²⁴ This is what the Lord, your Redeemer,
the Lord who formed you from the womb, says.
    I am the Lord, the one who does all things,
    who stretched out the heavens by myself,
    who hammered out the earth.
    (Who was with me then?)
²⁵     I frustrate the signs of the deceivers
    and make fools of the fortune tellers.^[a]
    I overturn the wisdom of the wise
    and turn their knowledge into foolishness.

²⁶ He is the one who fulfills the word of his servants,
who completes the plan announced by his messengers,
who says about Jerusalem, “It will be inhabited,”
and about the cities of Judah, “They will be rebuilt,
and I will raise up their ruins.”
²⁷ He is the one who says to the deep ocean, “Dry up,”
the one who says, “I will dry up your rivers.”
²⁸ He is the one who says about Cyrus, “He is my shepherd,
and he will complete everything I desire.”
He is the one who says about Jerusalem, “It will be rebuilt,”
and who says to the temple, “Your foundations will be laid.”