Isaiah 45-50
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Cyrus, God’s Instrument
45 Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,
whose right hand I have grasped
to subdue nations before him
and to strip kings of their robes,
to open doors before him—
and the gates shall not be closed:(A)
2 I will go before you
and level the mountains;[a]
I will break in pieces the doors of bronze
and cut through the bars of iron;(B)
3 I will give you the treasures of darkness
and riches hidden in secret places,
so that you may know that it is I, the Lord,
the God of Israel, who call you by your name.(C)
4 For the sake of my servant Jacob
and Israel my chosen,
I call you by your name;
I give you a title, though you do not know me.(D)
5 I am the Lord, and there is no other;
besides me there is no god.
I arm you, though you do not know me,(E)
6 so that they may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is no one besides me;
I am the Lord, and there is no other.(F)
7 I form light and create darkness,
I make weal and create woe;
I the Lord do all these things.(G)
8 Shower, O heavens, from above,
and let the skies rain down righteousness;
let the earth open, that salvation may spring up,[b]
and let it cause righteousness to sprout up also;
I the Lord have created it.(H)
9 Woe to those who strive with their Maker,
earthen vessels with the potter![c]
Does the clay say to the one who fashions it, “What are you making”?
or “Your work has no handles”?(I)
10 Woe to anyone who says to a father, “What are you fathering?”
or to a woman, “With what are you in labor?”
11 Thus says the Lord,
the Holy One of Israel and its Maker:
Will you question me[d] about my children
or command me concerning the work of my hands?(J)
12 I made the earth
and created humankind upon it;
it was my hands that stretched out the heavens,
and I commanded all their host.(K)
13 I have aroused Cyrus[e] in righteousness,
and I will make all his paths straight;
he shall build my city
and set my exiles free,
not for price or reward,
says the Lord of hosts.(L)
14 Thus says the Lord:
The wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush
and the Sabeans, tall of stature,
shall come over to you and be yours;
they shall follow you;
they shall come over in chains and bow down to you.
They will make supplication to you, saying,
“God is with you alone, and there is no other;
there is no god besides him.”(M)
15 Truly, you are a God who hides himself,
O God of Israel, the Savior.(N)
16 All of them are put to shame and confounded;
the makers of idols go in disgrace together.(O)
17 But Israel is saved by the Lord
with everlasting salvation;
you shall not be put to shame or confounded
ever again.(P)
18 For thus says the Lord,
who created the heavens
(he is God!),
who formed the earth and made it
(he established it;
he did not create it a chaos;
he formed it to be inhabited!):
I am the Lord, and there is no other.(Q)
19 I did not speak in secret
in a land of darkness;
I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,
“Seek me in chaos.”
I the Lord speak the truth;
I declare what is right.(R)
Idols Cannot Save Babylon
20 Assemble yourselves and come together;
draw near, you survivors of the nations!
They have no knowledge—
those who carry about their wooden idols
and keep on praying to a god
that cannot save.(S)
21 Declare and present your case;
take counsel together![f]
Who told this long ago?
Who declared it of old?
Was it not I, the Lord?
There is no other god besides me,
a righteous God and a Savior;
there is no one besides me.(T)
22 Turn to me and be saved,
all the ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.(U)
23 By myself I have sworn;
from my mouth has gone forth in righteousness
a word that shall not return:
“To me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear.”(V)
24 Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me,
are righteousness and strength;
all who were incensed against him
shall come to him and be ashamed.(W)
25 In the Lord all the offspring of Israel
shall triumph and glory.(X)
46 Bel bows down; Nebo stoops;
their idols are on beasts and cattle;
these things you carry are loaded
as burdens on weary animals.(Y)
2 They stoop; they bow down together;
they cannot save the burden
but themselves go into captivity.(Z)
3 Listen to me, O house of Jacob,
all the remnant of the house of Israel,
who have been borne by me from your birth,
carried from the womb;(AA)
4 even to your old age I am he;
even when you turn gray I will carry you.
I have made, and I will bear;
I will carry and will save.(AB)
5 To whom will you liken me and make me equal
and compare me, as though we were alike?(AC)
6 Those who lavish gold from the purse
and weigh out silver in the scales—
they hire a goldsmith, who makes it into a god;
then they fall down and worship!(AD)
7 They lift it to their shoulders; they carry it;
they set it in its place, and it stands there;
it cannot move from its place.
If one cries out to it, it does not answer
or save anyone from trouble.(AE)
8 Remember this and consider;[g]
recall it to mind, you transgressors;(AF)
9 remember the former things of old,
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like me,(AG)
10 declaring the outcome from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, “My purpose shall stand,
and I will fulfill my intention,”(AH)
11 calling a bird of prey from the east,
the man for my purpose from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
I have planned, and I will do it.(AI)
12 Listen to me, you stubborn of heart,
you who are far from deliverance:(AJ)
13 I bring near my deliverance; it is not far off,
and my salvation will not tarry;
I will put salvation in Zion,
for Israel my glory.(AK)
The Humiliation of Babylon
47 Come down and sit in the dust,
virgin daughter Babylon!
Sit on the ground without a throne,
daughter Chaldea!
