Isaiah 44

New King James Version

God’s Blessing on Israel

44 “Yet hear now, O Jacob My servant,
And Israel whom I have chosen.
²Thus 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, whom I have chosen.
³For I will pour water on him who is thirsty,
And floods on the dry ground;
I will pour My Spirit on your descendants,
And My blessing on your offspring;
⁴They will spring up among the grass
Like willows by the watercourses.’
⁵One will say, ‘I am the Lord’s’;
Another will call himself by the name of Jacob;
Another will write with his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’
And name himself by the name of Israel.

There Is No Other God

⁶“Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel,
And his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
^(A)‘I am the First and I am the Last;
Besides Me there is no God.
⁷And ^(B)who can proclaim as I do?
Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me,
Since I appointed the ancient people.
And the things that are coming and shall come,
Let them show these to them.
⁸Do not fear, nor be afraid;
^(C)Have I not told you from that time, and declared it?
^(D)You are My witnesses.
Is there a God besides Me?
Indeed ^(E)there is no other Rock;
I know not one.’ ”

Idolatry Is Foolishness

⁹^(F)Those who make an image, all of them are useless,
And their precious things shall not profit;
They are their own witnesses;
^(G)They neither see nor know, that they may be ashamed.
¹⁰Who would form a god or mold an image
^(H)That profits him nothing?
¹¹Surely all his companions would be ^(I)ashamed;
And the workmen, they are mere men.
Let them all be gathered together,
Let them stand up;
Yet they shall fear,
They shall be ashamed together.

¹²^(J)The blacksmith with the tongs works one in the coals,
Fashions it with hammers,
And works it with the strength of his arms.
Even so, he is hungry, and his strength fails;
He drinks no water and is faint.

¹³The craftsman stretches out his rule,
He marks one out with chalk;
He fashions it with a plane,
He marks it out with the compass,
And makes it like the figure of a man,
According to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house.
¹⁴He cuts down cedars for himself,
And takes the cypress and the oak;
He ^[a]secures it for himself among the trees of the forest.
He plants a pine, and the rain nourishes it.

¹⁵Then it shall be for a man to burn,
For he will take some of it and warm himself;
Yes, he kindles it and bakes bread;
Indeed he makes a god and worships it;
He makes it a carved image, and falls down to it.
¹⁶He burns half of it in the fire;
With this half he eats meat;
He roasts a roast, and is satisfied.
He even warms himself and says,
“Ah! I am warm,
I have seen the fire.”
¹⁷And the rest of it he makes into a god,
His carved image.
He falls down before it and worships it,
Prays to it and says,
“Deliver me, for you are my god!”

¹⁸^(K)They do not know nor understand;
For ^(L)He has ^[b]shut their eyes, so that they cannot see,
And their hearts, so that they cannot ^(M)understand.
¹⁹And no one ^(N)considers in his heart,
Nor is there knowledge nor understanding to say,
“I have burned half of it in the fire,
Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals;
I have roasted meat and eaten it;
And shall I make the rest of it an abomination?
Shall I fall down before a block of wood?”
²⁰He feeds on ashes;
^(O)A deceived heart has turned him aside;
And he cannot deliver his soul,
Nor say, “Is there not a ^(P)lie in my right hand?”

Israel Is Not Forgotten

²¹“Remember these, O Jacob,
And Israel, for you are My servant;
I have formed you, you are My servant;
O Israel, you will not be ^(Q)forgotten by Me!
²²^(R)I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions,
And like a cloud, your sins.
Return to Me, for ^(S)I have redeemed you.”

²³^(T)Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it!
Shout, you lower parts of the earth;
Break forth into singing, you mountains,
O forest, and every tree in it!
For the Lord has redeemed Jacob,
And ^(U)glorified Himself in Israel.

