Bible in 90 Days
19 Many trees will grow in the wilderness.
Cedar, acacia, myrtle and olive trees will grow there.
In the dry valleys
there will be pine, fir and cypress trees.[a]
20 I will do this so that people see it happen.
They will watch carefully and they will understand.
They will know that the Lord's power
has caused it to happen.
They will know that the Holy God of Israel
has created it.’
False gods have no power
21 The Lord, Israel's King, says,
‘Come and show me what you can do!
Tell me clearly what power you have!
22 Bring your idols into court.
Let them tell us what will happen in future years.
Let them tell us what happened in the past.
Then we can think about those things.
We will understand what happened in the end.
Or ask them to tell us about future events!
23 If they can tell us what will happen in future years,
we will know that they really are gods.
Tell them to do something,
a good thing or a bad thing.
That would really surprise us,
or even frighten us!
24 But no! Your idols are useless.
There is nothing that they can do.
Anybody who chooses to worship them
has turned against God!
25 I have woken up a ruler,
who is coming with his army from the north.
He comes from a land in the east, where the sun rises,
and he will use my name to call to me.
He will walk over rulers of other nations
as if they are mud.
He will push them down with his feet,
like a potter who prepares his clay.
26 Tell me, who decided in the beginning,
that all these things must happen?
Who told us about them before they happened?
Then we could say, “He was right!”
None of your idols said anything about it!
Nobody heard them say a word!
27 I, the Lord, was the first person
to tell the good news to Zion.
I sent someone to Jerusalem to say,
“Look, they have arrived!”
28 I looked among your idols,
to see who might be a good advisor.
But none of them could help.
None of them could answer my questions.
29 Look! All the idols are useless.
They can do nothing.
Their images are as weak as a breath of wind.’
The Lord's special Servant[b]
42 ‘Here is my servant.
I give him strength.
I have chosen him.
He makes me very happy.
I have put my Spirit on him.
He will bring justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry out.
He will not shout.
He will not speak loudly in the streets.
3 He will not hurt weak people,
like someone who breaks a weak reed.
He will not destroy helpless people,
like someone who puts out a weak flame.
He will be kind to people,
and he will judge them in a fair way.
4 He will remain strong and brave,
until he brings justice to the whole world.
People who are in lands far away
will wait for him to teach them.’
5 The Lord is God. He is the God who created the sky. He hung it up like a curtain. He created the earth and everything that lives on it. He gives life and breath to all the people who live on it. The Lord says to his servant:
6 ‘I have chosen you to bring righteousness.
I will take hold of your hand,
and I will keep you safe.
Through you, I will make a covenant with my people,
and you will bring light to the other nations.
7 You will cause blind people to see.
You will cause prisoners to be free.
You will bring out into the open
people who sit in dark prisons.
8 I am the Lord. That is my name.
I will not let anyone else share my glory.
I will not let people praise idols.
I am the only one that they must praise.
9 Everything that I promised in the past has happened
as I said that it would happen.
Now I will tell you about new things.
Before they start to happen,
I will tell you about them.’
10 Sing a new song to the Lord!
All over the earth, people should praise him.
Praise him, you people who travel over the sea
and everything that lives in the sea.
Praise him, you people who live in lands far away.
11 People who live in the towns of the desert
should shout aloud to praise him.
Kedar's people should praise him
in the places where they live.
The people who live in Sela should sing aloud with joy.
They should shout from the tops of the mountains.
12 They should all honour the Lord
as he deserves.
Those who live in lands far away
should praise him for what he has done.
13 The Lord marches out to battle,
like a brave soldier.
He is angry with his enemies,
and he is ready to attack them.
He shouts loudly as he attacks,
and he shows his power over them.
14 The Lord says,
‘I have been quiet for a long time.
I have held back my anger.
But now I am ready to deliver!
I will cry out and shout and groan,
like a woman who is ready to give birth.
15 I will destroy the mountains and the hills.
I will cause the plants that grow on them to die.
I will cause the rivers to become dry islands.
I will cause the pools of water to become dry.
16 I will lead my blind people
along ways that they did not know before.
I will be their guide,
as they walk along paths that are new to them.
I will change the dark places that are in front of them,
so that they become places with light.
And I will cause the rough ground to become flat.
Those are the things that I will do for them.
I will not leave my people alone.
17 But I will push away people who trust idols to help them.
Those people will become ashamed.
They say to images that they have made,
“You are our gods.”
