Beginning
Chapter 42
The Mission of the Servant[a]
1 Here is my servant whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom my soul delights.
I have put my Spirit upon him;
he will establish justice among the nations.
2 He will not cry out or shout
or make his voice heard in the street.
3 He will not break a bruised reed,
nor will he snuff out a smoldering wick;
faithfully he will establish justice.
4 He will not falter or become discouraged
until he has established justice upon the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his teaching.
5 Thus says God, the Lord,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who fashioned the earth and all that grows in it,
who gives breath to the people who dwell on it
and spirit to those who walk upon it:
6 I, the Lord, have called you for a righteous purpose;
I have taken you by the hand.
I have formed you and established you
to be a covenant to the people
and a light to the nations,
7 to open the eyes of the blind,
and to lead captives out of prison,
and to release from the dungeon
those who live in darkness.
8 I am the Lord; that is my name.
My glory I do not grant to another,
nor my praise to idols.
9 Behold, the earlier prophecies have come to pass,
and now I will reveal new things.
Before they actually occur,
I will announce them to you.
Israel Saved despite Its Sins
10 Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise from the ends of the earth.
Let the sea resound and all that fills it,
the coastlands and all its inhabitants.
11 Let the desert and its towns rejoice,
the villages where Kedar[b] dwells.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy;
let them shout from the top of the mountains.
12 Let them all give glory to God
and sing his praise in the coastlands.
13 The Lord marches forth like a hero;
like a warrior he stirs up his fury.
He shouts forth his battle cry
and triumphs against his foes.[c]
14 For a long time I have restrained myself;
I have maintained my silence and held my peace.
Now I will cry out like a woman in labor,
gasping and panting.
15 I will lay waste mountains and hills
and dry up all their vegetation.
I will convert rivers into islands
and dry up the pools.
16 I will lead the blind[d]
and guide them along paths they do not know.
I will turn darkness into light before them
and make straight their winding roads.
These are the things I will do for them,
and I will not forsake them.
17 But those who place their trust in idols
and who say to carved images,
“You are our gods,”
will be turned back in bitter shame.
18 You who are deaf, listen!
You who are blind, look and see!
19 Who is so blind as my servant,
or so deaf as the messenger I send?
Who is so blind as the one dedicated to my service,
or so deaf as the servant of the Lord?
20 You have seen many things without comprehending them;
your ears are open but you do not hear.
21 For the sake of his justice the Lord was pleased
to make his law great and glorious.
22 But this is a people despoiled and plundered,
all of them trapped in holes
and hidden away in dungeons.
They have been pillaged with no one to rescue them;
they are plundered with no one to demand their release.
23 Who among you will pay heed to this?
Who will pay attention and listen in the future?
24 Who handed over Jacob to be plundered,
who gave up Israel to be despoiled?
Was it not the Lord,
against whom we have sinned?
They refused to walk in his ways,
and they would not obey his laws.
25 Therefore, he poured out upon them
his blazing anger and the fury of battle.
It enveloped them in flames,
but they did not understand,
it burned them,
but they did not take it to heart.
Chapter 43
Redemption and Restoration Promised
1 But now this is the word of the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
and formed you, O Israel.
Have no fear, for I have redeemed you.
I have called you by name; you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
nor will the waters engulf you.
When you walk through fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not consume you.
3 For I am the Lord, your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba[e] in exchange for you.
4 Because in my eyes you are precious,
because you are honored and I love you,
I will give people in exchange for you
and nations in return for your life.
5 Do not be afraid, for I am with you.
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you.
6 I will say to the north, “Give them up,”
and to the south, “Do not hold them back.”
Bring back my sons from afar
and my daughters from the ends of the earth—
7 everyone who bears my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.
8 Bring forth my people,
those who have eyes yet are blind,
those who have ears yet are deaf.
9 Let all the nations gather together
and let the peoples assemble.
Who among them foretold this
and proclaimed to us former events?
Let them produce witnesses to prove themselves right;
let those who hear them say, “It is true!”
10 You are my witnesses, says the Lord,
and my servants whom I have chosen,
so that you may know and believe in me
and understand that it is I.
No god was formed before me,
nor will there be any after me.
11 I am the Lord,
and there is no other savior but me.
12 I have revealed and saved and proclaimed,
and not some strange god among you;
you are my witnesses to this, says the Lord.
13 I am God, and from eternity I am he;
no one can deliver from my hand;
no one can overrule or alter what I do.
14 Thus says the Lord, your redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel:
For your sake I will send an army to Babylon
to uproot all the prison bars,
and the triumphant shouts of the Chaldeans
will turn to cries of lamentation.
15 I am the Lord, your Holy One,
the Creator of Israel, your king.
16 Thus says the Lord,
who opened a way through the sea,
a path through raging waters,
17 who led out chariots and horsemen
and an army of formidable strength,
until the enemy lay prostrate, unable to rise,
extinguished and snuffed out like a wick.
18 Do not linger thinking about events of the past;
consider not the things of old.
19 I am about to do something new.
Now it comes to fruition;
can you not perceive it?
I will make a path through the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.
