1 Paul, an apostle (special messenger) of Christ Jesus (the Messiah), by the will of God, and Timothy [our] brother,

² To the saints (the consecrated people of God) and ^[a]believing and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae: Grace (spiritual favor and blessing) to you and [heart] peace from God our Father.

³ We ^[b]continually give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah), as we are praying for you,

⁴ For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus [^[c]the leaning of your entire human personality on Him in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness] and of the love which you [have and show] for all the saints (God’s consecrated ones),

⁵ Because of the hope [of experiencing what is] laid up (^[d]reserved and waiting) for you in heaven. Of this [hope] you heard in the past in the message of the truth of the Gospel,

⁶ Which has come to you. Indeed, in the whole world [that Gospel] is bearing fruit and still is growing ^[e][by its own inherent power], even as it has done among yourselves ever since the day you first heard and came to know and understand the grace of God in truth. [You came to know the grace or undeserved favor of God in reality, deeply and clearly and thoroughly, becoming accurately and intimately acquainted with it.]

⁷ You so learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ in our stead and as our representative and ^[f]yours.

⁸ Also he has informed us of your love in the [Holy] Spirit.

⁹ For this reason we also, from the day we heard of it, have not ceased to pray and make [^[g]special] request for you, [asking] that you may be filled with the ^[h]full (deep and clear) knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom [^[i]in comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God] and in understanding and discernment of spiritual things—

¹⁰ That you may walk (live and conduct yourselves) in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him and ^[j]desiring to please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of God [with fuller, deeper, and clearer insight, ^[k]acquaintance, and recognition].

¹¹ [We pray] that you may be invigorated and strengthened with all power according to the might of His glory, [to exercise] every kind of endurance and patience (perseverance and forbearance) with joy,

¹² Giving thanks to the Father, Who has qualified and made us fit to share the ^[l]portion which is the inheritance of the saints (God’s holy people) in the Light.

¹³ [The Father] has delivered and ^[m]drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son ^[n]of His love,

¹⁴ In Whom we have our redemption through His blood, [which means] the forgiveness of our sins.

¹⁵ [Now] He is the ^[o]exact likeness of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible]; He is the Firstborn of all creation.

¹⁶ For it was in Him that all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him [by His service, intervention] and in and for Him.

¹⁷ And He Himself existed before all things, and in Him all things consist (cohere, are held together).^(A)

¹⁸ He also is the Head of [His] body, the church; seeing He is the Beginning, the Firstborn from among the dead, so that He alone in everything and in every respect might occupy the chief place [stand first and be preeminent].

¹⁹ For it has pleased [the Father] that all the divine fullness (the sum total of the divine perfection, powers, and attributes) should dwell in Him ^[p]permanently.

²⁰ And God purposed that through (^[q]by the service, the intervention of) Him [the Son] all things should be completely reconciled ^[r]back to Himself, whether on earth or in heaven, as through Him, [the Father] made peace by means of the blood of His cross.

²¹ And although you at one time were estranged and alienated from Him and were of hostile attitude of mind in your wicked activities,

²² Yet now has [Christ, the Messiah] reconciled [you to God] in the body of His flesh through death, in order to present you holy and faultless and irreproachable in His [the Father’s] presence.

²³ [And this He will do] provided that you continue to ^[s]stay with and in the faith [in Christ], well-grounded and settled and steadfast, not shifting or moving away from the hope [which rests on and is inspired by] the glad tidings (the Gospel), which you heard and which has been preached ^[t][as being designed for and offered without restrictions] to every person under heaven, and of which [Gospel] I, Paul, became a minister.

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44 Yet now hear, O Jacob, My servant and Israel, whom I have chosen.

² Thus says the Lord, Who made you and formed you from the womb, Who will help you: Fear not, O Jacob, My servant, and you Jeshurun [the upright one—applied to Israel as a type of the Messiah], whom I have chosen.