For you shall no more be called
tender and delicate.(AL)
2 Take the millstones and grind meal;
remove your veil;
strip off your robe; uncover your legs;
pass through the rivers.
3 Your nakedness shall be uncovered,
and your shame shall be seen.
I will take vengeance,
and I will spare no one.[h](AM)
4 Our Redeemer—the Lord of hosts is his name—
is the Holy One of Israel.(AN)
5 Sit in silence, and go into darkness,
daughter Chaldea!
For you shall no more be called
the mistress of kingdoms.(AO)
6 I was angry with my people;
I profaned my heritage;
I gave them into your hand;
you showed them no mercy;
on the aged you made your yoke
exceedingly heavy.(AP)
7 You said, “I shall be mistress forever,”
so that you did not lay these things to heart
or remember their end.(AQ)
8 Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures,
who sit securely,
who say in your heart,
“I am, and there is no one besides me;
I shall not sit as a widow
or know the loss of children”—(AR)
9 both these things shall come upon you
in a moment, in one day:
the loss of children and widowhood
shall come upon you in full measure,
in spite of your many sorceries
and the great power of your enchantments.(AS)
10 You felt secure in your wickedness;
you said, “No one sees me.”
Your wisdom and your knowledge
led you astray,
and you said in your heart,
“I am, and there is no one besides me.”(AT)
11 But evil shall come upon you,
which you cannot charm away;
disaster shall fall upon you,
which you will not be able to ward off,
and ruin shall come on you suddenly,
of which you know nothing.(AU)
12 Stand fast in your enchantments
and your many sorceries,
with which you have labored from your youth;
perhaps you may be able to succeed;
perhaps you may inspire terror.(AV)
13 You are wearied with your many consultations;
let those who study[i] the heavens
stand up and save you,
those who gaze at the stars
and at each new moon predict
what[j] shall befall you.(AW)
14 See, they are like stubble;
the fire consumes them;
they cannot deliver themselves
from the power of the flame.
No coal for warming oneself is this,
no fire to sit before!(AX)
15 Such to you are those with whom you have labored,
who have trafficked with you from your youth;
they all wander about in their own paths;
there is no one to save you.(AY)
God the Creator and Redeemer
48 Hear this, O house of Jacob,
who are called by the name of Israel
and who came forth from the loins[k] of Judah,
who swear by the name of the Lord
and invoke the God of Israel
but not in truth or right.(AZ)
2 For they call themselves after the holy city
and lean on the God of Israel;
the Lord of hosts is his name.(BA)
3 The former things I declared long ago;
they went out from my mouth, and I made them known;
then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.(BB)
4 Because I know that you are obstinate,
and your neck is an iron sinew
and your forehead brass,(BC)
5 I declared them to you from long ago,
before they came to pass I announced them to you,
so that you would not say, “My idol did them;
my carved image and my cast image commanded them.”(BD)
6 You have heard; now see all this;
and will you not declare it?
From this time forward I tell you new things,
hidden things that you have not known.(BE)
7 They are created now, not long ago;
before today you have never heard of them,
so that you could not say, “I already knew them.”
8 You have never heard; you have never known;
from of old your ear has not been opened.
For I knew that you would act very treacherously
and that from birth you were called a rebel.(BF)
9 For my name’s sake I defer my anger;
for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,
so that I may not cut you off.(BG)
10 See, I have refined you but not like[l] silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of adversity.(BH)
11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
for why should my name[m] be profaned?
My glory I will not give to another.(BI)
12 Listen to me, O Jacob,
and Israel, whom I called:
I am he; I am the first,
and I am the last.(BJ)
13 My hand laid the foundation of the earth,
and my right hand spread out the heavens;
when I summon them,
they stand at attention.(BK)
14 Assemble, all of you, and hear!
Who among them has declared these things?
The one the Lord loves shall perform his purpose against Babylon,
and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.(BL)
15 I, even I, have spoken and called him;
I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.(BM)
16 Draw near to me; hear this!
From the beginning I have not spoken in secret;
from the time it came to be I have been there.
And now the Lord God has sent me and his spirit.(BN)
17 Thus says the Lord,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you how to succeed,
who leads you in the way you should go.(BO)
18 O that you had paid attention to my commandments!
Then your prosperity would have been like a river
and your success like the waves of the sea;(BP)
19 your offspring would have been like the sand
and your descendants like its grains;
their name would never be cut off
or destroyed from before me.(BQ)
20 Go out from Babylon; flee from Chaldea;
declare this with a shout of joy; proclaim it;
send it forth to the end of the earth;
say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!”(BR)
21 They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
he made water flow for them from the rock;
he split open the rock, and the water gushed out.(BS)
22 “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”(BT)
The Servant’s Mission
49 Listen to me, O coastlands;
pay attention, you peoples from far away!
