Beginning

45 Thus says the LORD to Cyrus, His anointed, whose right hand I have strengthened to subdue nations before him, and I will weaken the loins of kings, and open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut:

² “I will go before you, and make the crooked straight. I will break the bronze doors and burst the iron bars.

³ “And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and the things hidden in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, Who calls you by your name, even the God of Israel.

⁴ “For Jacob, My servant’s, sake, and Israel, My elect, I will call you by your name, and name you, though you have not known Me.

⁵ “I am the LORD, and there is no other. There is no God besides Me. I girded you, though you have not known Me,

⁶ “so that they may know from the rising of the Sun, and from the west, 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 create misery. I, the LORD, do all these things.

⁸ “You heavens send the dew from above, and let the clouds drop down righteousness. Let the Earth open, and let salvation and justice grow forth. Let it bring them forth together. I, the LORD, have created it.

⁹ “Woe be to him who strives with his Maker, the potsherd with the potsherds of the Earth. Shall the clay say to him who fashions it, ‘What do you make?’ or, ‘Your work, it has no hands’?

¹⁰ “Woe to him who says to his father, ‘What have you begotten?’ or to his mother, ‘What have you brought forth?’”

¹¹ Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: “Ask Me of things to come concerning My sons, and command concerning the works of My Hands.

¹² “I have made the Earth and created man upon it. I, whose Hands have spread out the heavens, I have even commanded all their army.

¹³ “I have raised him up in righteousness and I will direct all his ways. He shall build my city and he shall let my captives go, without price or reward,” says the LORD of Hosts.

¹⁴ Thus says the LORD: “The labor of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come to you. And they shall be yours. They shall follow you, shall go in chains. They shall fall down before you and make supplication to you, saying, ‘Surely God is in you, and there is no other god besides.’”

¹⁵ Truly, You, O God, hide Yourself, O God, the Savior of Israel.

¹⁶ All they shall be ashamed, and also confounded. Those who are the makers of images shall go to confusion together.

¹⁷ Israel shall be saved in the LORD, with an everlasting salvation. You shall not be ashamed or confounded, forever and ever.

¹⁸ For thus says the LORD (Who created Heaven. God Himself—Who formed the Earth and made it—He Who prepared it. He did not create it to be empty. He formed it to be inhabited): “I am the LORD, and there is no other.

¹⁹ “I have not spoken in secret, or in a place of darkness, on the Earth. I did not say meaninglessly to the seed of Jacob, ‘Seek Me’. I, the LORD, speak righteousness and declare righteous things.

²⁰ “Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, you fugitives from the Gentiles. Those who set up the wood of their idol, and pray to a god that cannot save them, have no knowledge.

²¹ “Tell, and bring them. And let them take counsel together. Who has declared this from the beginning, has told it long ago? Have not I, the LORD? And there is no other god besides Me, a just God and a Savior. There is none besides Me.

²² Look to Me, and you shall be saved. All the ends of the Earth shall be saved. for I am God, and there is no other.

²³ “I have sworn by Myself. The Word has gone out of My Mouth in righteousness and shall not return, so that every knee shall bow to Me. Every tongue shall swear.

²⁴ “Surely, he shall say, ‘In the LORD I have righteousness and strength.’ He shall come to him. And all who are angry with Him shall be ashamed.

²⁵ “The whole seed of Israel shall be justified and glory in the LORD.”

46 Bel has bowed down. Nebo falls. Their idols were upon their beasts, and upon the cattle. Those who bore you were laden with a weary burden.

² They have bowed down, fallen together, for they could not rid themselves of the burden. And their soul has gone into captivity.

³ “Hear Me, O House of Jacob, and all who remain from the House of Israel, who are born of Me from the womb and brought up by Me from birth.

⁴ “Even to old age, I am the same. I will bear you until the hoary hairs. I have made you. I will also bear you, and I will carry you, and I will deliver you.

⁵ “Whom will you make Me like, or make me equal to, or compare me to, so that I would be like him?

⁶ “They draw gold out of the bag and weigh silver in the balance, hire a goldsmith to make a god of it. They bow down and worship it.

⁷ “They bear it upon their shoulders. They carry him and set him in his place. So he stands, and cannot leave his place. Though one cries to him, yet he cannot answer or deliver him out of his tribulation.

⁸ “Remember this and be ashamed. Bring it back to mind, O you transgressors.

⁹ “Remember the former things from long ago. For I am God. And there is no other God. And there is nothing like Me,

¹⁰ “Who declares the last thing from the beginning, and things long ago that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand. And I will do whatever I will.’

¹¹ “I call a bird from the east, and the man of My counsel from afar. As I have spoken, so will I bring it to pass. I have determined it and I will do it.

¹² “Hear Me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from justice!