20 The wild beasts will honor me,
the jackals and the ostriches,
because I will provide water in the desert
and rivers in the wasteland
where my chosen people may drink,
21 the people whom I formed for myself
so that they may proclaim my praise.
22 Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob;
you grew weary of me, O Israel.
23 You have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings
or honored me with your sacrifices.
I have not exacted grain offerings from you
or wearied you with demands for incense.
24 You have not purchased aromatic cane for me
or sated me with the fat of your sacrifices.
Rather, you have burdened me with your sins;
you have wearied me with your crimes.
25 I, I alone, am the one
who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,
and I will remember your sins no more.
26 If you choose to review the past,
let us go to trial;
state your defense and prove your innocence.
27 Your first ancestor sinned,
and your spokesmen rebelled against me.
28 Therefore, I expelled the leaders of the sanctuary,
placing Jacob under the curse of destruction
and subjecting Israel to scorn.
Chapter 44
1 Now listen to me, O Jacob, my servant,
Israel whom I have chosen.
2 Thus says the Lord who made you,
who formed you in the womb
and will continue to help you:
Do not fear, O Jacob, my servant,
Jeshurun[f] whom I have chosen.
3 For I will pour down rain on the thirsty land
and open up streams on the dry ground.
I will pour out my Spirit upon your offspring
and my blessing upon your descendants.
4 They will spring up amid the grass
like willows besides flowing waters.
5 One person will say, “I am the Lord’s,”
while another will call himself a son of Jacob.
And on his hand still another will write “The Lord’s,”
and adopt Israel as a surname.
The One True God and False Gods
6 Thus says the Lord, the Lord Almighty,
Israel’s king and redeemer:
I am the first and I am the last;
there is no god but me.
7 Who is like me? Let him stand up and speak.
Let him declare it and set forth his evidence.
Who in the past has foretold future events?
Let him foretell to us what is yet to occur.
8 Do not fear or be afraid.
Did I not proclaim all this
and foretell it long ago?
You are my witnesses in this regard.
Is there any god besides me?
There is no other Rock;
I am aware of none.
9 All those who make idols amount to nothing, and the images in which they take such pride profit no one. Their witnesses are blind and ignorant, and therefore they become objects of scorn. 10 Who would waste his time in fashioning a god or casting an image that will serve no purpose? 11 All who believe in their power will be put to shame, as will the craftsmen who fashioned them. Let them all assemble and approach me with terror and with shame.
12 The blacksmith fashions an ax over the coals, shaping it with hammers and forging it with his strong arm. Then he becomes hungry and his strength fails, and he becomes exhausted because he has not consumed any water.
13 The woodworker measures with a line and marks out an outline with a stylus. He shapes it with a plane and marks it with a compass. Then he carves it into the shape of a man, comely in appearance and dignity, to be placed in a shrine.
14 He also cuts down cedars or chooses a cypress or an oak that he has allowed to grow strong among the other trees of the forest, and a pine tree that he had planted and the rain has nourished. 15 When such trees are suitable to burn, he can use some of them to keep warm or to bake bread, but with others he fashions a god and worships it, shaping it into an idol and bowing down before it.
16 Half of the trees he uses to burn in the fire to roast meat which he eats and is satisfied, while at the same time he warms himself and says, “Ah, how warm I am from the heat of the fire.” 17 With the remainder he fashions a god, an idol before which he bows down and offers worship. He prays to it and says, “Save me, for you are my god.”
18 Such idols possess neither knowledge nor understanding, for their eyes are shut so that they cannot see, and their minds are incapable of reasoning. 19 Yet such a workman does not have the wisdom or the discernment to reflect, “Half of the wood I have burned in the fire, and I also used its embers to bake bread and to roast meat which I ate. Does it make sense to fashion an abomination with the remainder? Am I right to worship a block of wood?” 20 He feeds on ashes. His deluded mind has led him astray, and he cannot save himself. He will not admit to himself, “What I have in my hand is a fraud.”
21 Remember these things, O Lord,
and you also, O Israel,
for you are my servant.
I fashioned you to be my servant;
O Israel, I will never forget you.
22 I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud
and your sins like a mist.
Return to me,
for I have redeemed you.
23 Shout in triumphant joy, O heavens,
for the Lord has done this;
shout aloud, O depths of the earth.
Break forth into song, you mountains,
you forests, with all your trees.
For the Lord has redeemed Jacob
and displayed his glory in Israel.
24 Thus says the Lord, your redeemer,
who formed you in the womb:
I am the Lord who made all things;
by myself I stretched out the heavens
by myself I spread out the earth.
25 I frustrate the omens of false prophets
and make fools of diviners.
I confound wise men
and reveal the foolishness of their thoughts.
26 I confirm the words of my servants
and carry out the plans revealed by my messengers.
I say to Jerusalem, You will be inhabited,
and to the cities of Judah, You will be rebuilt.
I will raise up their ruins.
27 I say to the deep waters, Become dry;
I will dry up your rivers.
28 I say to Cyrus, You will be my shepherd,
and he will carry out my every wish,
so that Jerusalem will be rebuilt
and the foundations of the temple will be laid.
Copyright © 2019 by Catholic Book Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.