them tell us^[e] what is to come.
⁸Don’t tremble; have no fear!
    Didn’t I proclaim it?
    Didn’t I inform you long ago?
You are my witnesses!
    Is there a God besides me?
    There is no other rock; I know of none.

Idol-makers mocked

⁹Idol-makers are all as nothing;
    their playthings do no good.
Their promoters neither see nor know anything,
    so they ought to be ashamed.
¹⁰Who would form a god or cast an idol
    that does no good?
¹¹All its worshippers will be ashamed,
    and its artisans, who are only human.
They will all gather and stand,
    tremble and be ashamed together.
¹²A blacksmith with his tools
    works it over coals,
    and shapes it with hammers,
    and works it with his strong arm.
He even becomes hungry and weak.
    If he didn’t drink water, he’d pass out.
¹³A carpenter stretches out a string,
    marks it out with a stylus,
    fashions it with carving tools,
    and marks it with a compass.
He makes it into a human form,
    like a splendid human,
    to live in a temple.
¹⁴He cuts down cedars for himself,
    or chooses a cypress^[f] or oak,
    selecting from all the trees of the forest.
    He plants a pine,^[g] and the rain makes it grow.
¹⁵    It becomes suitable to burn for humans,
        so he takes some of the wood and warms himself.
    He kindles fire and bakes bread.
He fashions a god and worships it;
    he makes an idol and bows down to it.
¹⁶Half of it he burns in the fire;
    on that half he roasts and eats meat, and he is satisfied.
He warms himself and says,
    “Ah, I’m warm, watching the fire!”
¹⁷And the rest of it he makes into a god,
    into his idol,
    and he bows down, worships, and prays to it, saying, “Save me, for you are my god!”
¹⁸They don’t know or comprehend,
    for their eyes can’t see
    and their minds can’t comprehend.
¹⁹He doesn’t think,
    and has no knowledge or understanding to think:
Half of it I burned in the fire,
    and I baked bread on its coals,
    and roasted meat and ate.
Should I make the rest into something detestable?
    Should I bow down to a block of wood?
²⁰He’s feeding on ashes;
    his deluded mind has led him astray.
He can’t save himself and say,
    “Isn’t this thing in my hand a lie?”

Promises to Jacob and Jerusalem

²¹Remember these things, Jacob;
    Israel, for you are my servant.
I formed you; you are my servant!
    I won’t forget you, Israel.
²²I swept away your rebellions like a cloud,
    and your sins like fog.
Return to me,
    because I have redeemed you.

²³Sing, heavens, for the Lord has acted;
shout, depths of the earth!
Burst out with a ringing cry,
you mountains, forest, and every tree in it.
The Lord has redeemed Jacob,
and will glorify himself through Israel.

²⁴The Lord your redeemer
    who formed you in the womb says:
I am the Lord, the maker of all,
    who alone stretched out the heavens,
    who spread out the earth by myself,
²⁵    who frustrates the omens of diviners
        and makes a mockery of magicians,
    who turns back the wise
        and turns their knowledge into folly.
²⁶    But who confirms the word of my^[h] servant,
        and fulfills the predictions of my messengers;
    who says about Jerusalem, “It will be resettled”;
        and who says about the cities of Judah, “They will be rebuilt,
        and I will restore their ruins”;
²⁷        who says to the ocean depths,
    “Dry up; I will dry your streams”;
²⁸    who says about Cyrus, “My shepherd—
        he will do all that I want”;
    who says about Jerusalem,
        “She will be rebuilt”;
    and who says about the temple,
        “You will be founded once again.”

Cyrus as God’s anointed

45 The Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus,
    whom I have grasped by the strong hand,
    to conquer nations before him,
    disarming kings,
    and opening doors before him,
    so no gates will be shut:
²I myself will go before you,
    and I will level mountains.
I will shatter bronze doors;
    I will cut through iron bars.
³I will give you hidden treasures of secret riches,
    so you will know that I am the Lord,
    the God of Israel, who calls you by name.
⁴For the sake of my servant Jacob and Israel my chosen,
    I called you by name.
I gave you an honored title,
    though you didn’t know me.
⁵I am the Lord, and there is no other;
    besides me there is no God.
I strengthen you—
    though you don’t know me—
⁶so all will know, from the rising of the sun to its setting,
    that there is nothing apart from me.
I am the Lord; there’s no other.
⁷    I form light and create darkness,
    make prosperity and create doom;
    I am the Lord, who does all these things.

⁸Pour down, you heavens above,
    and let the clouds flow with righteousness.
Let the earth open for salvation to bear fruit;
    let righteousness sprout as well.
    I, the Lord, have created these things.

Potter and clay

⁹Doom to the one who argues with the potter,^[i]
    as if he were just another clay pot!
Does the clay say to the potter, “What are you making?”
    or “Your work has no handles”?
¹⁰Doom to one who says to a father,
    “What have you fathered?”
    and to a woman,
    “With what are you in labor?”
¹¹The Lord, the holy one of Israel and its maker,^[j] says:
Are you questioning me^[k] about my own children?
    Are you telling me what to do with the work of my hands?
¹²I myself made the earth,
    and created humans upon it.
    My own hands stretched out the heavens.
    I commanded all their forces.
¹³I have a right to awaken Cyrus;
    I will smooth all his paths.
He will build my city
    and set my exiles free,
    not for a price and not for a bribe,
    says the Lord of heavenly forces.

¹⁴The Lord says:
Egypt will grow weary, Cush will be sold,^[l]
    and the tall Sabeans will cross over to you.
They will be yours, and after you they will go.
    In chains they will come;
    to you they will bow down.
    They will plead with you:
“Truly God is with you;
    there’s no other, no other God.”
¹⁵Surely you are a god who hides himself,
    Israel’s God and savior.

Idols contrasted with God

¹⁶They will all be shamed and disgraced;
    the makers of idols will end up disgraced together.
¹⁷Israel has been saved by the Lord of everlasting salvation.
You won’t be shamed,
    and you won’t be disgraced forever and always.
¹⁸For this is what the Lord said, who created the heavens,
    who is God,
    who formed the earth and made it,
    who established it,
    who didn’t create it a wasteland but formed it as a habitation:
    I, the Lord, and none other!
¹⁹I didn’t speak in secret
    or in some land of darkness;
I didn’t say to the offspring of Jacob,
    “Seek me in chaos.”
I am the Lord, the one who speaks truth,
    who announces what is correct.
²⁰Gather and come,
    draw near together,
    fugitives of the nations!
Those who carry their wooden idols don’t know;
    those who pray to a god who won’t save.
²¹Announce! Approach! Confer together!
    Who proclaimed this from the beginning, announced it from long ago?
Wasn’t it I, the Lord?
    There’s no other God except me,
    a righteous God and a savior;
    there’s none besides me!
²²Turn to me and be saved,
    all you ends of the earth,
    for I am God, and there’s no other.
²³I have sworn a solemn pledge;
    a word has left my mouth;
    it is reliable and won’t fail.
Surely every knee will bow
and every tongue will confess;
²⁴    they will say, “Righteousness and strength come only from the Lord.
    All who are angry with him will come to shame.
²⁵All the Israelites
    will be victorious and rejoice.”