¹³ “I bring near My justice. It shall not be far off. And My salvation shall not delay. For I will give salvation in Zion, and My Glory to Israel.”

47 “Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter, Babel! Sit on the ground! There is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no longer be called, ‘tender’ and ‘delicate’.

² “Take the millstones and grind meal. Loosen your veil. Make your feet bare. Uncover your leg. Pass through the rivers.

³ “Your filthiness shall be uncovered, and your shame shall be seen. I will take vengeance, and I will not meet you as a man.”

⁴ Our Redeemer is the LORD of Hosts. His Name: The Holy One of Israel.

⁵ “Sit still and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For no more shall you be called, ‘The Lady of Kingdoms’.

⁶ “I was angry with My people: I have polluted My inheritance and given them into your hand. You showed them no mercy, but you laid your very heavy yoke upon the aged.

⁷ “And you said, ‘I shall be a lady forever’, so that you did not set your mind to these things, nor did you remember their end result.

⁸ “Hear now, therefore, you who are given to pleasures and dwells securely. She says in her heart, ‘I am and no one else. I shall not sit as a widow, nor shall I know the loss of children.’

⁹ “But these two things shall come to you suddenly on one day: the loss of children and widowhood. They shall come upon you in their perfection, for the multitude of your divinations, and for the great abundance of your enchanters.

¹⁰ “For you have trusted in your wickedness. You have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and your knowledge, they have caused you to rebel. And you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and no one else.’

¹¹ “Therefore, misery shall come upon you. And you shall not know its morning. Destruction shall fall upon you, which you shall not be able to put away. Destruction shall come upon you suddenly, you not being aware.

¹² “Stand, now, among your enchanters, and in the multitude of your soothsayers (with whom you have wearied yourself from your youth) if so be you may have profit, or if so be you may have strength.

¹³ “You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels. Now let the astrologers, the stargazers, and prognosticators stand up and save you from these things that shall come upon you.

¹⁴ “Behold, they shall be as stubble. The fire shall burn them. They shall not deliver their own lives from the power of the flame. There shall be no coals at which to warm or light by which to sit.

¹⁵ “Thus shall they with whom you have wearied yourself serve you, your merchants from your youth. Everyone shall wander to his own quarters. No one shall save you.”

48 “Hear this, O House of Jacob, which is called by the name of Israel and has come out of the waters of Judah, who swears by the Name of the LORD and makes mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth or in righteousness.

² “For they are called ‘of the holy city’, and lean upon the God of Israel, whose Name is the LORD of Hosts.

³ “I declared the former things long ago. And they went out of My Mouth, and I showed them. I did them suddenly and they came to pass.

⁴ “Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow bronze.

⁵ “Therefore, I have declared it to you from the beginning. Before it came to pass, I showed it to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them. And my carved image and my molten image has commanded them.’

⁶ “You have seen and heard all this, and will you not declare it? I have shown you new things, even now, and hidden things which you did not know.

⁷ “They are created now, and not from the beginning. And even before this, you did not hear them, lest you should say, ‘See, I knew them.’

⁸ “Yet, you did not hear them or know them, nor was your ear even opened long ago. For I knew that you would grievously transgress. Therefore I have called you a transgressor from the womb.

⁹ “For My Name’s sake, will I defer My wrath. And for My praise, I will restrain it from you, so that I do not cut you off.

¹⁰ “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.

¹¹ “For My own sake, for My own sake I will do it. For how can My Name be polluted? Surely I will not give My Glory to another.

¹² “Hear me, O Jacob and Israel, My called. I Am, I Am the First, and I Am the Last.

¹³ “Surely My Hand has laid the foundation of the Earth. And My right Hand has spanned the heavens. When I call them, they stand up together.

¹⁴ “All you, assemble yourselves and hear. Who among them has declared these things? The LORD has loved him. He will do His will in Babel, and His Arm shall be against the Chaldeans.

¹⁵ “I, even I, have spoken it. And I have called him. I have brought him. And his way shall prosper.

¹⁶ “Come near to Me. Hear this! I have not spoken it in secret from the beginning. From the time that the thing was, I was there, and now the Lord God and His Spirit have sent Me!”

¹⁷ Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, Who teaches you to profit, and leads you by the way that you should go.

¹⁸ “Oh, that you had listened to My Commandments! Then your peace would have been as a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea.

¹⁹ “Also, your seed would have been as the sand, and the fruit of your body like its gravel. His name would not have been cut off or destroyed before Me.

²⁰ “Go out from Babel. Flee from the Chaldeans with a voice of joy! Tell and declare this. Show it forth to the end of the Earth. Say, ‘The LORD has redeemed His servant, Jacob!

²¹ ‘And they were not thirsty! He led them through the wilderness! He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them! For He split the rock and the water gushed out!’

²² “There is no peace for the wicked,” says the LORD.