³ For I will pour water upon him who is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour My Spirit upon your offspring, and My blessing upon your descendants.^(A)

⁴ And they shall spring up among the grass like willows or poplars by the watercourses.

⁵ One will say, I am the Lord’s; and another will call himself by the name of Jacob; and another will write [even brand or tattoo] upon his hand, I am the Lord’s, and surname himself by the [honorable] name of Israel.

⁶ Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: I am the First and I am the Last; besides Me there is no God.^(B)

⁷ Who is like Me? Let him [stand and] proclaim it, declare it, and set [his proofs] in order before Me, since I made and established the people of antiquity. [Who has announced from of old] the things that are coming? Then let them declare yet future things.

⁸ Fear not, nor be afraid [in the coming violent upheavals]; have I not told it to you from of old and declared it? And you are My witnesses! Is there a God besides Me? There is no [other] Rock; I know not any.

⁹ All who make graven idols are confusion, chaos, and worthlessness. Their objects (idols) in which they delight do not profit them, and their own witnesses (worshipers) do not see or know, so that they are put to shame.

¹⁰ Who is [such a fool as] to fashion a god or cast a graven image that is profitable for nothing?

¹¹ Behold, all his fellows shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen, [how can they make a god?] they are but men. Let them all be gathered together, let them stand forth; they shall be terrified, they shall be put to shame together.

¹² The ironsmith sharpens and uses a chisel and works it over the coals; he shapes [the core of the idol] with hammers and forges it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint.

¹³ The carpenter stretches out a line, he marks it out with a pencil or red ocher; he fashions [an idol] with planes and marks it out with the compasses; and he shapes it to have the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, that it may dwell in a house.

¹⁴ He hews for himself cedars, and takes the holm tree and the oak and lets them grow strong for himself among the trees of the forest; he plants a fir tree or an ash, and the rain nourishes it.

¹⁵ Then it becomes fuel for a man to burn; a part of it he takes and warms himself, yes, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. [Then out of the remainder, the leavings] he also makes a god and worships it! He [with his own hands] makes it into a graven image and falls down and worships it!

¹⁶ He burns part of the wood in the fire; with part of it he [cooks and] eats flesh, he roasts meat and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire!

¹⁷ And from what is left [of the log] he makes a god, his graven idol. He falls down to it, he worships it and prays to it and says, Deliver me, for you are my god!

¹⁸ They do not know or understand, for their eyes God has let become besmeared so that they cannot see, and their minds as well so that they cannot understand.

¹⁹ And no one considers in his mind, nor has he knowledge and understanding [enough] to say [to himself], I have burned part of this log in the fire, and also I have baked bread on its coals and have roasted meat and eaten it. And shall I make the remainder of it into an abomination [the very essence of what is disgusting, detestable, and shamefully vile in the eyes of a jealous God]? Shall I fall down and worship the stock of a tree [a block of wood without consciousness or life]?

²⁰ That kind of man feeds on ashes [and finds his satisfaction in ashes]! A deluded mind has led him astray, so that he cannot release and save himself, or ask, Is not [this thing I am holding] in my right hand a lie?

²¹ Remember these things [earnestly], O Jacob, O Israel, for you are My servant! I formed you, you are My servant; O Israel, you shall not be forgotten by Me.

²² I have blotted out like a thick cloud your transgressions, and like a cloud your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.

²³ Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it; shout, you depths of the earth; break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest and every tree in it! For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and He glorifies Himself in Israel.

²⁴ Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and He Who formed you from the womb: I am the Lord, Who made all things, Who alone stretched out the heavens, Who spread out the earth by Myself [who was with Me]?—

²⁵ [I am the Lord] Who frustrates the signs and confounds the omens [upon which the false prophets’ forecasts of the future are based] of the [boasting] liars and makes fools of diviners, Who turns the wise backward and makes their knowledge foolishness,^(C)

²⁶ [The Lord] Who confirms the word of His servant and performs the counsel of His messengers, Who says of Jerusalem, She shall [again] be inhabited, and of the cities of Judah, They shall [again] be built, and I will raise up their ruins,

²⁷ Who says to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up your rivers,

²⁸ Who says of Cyrus, He is My shepherd (ruler), and he shall perform all My pleasure and fulfill all My purpose—even saying of Jerusalem, She shall [again] be built, and of the temple, Your foundation shall [again] be laid.

