Isaiah 45-49
New King James Version
Cyrus, God’s Instrument
45 “Thus says the Lord to His anointed,
To (A)Cyrus, whose (B)right hand I have [a]held—
(C)To subdue nations before him
And (D)loose the armor of kings,
To open before him the double doors,
So that the gates will not be shut:
2 ‘I will go before you
(E)And[b] make the [c]crooked places straight;
(F)I will break in pieces the gates of bronze
And cut the bars of iron.
3 I will give you the treasures of darkness
And hidden riches of secret places,
(G)That you may know that I, the Lord,
Who (H)call you by your name,
Am the God of Israel.
4 For (I)Jacob My servant’s sake,
And Israel My elect,
I have even called you by your name;
I have named you, though you have not known Me.
5 I (J)am the Lord, and (K)there is no other;
There is no God besides Me.
(L)I will gird you, though you have not known Me,
6 (M)That they may (N)know from the rising of the sun to its setting
That there is none besides Me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other;
7 I form the light and create darkness,
I make peace and (O)create calamity;
I, the Lord, do all these things.’
8 “Rain(P) down, you heavens, from above,
And let the skies pour down righteousness;
Let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation,
And let righteousness spring up together.
I, the Lord, have created it.
9 “Woe to him who strives with (Q)his Maker!
Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth!
(R)Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’
Or shall your handiwork say, ‘He has no hands’?
10 Woe to him who says to his father, ‘What are you begetting?’
Or to the woman, ‘What have you brought forth?’ ”
11 Thus says the Lord,
The Holy One of Israel, and his Maker:
(S)“Ask Me of things to come concerning (T)My sons;
And concerning (U)the work of My hands, you command Me.
12 (V)I have made the earth,
And (W)created man on it.
I—My hands—stretched out the heavens,
And (X)all their host I have commanded.
13 (Y)I have raised him up in righteousness,
And I will [d]direct all his ways;
He shall (Z)build My city
And let My exiles go free,
(AA)Not for price nor reward,”
Says the Lord of hosts.
The Lord, the Only Savior
14 Thus says the Lord:
(AB)“The labor of Egypt and merchandise of Cush
And of the Sabeans, men of stature,
Shall come over to you, and they shall be yours;
They shall walk behind you,
They shall come over (AC)in chains;
And they shall bow down to you.
They will make supplication to you, saying, (AD)‘Surely God is in you,
And there is no other;
(AE)There is no other God.’ ”
15 Truly You are God, (AF)who hide Yourself,
O God of Israel, the Savior!
16 They shall be (AG)ashamed
And also disgraced, all of them;
They shall go in confusion together,
Who are makers of idols.
17 (AH)But Israel shall be saved by the Lord
With an (AI)everlasting salvation;
You shall not be ashamed or (AJ)disgraced
Forever and ever.
18 For thus says the Lord,
(AK)Who created the heavens,
Who is God,
Who formed the earth and made it,
Who has established it,
Who did not create it [e]in vain,
Who formed it to be (AL)inhabited:
(AM)“I am the Lord, and there is no other.
19 I have not spoken in (AN)secret,
In a dark place of the earth;
I did not say to the seed of Jacob,
‘Seek Me [f]in vain’;
(AO)I, the Lord, speak righteousness,
I declare things that are right.
20 “Assemble yourselves and come;
Draw near together,
You who have escaped from the nations.
(AP)They have no knowledge,
Who carry the wood of their carved image,
And pray to a god that cannot save.
21 Tell and bring forth your case;
Yes, let them take counsel together.
(AQ)Who has declared this from ancient time?
Who has told it from that time?
Have not I, the Lord?
(AR)And there is no other God besides Me,
A just God and a Savior;
There is none besides Me.
22 “Look to Me, and be saved,
(AS)All you ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.
23 (AT)I have sworn by Myself;
The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness,
And shall not return,
That to Me every (AU)knee shall bow,
(AV)Every tongue shall take an oath.
24 He shall say,
[g]‘Surely in the Lord I have (AW)righteousness and strength.
To Him men shall come,
And (AX)all shall be ashamed
Who are incensed against Him.
25 (AY)In the Lord all the descendants of Israel
Shall be justified, and (AZ)shall glory.’ ”
Dead Idols and the Living God
46 Bel (BA)bows down, Nebo stoops;
Their idols were on the beasts and on the cattle.