18 Listen to me, you deaf people!
Look at this, you blind people!
19 Who is blind?
Nobody is as blind as my servant.[c]
Who is deaf?
Nobody is as deaf as the one who takes my message.
The people that I agreed a covenant with are blind!
Yes, the servant of the Lord is truly blind!
20 You Israelites have seen many things,
but you do not understand them.
You have opened your ears to listen,
but you have not really heard anything.’
21 The Lord always does what is right. So he has made his law great and important. He is happy when people respect his law.
22 But enemies have robbed God's people and they have taken away all their valuable things. Their enemies have caught them in traps and they have made them prisoners. There is nobody who will rescue them. Their enemies have stored them safely, and nobody says, ‘Send them back.’
23 Will any of you listen to my message?
Will you think carefully about it in the future?
24 Who put Jacob's descendants
under the power of their enemies?
Who gave the Israelites
to people who would rob them?
It was the Lord!
He is the one that we have not obeyed.
His people did not live in the way that he wanted.
They did not obey his law.
25 So the Lord was very angry with them.
He punished them with a cruel war.
His anger was like a fire all round them,
but they did not understand what he was doing.
His anger burned them,
but they did not learn their lesson.
God redeems Israel
43 Israelites, descendants of Jacob, the Lord created you, and he made you who you are. Now he says this to you:
‘Do not be afraid,
I have rescued you to belong to me.
I have called you by your name,
so now you are mine.
2 When you go through deep water,
I will be with you.
When you cross dangerous rivers,
you will not drown.
When you walk through fire,
it will not burn you.
The flames will not destroy you.[d]
3 I am the Lord, your God,
so I will rescue you.
I am Israel's Holy God, your Saviour.
I gave Egypt as the price to buy you back.
I gave Ethiopia and Seba to their enemies,
so that you could be free.
4 You are very valuable to me.
You are my special people, and I love you.
So I will give other people to their enemies,
to keep your lives safe.
Other nations will pay the price,
instead of you.
5 I am with you,
so do not be afraid.
I will bring your descendants from the east.
I will also bring you together from the west.
6 I will say to people in the north,
“Give them back!”
And I will say to people in the south,
“Do not stop them!”
Bring my sons from places that are far away.
Bring my daughters from the ends of the earth.
7 Bring back everyone who belongs to me.
I created them,
so that they would bring honour to me.
I made them who they are.
Yes, I made them!
8 So bring the people to me.
They have eyes, but they are blind!
They have ears, but they are deaf!
9 Tell the people of all nations to come together.
Did any of their gods tell us what would happen?
If anyone heard them speak the truth,
they should bring those people to this court.
Then they can tell us that they were right.
People could say, “They spoke the truth.” ’
10 The Lord says to his people,
‘You are the people who must say that I am right.
I have chosen you as my servant.
I chose you so that you may know me,
and also believe in me.
Then you would understand that I am the true God.
There has never been any other god except me,
and there never will be.
11 I am the Lord, I alone.
There is no other saviour, except me.
12 I promised to save you,
and I did what I said I would do.
I told everyone what I had done.
There was no foreign god among you,
who did that for you.
So you are the people who must say
that I am the only true God.’
That is what the Lord says.
13 ‘Today and every day, I am God.
If I hold you in my hand,
nobody can take you away from my power.
When I do something,
nobody can change it.’
14 The Lord is your Redeemer, Israel's Holy God. He says this:
‘I will send an army to attack Babylon,
so that you, my people, will be safe.
I will cause all the Babylonians to run away.
They were proud of their great ships,
but now they will use them to escape from their enemies.
15 I am the Lord, your Holy God.
I am the one who created Israel.
I am your King.’
16 The Lord is the one who made a road through the sea for you to cross. You went on a dry path in the middle of the deep water. 17 He led the enemy's great army, with their chariots and their horses, to chase you. They all fell down and the water drowned them. Their lives finished, like the flame of a lamp that stops burning.
18 The Lord did all that for you, but now he says,
‘Forget those things that happened a long time ago.
Do not think about past events.
19 Look! Now I will do something that is new!
It is already beginning to happen.
Surely, you can recognize it.
Yes, I will make a road through the desert.
I will make streams in the wilderness.
20 The wild animals in the desert praise me,
including the jackals and the owls.
They praise me because I put water in the desert,
and streams in the wilderness.
I am giving water to the people that I have chosen,
so that they will not be thirsty.