45 Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held to subdue nations before him, and I will unarm and ungird the loins of kings to open doors before him, so that gates will not be shut.

² I will go before you and level the mountains [to make the crooked places straight]; I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut asunder the bars of iron.

³ And I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, Who calls you by your name.

⁴ For the sake of Jacob My servant, and of Israel My chosen, I have called you by your name. I have surnamed you, though you have not known Me.

⁵ I am the Lord, and there is no one else; there is no God besides Me. I will gird and arm you, though you have not known Me,

⁶ That men may know from the east and the rising of the sun and from the west and the setting of the sun that there is no God besides Me. I am the Lord, and no one else [is He].

⁷ I form the light and create darkness, I make peace [national well-being] and I create [physical] ^[a]evil (calamity); I am the Lord, Who does all these things.

⁸ Let fall in showers, you heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down righteousness [the pure, spiritual, heaven-born possibilities that have their foundation in the holy being of God]; let the earth open, and let them [skies and earth] sprout forth salvation, and let righteousness germinate and spring up [as plants do] together; I the Lord have created it.

⁹ Woe to him who strives with his Maker!—a worthless piece of broken pottery among other pieces equally worthless [and yet presuming to strive with his Maker]! Shall the clay say to him who fashions it, What do you think you are making? or, Your work has no handles?^(D)

¹⁰ Woe to him [who complains against his parents that they have begotten him] who says to a father, What are you begetting? or to a woman, With what are you in travail?

¹¹ Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Would you question Me about things to come concerning My children, and concerning the work of My hands [would you] command Me?

¹² I made the earth and created man upon it. I, with My hands, stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.

¹³ I will raise [Cyrus] up in righteousness [willing in every way that which is right and proper], and I will direct all his ways; he will build My city, and he will let My captives go, not for hire or for a bribe, says the Lord of hosts.

¹⁴ Thus says the Lord: The labor and wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Ethiopia and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you and they shall be yours; they shall follow you; in chains [of subjection to you] they shall come over, and they shall fall down before you; they shall make supplication to you, saying, Surely God is with you, and there is no other, no God besides Him.^(E)

¹⁵ Truly You are a God Who hides Himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.

¹⁶ They shall be put to shame, yes, confounded, all of them; they who are makers of idols shall go off into confusion together.

¹⁷ But Israel shall be saved by the Lord with an everlasting salvation; you shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity.^(F)

¹⁸ For thus says the Lord—Who created the heavens, God Himself, Who formed the earth and made it, Who established it and did not create it to be a worthless waste; He formed it to be inhabited—I am the Lord, and there is no one else.

¹⁹ I have not spoken in secret, in a corner of the land of darkness; I did not call the descendants of Jacob [to a fruitless service], saying, Seek Me for nothing [but I promised them a just reward]. I, the Lord, speak righteousness (the truth—trustworthy, straightforward correspondence between deeds and words); I declare things that are right.^(G)

²⁰ Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge who carry about [in religious processions or into battle] their wooden idols and keep on praying to a god that cannot save.

²¹ Declare and bring forward your strong arguments [for praying to gods that cannot save]; yes, take counsel together. Who announced this [the rise of Cyrus and his conquests] beforehand (long ago)? [What god] declared it of old? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, a rigidly and uncompromisingly just and righteous God and Savior; there is none besides Me.

²² Look to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.

²³ I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness and shall not return, that unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear [allegiance].^(H)

²⁴ Only in the Lord shall one say, I have righteousness (salvation and victory) and strength [to achieve]. To Him shall all come who were incensed against Him, and they shall be ashamed.^(I)

²⁵ In the Lord shall all the offspring of Israel be justified (enjoy righteousness, salvation, and victory) and shall glory.