Your carriages were heavily loaded,
(BB)A burden to the weary beast.
2 They stoop, they bow down together;
They could not deliver the burden,
(BC)But have themselves gone into captivity.
3 “Listen to Me, O house of Jacob,
And all the remnant of the house of Israel,
(BD)Who have been upheld by Me from [h]birth,
Who have been carried from the womb:
4 Even to your old age, (BE)I am He,
And even to gray hairs (BF)I will carry you!
I have made, and I will bear;
Even I will carry, and will deliver you.
5 “To(BG) whom will you liken Me, and make Me equal
And compare Me, that we should be alike?
6 (BH)They lavish gold out of the bag,
And weigh silver on the scales;
They hire a (BI)goldsmith, and he makes it a god;
They prostrate themselves, yes, they worship.
7 (BJ)They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it
And set it in its place, and it stands;
From its place it shall not move.
Though (BK)one cries out to it, yet it cannot answer
Nor save him out of his trouble.
8 “Remember this, and [i]show yourselves men;
(BL)Recall to mind, O you transgressors.
9 (BM)Remember the former things of old,
For I am God, and (BN)there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like Me,
10 (BO)Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things that are not yet done,
Saying, (BP)‘My counsel shall stand,
And I will do all My pleasure,’
11 Calling a bird of prey (BQ)from the east,
The man (BR)who executes My counsel, from a far country.
Indeed (BS)I have spoken it;
I will also bring it to pass.
I have purposed it;
I will also do it.
12 “Listen to Me, you (BT)stubborn-hearted,
(BU)Who are far from righteousness:
13 (BV)I bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far off;
My salvation (BW)shall not [j]linger.
And I will place (BX)salvation in Zion,
For Israel My glory.
The Humiliation of Babylon
47 “Come (BY)down and (BZ)sit in the dust,
O virgin daughter of (CA)Babylon;
Sit on the ground without a throne,
O daughter of the Chaldeans!
For you shall no more be called
Tender and [k]delicate.
2 (CB)Take the millstones and grind meal.
Remove your veil,
Take off the skirt,
Uncover the thigh,
Pass through the rivers.
3 (CC)Your nakedness shall be uncovered,
Yes, your shame will be seen;
(CD)I will take vengeance,
And I will not arbitrate with a man.”
4 As for (CE)our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is His name,
The Holy One of Israel.
5 “Sit in (CF)silence, and go into darkness,
O daughter of the Chaldeans;
(CG)For you shall no longer be called
The Lady of Kingdoms.
6 (CH)I was angry with My people;
(CI)I have profaned My inheritance,
And given them into your hand.
You showed them no mercy;
(CJ)On the elderly you laid your yoke very heavily.
7 And you said, ‘I shall be (CK)a lady forever,’
So that you did not (CL)take these things to heart,
(CM)Nor remember the latter end of them.
8 “Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures,
Who dwell securely,
Who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me;
I shall not sit as a widow,
Nor shall I know the loss of children’;
9 But these two things shall come to you
(CN)In a moment, in one day:
The loss of children, and widowhood.
They shall come upon you in their fullness
Because of the multitude of your sorceries,
For the great abundance of your enchantments.
10 “For you have trusted in your wickedness;
You have said, ‘No one (CO)sees me’;
Your wisdom and your knowledge have [l]warped you;
And you have said in your heart,
‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’
11 Therefore evil shall come upon you;
You shall not know from where it arises.
And trouble shall fall upon you;
You will not be able [m]to put it off.
And (CP)desolation shall come upon you (CQ)suddenly,
Which you shall not know.
12 “Stand now with your enchantments
And the multitude of your sorceries,
In which you have labored from your youth—
Perhaps you will be able to profit,
Perhaps you will prevail.
13 (CR)You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels;
Let now (CS)the[n] astrologers, the stargazers,
And [o]the monthly prognosticators
Stand up and save you
From what shall come upon you.
14 Behold, they shall be (CT)as stubble,
The fire shall (CU)burn them;
They shall not deliver themselves
From the power of the flame;
It shall not be a coal to be warmed by,
Nor a fire to sit before!
15 Thus shall they be to you
With whom you have labored,
(CV)Your merchants from your youth;
They shall wander each one to his [p]quarter.
No one shall save you.
