Beginning

42 ¶ Behold my slave, whom I uphold; my elect, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he shall give judgment unto the Gentiles.

² He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets.

³ He shall not break a bruised reed, nor shall he quench the smoking flax; he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.

⁴ He shall not tire nor faint until he has set judgment in the earth; and the isles shall wait for his law.

⁵ ¶ Thus saith God the LORD, the Creator of the heavens and he that stretches them out; he that spreads forth the earth and that which comes out of it; he that gives breath unto the people upon it and spirit to those that walk therein:

⁶ I the LORD have called thee in righteousness and will hold thee by thine hand; I will keep thee and place thee as my covenant unto the people as light unto the Gentiles

⁷ that thou might open the eyes of the blind, that thou might bring out the prisoners from the prison and those that sit in darkness out of the prison house.

⁸ I am the LORD. This is my name, and my glory I will not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.

⁹ Behold, the former things are come to pass, and I declare new things: before they spring forth I tell you of them.

¹⁰ Sing unto the LORD a new song and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea and all that is therein, the isles, and the inhabitants thereof.

¹¹ Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits; let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout {Heb. command} from the top of the mountains.

¹² Let them give glory unto the LORD and declare his praise in the islands.

¹³ ¶ The LORD shall go forth as a giant; he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war; he shall cry out a battle cry; he shall prevail against his enemies.

¹⁴ I have long time held my peace; I have been still and refrained myself; now will I cry out like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once.

¹⁵ I will make waste mountains and hills and dry up all their grass, and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.

¹⁶ And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will cause them to walk in paths that they have not known; I will make darkness light before them and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them and not forsake them.

¹⁷ They shall be turned back; they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.

¹⁸ ¶ Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.

¹⁹ Who is blind, but my slave? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the slave of the LORD,

²⁰ who sees many things and does not warn; who opens his ears and does not hear.

²¹ The LORD, jealous for his righteousness, will magnify the law and enlarge it.

²² Therefore this people is robbed and spoiled; all of them shall be snared in holes and hid in prison houses; they shall be for a prey, and no one delivers; for a spoil, and no one saith, Restore.

²³ Who among you will give ear to this? Who will warn and consider regarding the time to come?

²⁴ Who gave Jacob for a spoil and Israel to the robbers? Did not the LORD? Because we sinned against him, and they did not desire to walk in his ways, neither did they hearken unto his law.

²⁵ Therefore he has poured upon him the fury of his anger and the strength of battle; he put fire round about him, yet he was careless; and it set him on fire, yet he did not lay it to heart.

43 ¶ But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Do not fear, for I have redeemed thee, I have named thee; Thou art mine.

² When thou dost pass through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou dost walk through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

³ For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Keeper; I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.

⁴ Because thou wast precious in my sight, thou wast worthy of honour, and I have loved thee.

⁵ Do not fear; for I am with thee: I will bring thy generation from the east and gather thee from the west;

⁶ I will say to the north wind, Give up, and to the south, Do not keep back; bring my sons from far and my daughters from the ends of the earth

⁷ even every one that is called by my name, for I have created them for my glory; I have formed them; yea, I have made them.

⁸ ¶ Bring forth the people that is blind that have eyes and the deaf that have ears.

⁹ Let all the Gentiles be gathered together as one, and let the peoples be joined; who among them can declare this and show us former things? Let them bring forth their witnesses that they may be justified or let them hear and say, It is truth.

¹⁰ Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my slave whom I have chosen that ye may know and believe me and understand that I am he; before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

¹¹ I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.

¹² I have declared and have saved, and I have showed when there was no strange god among you; therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God.

¹³ Even before the day was I existed; and there is no one that can deliver out of my hand; if I work, who shall hinder it?

¹⁴ ¶ Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon and caused fugitives to descend unto all of them and the clamour of Chaldeans in the ships.

¹⁵ I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King.

¹⁶ Thus saith the LORD, who makes a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters;

¹⁷ when he brings forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall fall together, and never rise; they are extinct; they are quenched as wick.

¹⁸ Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.

¹⁹ Behold, I will do a new thing; it shall come to light quickly; shall ye not know it? I will again make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

²⁰ The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to my people, my chosen.