Judah Will Be Restored

²⁴Thus says the Lord, ^(V)your Redeemer,
And ^(W)He who formed you from the womb:
“I am the Lord, who makes all things,
^(X)Who stretches out the heavens ^[c]all alone,
Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself;
²⁵Who ^(Y)frustrates the signs ^(Z)of the babblers,
And drives diviners mad;
Who turns wise men backward,
^(AA)And makes their knowledge foolishness;
²⁶^(AB)Who confirms the word of His servant,
And performs the counsel of His messengers;
Who says to Jerusalem, ‘You shall be inhabited,’
To the cities of Judah, ‘You shall be built,’
And I will raise up her waste places;
²⁷^(AC)Who says to the deep, ‘Be dry!
And I will dry up your rivers’;
²⁸Who says of ^(AD)Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd,
And he shall perform all My pleasure,
Saying to Jerusalem, ^(AE)“You shall be built,”
And to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.” ’

Footnotes

Isaiah 44:14 Lit. appropriates
Isaiah 44:18 Lit. smeared over
Isaiah 44:24 By Himself

Isaiah 59

New King James Version

Separated from God

59 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not ^(A)shortened,
That it cannot save;
Nor His ear heavy,
That it cannot hear.
²But your iniquities have separated you from your God;
And your sins have hidden His face from you,
So that He will ^(B)not hear.
³For ^(C)your hands are defiled with ^[a]blood,
And your fingers with iniquity;
Your lips have spoken lies,
Your tongue has muttered perversity.

⁴No one calls for justice,
Nor does any plead for truth.
They trust in ^(D)empty words and speak lies;
^(E)They conceive ^[b]evil and bring forth iniquity.
⁵They hatch vipers’ eggs and weave the spider’s web;
He who eats of their eggs dies,
And from that which is crushed a viper breaks out.

⁶^(F)Their webs will not become garments,
Nor will they cover themselves with their works;
Their works are works of iniquity,
And the act of violence is in their hands.
⁷^(G)Their feet run to evil,
And they make haste to shed ^(H)innocent blood;
^(I)Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
Wasting and ^(J)destruction are in their paths.
⁸The way of ^(K)peace they have not known,
And there is no justice in their ways;
^(L)They have made themselves crooked paths;
Whoever takes that way shall not know peace.

Sin Confessed

⁹Therefore justice is far from us,
Nor does righteousness overtake us;
^(M)We look for light, but there is darkness!
For brightness, but we walk in blackness!
¹⁰^(N)We grope for the wall like the blind,
And we grope as if we had no eyes;
We stumble at noonday as at twilight;
We are as dead men in desolate places.
¹¹We all growl like bears,
And ^(O)moan sadly like doves;
We look for justice, but there is none;
For salvation, but it is far from us.
¹²For our ^(P)transgressions are multiplied before You,
And our sins testify against us;
For our transgressions are with us,
And as for our iniquities, we know them:
¹³In transgressing and lying against the Lord,
And departing from our God,
Speaking oppression and revolt,
Conceiving and uttering ^(Q)from the heart words of falsehood.
¹⁴Justice is turned back,
And righteousness stands afar off;
For truth is fallen in the street,
And equity cannot enter.
¹⁵So truth fails,
And he who departs from evil makes himself a ^(R)prey.

The Redeemer of Zion

Then the Lord saw it, and ^[c]it displeased Him
That there was no justice.
¹⁶^(S)He saw that there was no man,
And ^(T)wondered that there was no intercessor;
^(U)Therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him;
And His own righteousness, it sustained Him.
¹⁷^(V)For He put on righteousness as a breastplate,
And a helmet of salvation on His head;
He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing,
And was clad with zeal as a cloak.
¹⁸^(W)According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay,
Fury to His adversaries,
Recompense to His enemies;
The coastlands He will fully repay.
¹⁹^(X)So shall they fear
The name of the Lord from the west,
And His glory from the rising of the sun;
When the enemy comes in ^(Y)like a flood,
The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.

²⁰“The^(Z) Redeemer will come to Zion,
And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,”
Says the Lord.

²¹“As^(AA) for Me,” says the Lord, “this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” says the Lord, “from this time and forevermore.”