The Lord called me before I was born;
while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.(BU)
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword;
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow;
in his quiver he hid me away.(BV)
3 And he said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”(BW)
4 But I said, “I have labored in vain;
I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my cause is with the Lord
and my reward with my God.”(BX)
5 And now the Lord says,
who formed me in the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him,
and that Israel might be gathered to him,
for I am honored in the sight of the Lord,
and my God has become my strength—(BY)
6 he says,
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the survivors of Israel;
I will give you as a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”(BZ)
7 Thus says the Lord,
the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations,
the slave of rulers,
“Kings shall see and stand up;
princes, and they shall prostrate themselves,
because of the Lord, who is faithful,
the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”(CA)
Zion’s Children to Be Brought Home
8 Thus says the Lord:
In a time of favor I have answered you;
on a day of salvation I have helped you;
I have kept you and given you
as a covenant to the people,[n]
to establish the land,
to apportion the desolate heritages,(CB)
9 saying to the prisoners, “Come out,”
to those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves.”
They shall feed along the ways;
on all the bare heights[o] shall be their pasture;(CC)
10 they shall not hunger or thirst,
neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down,
for he who has pity on them will lead them
and by springs of water will guide them.(CD)
11 And I will turn all my mountains into a road,
and my highways shall be raised up.(CE)
12 Look, some shall come from far away,
some from the north and from the west,
and some from the land of Syene.[p](CF)
13 Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;
break forth, O mountains, into singing!
For the Lord has comforted his people
and will have compassion on his suffering ones.(CG)
14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me;
my Lord has forgotten me.”(CH)
15 Can a woman forget her nursing child
or show no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even these might forget,
yet I will not forget you.(CI)
16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are continually before me.(CJ)
17 Your builders outdo your destroyers,[q]
and those who laid you waste go away from you.(CK)
18 Lift up your eyes all around and see;
they all gather; they come to you.
As I live, says the Lord,
you shall put all of them on like an ornament,
and like a bride you shall bind them on.(CL)
19 For your wastelands, your desolate places,
and your devastated land—
now you will be too crowded for your inhabitants,
and those who swallowed you up will be far away.(CM)
20 The children born in the time of your bereavement
will yet say in your hearing:
“The place is too crowded for me;
make room for me to settle.”(CN)
21 Then you will say in your heart,
“Who has borne me these?
I was bereaved and barren,
exiled and put away—
so who has reared these?
I was left all alone—
where, then, have these come from?”(CO)
22 Thus says the Lord God:
I will soon lift up my hand to the nations
and raise my signal to the peoples,
and they shall bring your sons in their bosom,
and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.(CP)
23 Kings shall be your foster fathers
and their queens your nursing mothers.
With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you
and lick the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord;
those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.(CQ)
24 Can the prey be taken from the mighty
or the captives of a tyrant[r] be rescued?
25 But thus says the Lord:
Even the captives of the mighty will be taken,
and the prey of the tyrant will be rescued,
for I will contend with those who contend with you,
and I will save your children.(CR)
26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,
and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine.
Then all flesh shall know
that I am the Lord your Savior
and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.(CS)
50 Thus says the Lord:
Where is your mother’s bill of divorce
with which I dismissed her?
Or which of my creditors is it
to whom I have sold you?
No, because of your sins you were sold,
and for your transgressions your mother was dismissed.(CT)
2 Why was no one there when I came?
Why did no one answer when I called?
Is my arm powerless to redeem?
Or have I no strength to deliver?
By my rebuke I dry up the sea;
I make the rivers a desert,
so that their fish stink for lack of water
and die of thirst.[s](CU)
3 I clothe the heavens with blackness
and make sackcloth their covering.(CV)
The Servant’s Humiliation and Vindication
4 The Lord God has given me
a trained tongue,[t]
that I may know how to sustain
the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens,
wakens my ear
to listen as those who are taught.(CW)
5 The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious;
I did not turn backward.(CX)
6 I gave my back to those who struck me
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face
from insult and spitting.(CY)
7 The Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame;(CZ)
8 he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand in court together.
Who are my adversaries?
Let them confront me.(DA)
9 It is the Lord God who helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
All of them will wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.(DB)
10 Who among you fears the Lord
and obeys the voice of his servant,
who walks in darkness
and has no light,
yet trusts in the name of the Lord
and relies upon his God?(DC)
11 But all of you are kindlers of fire,
lighters of firebrands.[u]
Walk in the flame of your fire
and among the brands that you have kindled!
This is what you shall have from my hand:
you shall lie down in torment.(DD)
Notas al pie
- 45.2 Q ms Gk: MT the swellings
- 45.8 Q ms: MT that they may bring forth salvation
- 45.9 Cn: Heb with the potsherds or with the potters
- 45.11 Cn: Heb Ask me of things to come
- 45.13 Heb him
- 45.21 Syr Vg: Heb let them take counsel
- 46.8 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 47.3 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 47.13 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 47.13 Gk Syr Compare Vg: Heb from what
- 48.1 Cn: Heb waters
- 48.10 Cn: Heb with
- 48.11 Gk OL: Heb for why should it
- 49.8 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 49.9 Or the trails
- 49.12 Q ms: MT Sinim
- 49.17 Or Your children come swiftly; your destroyers
- 49.24 Q ms Syr Vg: MT of a righteous person
- 50.2 Or die on the thirsty ground
- 50.4 Cn: Heb of those who are taught
- 50.11 Syr: Heb you gird yourselves with firebrands
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.