²¹ This people I have formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise.

²² ¶ But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.

²³ Thou hast not brought me the animals of thy burnt offerings; neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense.

²⁴ Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices, but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins; thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities.

²⁵ I, even I, am he that uproots thy rebellions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins.

²⁶ Cause me to remember; let us enter into judgment together; declare, thou, that it may be put to thy account.

²⁷ Thy first father sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me.

²⁸ Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary and have set up Jacob as anathema, and Israel as a reproach.

44 ¶ Yet now hear, O Jacob my slave and Israel, whom I have chosen:

² Thus saith the LORD that made thee and formed thee from the womb, who will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my slave, and thou, Jesurun, {Heb. the upright one} whom I have chosen.

³ For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine offspring:

⁴ And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses.

⁵ One shall say, I am the LORD’s; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD and surname himself by the name of Israel.

⁶ Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel and his redeemer, the LORD of the hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.

⁷ And who shall call as I do and declare this in advance and set it in order for me, since I made the people of the world? Let them declare unto them the things that are near and the things that shall come.

⁸ Do not fear, neither be afraid; have I not caused thee to hear from of old and declared unto thee beforehand that which was to come? Then ye are my witnesses that there is no God but me, and there is no Strong One that I do not know.

⁹ ¶ Those that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and that which is most precious to them is useful for nothing; and they are their own witnesses that they do not see, nor understand; therefore, they shall be ashamed.

¹⁰ Who has formed God? And who cast a graven image that is profitable for nothing?

¹¹ Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed; for the workmen, they are of men; even if all of them are gathered together and stand, they shall fear and shall be ashamed together.

¹² The smith shall take the tongs; he shall work among the coals; he shall give it form with the hammers and bring forth in it the arm of his strength; though he is hungry and his strength fails: he shall not drink water, even if he faints.

¹³ The carpenter stretches out his rule; he measures it with a line; he fits it with planes; he marks it out with the compass; he makes it after the form of a noble man, in the likeness of the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house.

¹⁴ He shall hew down cedars and take the cypress and the oak, and he shall strengthen himself with the trees of the forest; he shall plant a fir tree, which shall be nourished with the rain.

¹⁵ The man shall then use of it for firewood; for he will take thereof and warm himself; he will kindle it and bake bread; he will also make a god and worship it; he will fabricate an idol and shall kneel down before it.

¹⁶ He shall burn part of it in the fire; with another part thereof he shall eat flesh; he shall roast meat and shall satisfy himself. Afterwards he shall warm himself and say, Aha, I have warmed myself, I have seen fire;

¹⁷ the residue of it he turns into god, into his graven image; he humbles himself before it and worships it and prays unto it and says, Deliver me; for thou art my god.

¹⁸ They did not know nor understand; for he has anointed their eyes that they not see and their hearts that they not understand.

¹⁹ He does not return to his right mind; he does not have knowledge nor intelligence to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; I have also baked bread upon the coals of it; I have roasted flesh and eaten it and shall I make the residue of it an abomination? Do I have to humble myself before the trunk of a tree?

²⁰ The ashes feed him; his deceived heart inclines him, that he not deliver his soul and say, Is not the lie at my right hand?

²¹ ¶ Remember these things, O Jacob and Israel: that thou art my slave: I have formed thee; thou art my slave, O Israel, do not forget me.

²² I have undone, as a cloud, thy rebellions, and thy sins, as a mist, return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.

²³ Sing praises, O ye heavens; for the LORD has done it; shout with joy, ye lower parts of the earth; break forth into praise, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein, for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and in Israel he shall be glorified.

²⁴ Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that makes all things, that stretches forth the heavens alone, that spreads abroad the earth by myself;

²⁵ that undoes the signs of the fortune tellers and makes the diviners mad; that turns the wise men backward and makes their wisdom fade away;

²⁶ that awakes the word of his slave and fulfills the counsel of his messengers, that says unto Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be rebuilt, and I will raise up thy ruins

²⁷ that says to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers

²⁸ that calls Cyrus, my shepherd, and all that I desire, he shall fulfil, by saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.