Israel Refined for God’s Glory
48 “Hear this, O house of Jacob,
Who are called by the name of Israel,
And have come forth from the wellsprings of Judah;
Who swear by the name of the Lord,
And make mention of the God of Israel,
But (CW)not in truth or in righteousness;
2 For they call themselves (CX)after the holy city,
And (CY)lean on the God of Israel;
The Lord of hosts is His name:
3 “I have (CZ)declared the former things from the beginning;
They went forth from My mouth, and I caused them to hear it.
Suddenly I did them, (DA)and they came to pass.
4 Because I knew that you were [q]obstinate,
And (DB)your neck was an iron sinew,
And your brow bronze,
5 Even from the beginning I have declared it to you;
Before it came to pass I proclaimed it to you,
Lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them,
And my carved image and my molded image
Have commanded them.’
6 “You have heard;
See all this.
And will you not declare it?
I have made you hear new things from this time,
Even hidden things, and you did not know them.
7 They are created now and not from the beginning;
And before this day you have not heard them,
Lest you should say, ‘Of course I knew them.’
8 Surely you did not hear,
Surely you did not know;
Surely from long ago your ear was not opened.
For I knew that you would deal very treacherously,
And were called (DC)a transgressor from the womb.
9 “For(DD) My name’s sake (DE)I will [r]defer My anger,
And for My praise I will restrain it from you,
So that I do not cut you off.
10 Behold, (DF)I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have tested you in the (DG)furnace of affliction.
11 For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it;
For (DH)how should My name be profaned?
And (DI)I will not give My glory to another.
God’s Ancient Plan to Redeem Israel
12 “Listen to Me, O Jacob,
And Israel, My called:
I am He, (DJ)I am the (DK)First,
I am also the Last.
13 Indeed (DL)My hand has laid the foundation of the earth,
And My right hand has stretched out the heavens;
When (DM)I call to them,
They stand up together.
14 “All of you, assemble yourselves, and hear!
Who among them has declared these things?
(DN)The Lord loves him;
(DO)He shall do His pleasure on Babylon,
And His arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
15 I, even I, have spoken;
Yes, (DP)I have called him,
I have brought him, and his way will prosper.
16 “Come near to Me, hear this:
(DQ)I have not spoken in secret from the beginning;
From the time that it was, I was there.
And now (DR)the Lord God and His Spirit
[s]Have sent Me.”
17 Thus says (DS)the Lord, your Redeemer,
The Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God,
Who teaches you to profit,
(DT)Who leads you by the way you should go.
18 (DU)Oh, that you had heeded My commandments!
(DV)Then your peace would have been like a river,
And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
19 (DW)Your descendants also would have been like the sand,
And the offspring of your body like the grains of sand;
His name would not have been cut off
Nor destroyed from before Me.”
20 (DX)Go forth from Babylon!
Flee from the Chaldeans!
With a voice of singing,
Declare, proclaim this,
Utter it to the end of the earth;
Say, “The Lord has (DY)redeemed
His servant Jacob!”
21 And they (DZ)did not thirst
When He led them through the deserts;
He (EA)caused the waters to flow from the rock for them;
He also split the rock, and the waters gushed out.
22 “There(EB) is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”
The Servant, the Light to the Gentiles
49 “Listen, (EC)O coastlands, to Me,
And take heed, you peoples from afar!
(ED)The Lord has called Me from the womb;
From the [t]matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name.
2 And He has made (EE)My mouth like a sharp sword;
(EF)In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me,
And made Me (EG)a polished shaft;
In His quiver He has hidden Me.”
3 “And He said to me,
(EH)‘You are My servant, O Israel,
(EI)In whom I will be glorified.’
4 (EJ)Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain;
Yet surely my [u]just reward is with the Lord,
And my [v]work with my God.’ ”
5 “And now the Lord says,
Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To bring Jacob back to Him,
So that Israel (EK)is [w]gathered to Him
(For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord,
And My God shall be My strength),
6 Indeed He says,
‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also give You as a (EL)light to the Gentiles,
That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”
7 Thus says the Lord,
The Redeemer of Israel, [x]their Holy One,
(EM)To Him [y]whom man despises,
To Him whom the nation abhors,
To the Servant of rulers:
(EN)“Kings shall see and arise,
Princes also shall worship,
Because of the Lord who is faithful,
The Holy One of Israel;
And He has chosen You.”
8 Thus says the Lord:
“In an (EO)acceptable[z] time I have heard You,
And in the day of salvation I have helped You;
I will [aa]preserve You (EP)and give You
As a covenant to the people,
To restore the earth,
To cause them to inherit the desolate [ab]heritages;
9 That You may say (EQ)to the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’
To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’
“They shall feed along the roads,
And their pastures shall be on all desolate heights.
10 They shall neither (ER)hunger nor thirst,
(ES)Neither heat nor sun shall strike them;
For He who has mercy on them (ET)will lead them,
Even by the springs of water He will guide them.
11 (EU)I will make each of My mountains a road,
And My highways shall be elevated.
12 Surely (EV)these shall come from afar;
Look! Those from the north and the west,
And these from the land of Sinim.”
13 (EW)Sing, O heavens!
Be joyful, O earth!
And break out in singing, O mountains!
For the Lord has comforted His people,
And will have mercy on His afflicted.
God Will Remember Zion
14 (EX)But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,
And my Lord has forgotten me.”
15 “Can(EY) a woman forget her nursing child,
[ac]And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
(EZ)Yet I will not forget you.
16 See, (FA)I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
Your walls are continually before Me.
17 Your [ad]sons shall make haste;
Your destroyers and those who laid you waste
Shall go away from you.
18 (FB)Lift up your eyes, look around and see;
All these gather together and come to you.
As I live,” says the Lord,
“You shall surely clothe yourselves with them all (FC)as an ornament,
And bind them on you as a bride does.
19 “For your waste and desolate places,
And the land of your destruction,
(FD)Will even now be too small for the inhabitants;
And those who swallowed you up will be far away.
20 (FE)The children you will have,
(FF)After you have lost the others,
Will say again in your ears,
‘The place is too small for me;
Give me a place where I may dwell.’
21 Then you will say in your heart,
‘Who has begotten these for me,
Since I have lost my children and am desolate,
A captive, and wandering to and fro?
And who has brought these up?
There I was, left alone;
But these, where were they?’ ”
22 (FG)Thus says the Lord God:
“Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations,
And set up My [ae]standard for the peoples;
They shall bring your sons in their [af]arms,
And your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders;
23 (FH)Kings shall be your foster fathers,
And their queens your nursing mothers;
They shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth,
And (FI)lick up the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord,
(FJ)For they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.”
25 But thus says the Lord:
“Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away,
And the prey of the terrible be delivered;
For I will contend with him who contends with you,
And I will save your children.
26 I will (FL)feed those who oppress you with their own flesh,
And they shall be drunk with their own (FM)blood as with sweet wine.
All flesh (FN)shall know
That I, the Lord, am your Savior,
And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
Footnotes
- Isaiah 45:1 strengthened or sustained
- Isaiah 45:2 Tg. I will trample down the walls; Vg. I will humble the great ones of the earth
- Isaiah 45:2 DSS, LXX mountains
- Isaiah 45:13 Or make all his ways straight
- Isaiah 45:18 Or empty, a waste
- Isaiah 45:19 Or in a waste place
- Isaiah 45:24 Or Only in the Lord are all righteousness and strength
- Isaiah 46:3 Lit. the belly
- Isaiah 46:8 be men, take courage
- Isaiah 46:13 delay
- Isaiah 47:1 dainty
- Isaiah 47:10 led you astray
- Isaiah 47:11 Lit. to cover it or atone for it
- Isaiah 47:13 Lit. viewers of the heavens
- Isaiah 47:13 Lit. those giving knowledge for new moons
- Isaiah 47:15 own side or way
- Isaiah 48:4 Heb. hard
- Isaiah 48:9 delay
- Isaiah 48:16 Heb. verb is sing.; or Has sent Me and His Spirit
- Isaiah 49:1 Lit. inward parts
- Isaiah 49:4 justice
- Isaiah 49:4 recompense
- Isaiah 49:5 Qr., DSS, LXX gathered to Him; Kt. not gathered
- Isaiah 49:7 Lit. his or its
- Isaiah 49:7 Lit. who is despised of soul
- Isaiah 49:8 favorable
- Isaiah 49:8 keep
- Isaiah 49:8 inheritances
- Isaiah 49:15 Lit. From having compassion
- Isaiah 49:17 DSS, LXX, Tg., Vg. builders
- Isaiah 49:22 banner
- Isaiah 49:22 Lit. bosom
- Isaiah 49:24 So with MT, Tg.; DSS, Syr., Vg. of the mighty; LXX unjustly
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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