21 They are the people that I made for myself,
so that they would praise me aloud.
22 But you Israelites, Jacob's descendants,
you did not call to me to help you.
You became tired of serving me.
23 You did not bring sheep to me as burnt offerings.
You did not make sacrifices to me,
to show that you respect me.
I did not make it difficult for you,
when I asked you to bring offerings to me.
When I asked you to burn incense to worship me,
that should not have made you tired.
24 You did not buy any spices
to offer them to me.
You did not bring me the fat from your sacrifices
to make me happy.
Instead, you have made it difficult for me,
because of all your sins.
All the evil things that you do
have caused me to become very tired.
25 But I am the one who removes your sins
when you do not obey me.
I, the Lord, do that, because of who I am.
I do not hold your sins in my mind.
26 So let us talk together about what has happened.
Show me why you think that you are right!
27 Your first ancestor did not obey me.[e]
Your leaders and teachers turned against me.
28 So I caused the priests of your temple
to become ashamed.
I caused enemies to destroy Israel.
I let them insult Jacob's descendants.’
44 ‘Israelites, Jacob's descendants, listen to me!
I have chosen you to be my servant.’
2 The Lord created you. Before you were born, he was already taking care of you. He will continue to help you. He says to you,
‘Do not be afraid, my servant, Jacob.
I call you “Jeshurun”,
and I have chosen you to belong to me.
3 I will pour water onto land that is thirsty.
I will pour streams of water on the dry ground.
I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants,
and I will bless them.
4 They will grow up like fresh grass in a field.
They will grow like willow trees beside a river.
5 Someone will say, “I belong to the Lord.”
Another person will call himself by the name “Jacob”.
Someone else will write on his hand, “I am the Lord's”,
and he will call himself “Israel”.’
6 The Lord is Israel's King and Redeemer. He is the Lord Almighty. He says,
‘I am the first and I am the last.
There is no God, except me.
7 Is there anyone like me? If there is, he should say so!
He must tell me why he thinks he is so great.
Long ago I made my people become a nation.
Let him say what he has done since then!
Let him tell us what will happen in future years!
8 My people, do not shake with fear.
Long ago I told you about things that would happen.
You can tell people the truth about me.
You know that I am the only true God.
There is no other Rock to keep you safe.[f]
There surely is no other God except me.’
9 All the people who make idols are fools.
The images which make them so happy are useless.
Those who worship idols cannot see the truth.
They do not understand what they are doing,
and they will be ashamed.
10 Only a fool makes an idol and thinks that it is his god.
An image cannot help him.
11 Those who work with him will all be ashamed.
Those workers with special skills are only human.
They should come together,
and they should stand in front of me.
That will make them very frightened.
They will realize how foolish they are!
12 This is how they make their idols:
A man who works with iron takes his tool. He makes the metal hot in the fire. Then he uses hammers to hit it with his strong arms. He hits it so that it has the right shape. But then he becomes hungry. He is too weak to work any more. He does not drink any water and so he feels tired.
13 A carpenter measures a piece of wood. Then he draws a shape for the image. He uses his tools to cut the wood. He carefully makes it have the right shape. He makes the image have the shape of a human. It looks like a beautiful person. Now it is ready to go in its special room.
14 He may cut down cedar trees to make something. He may cut down a cypress tree, or an oak tree. He takes these trees from the forest. Or he may plant his own pine tree, so that the rain helps it to grow well. 15 He uses some of the wood to burn. He makes himself warm beside the fire. He may light a fire and then he may bake bread on it. Then he uses some of the wood to make a god that he will worship! Yes, he makes an idol, and he bends down in front of it. 16 Half of the wood he burns in the fire. He uses it to cook his meat, and he eats plenty of food. He makes himself warm and he says, ‘Good! Now I am warm as I look at the fire.’ 17 He uses the rest of the wood to make an idol to be his god. He bends down in front of it and he worships it. He prays to it and he says, ‘Save me, because you are my god!’
18 People like that are stupid. They do not understand anything. They cannot see the truth, as if they are blind. Their minds cannot think properly. 19 None of them think carefully about what they are doing. They do not say to themselves, ‘I burned half of the wood in the fire. I even baked bread and I cooked meat on it. It gave me food to eat. Then I used the rest of the wood to make a useless idol! I took a piece of wood and I worshipped it! Why did I do that?’
20 Someone like that is stupid enough to eat ashes. His mind has deceived him. He cannot save himself from his lies. He will not say to himself, ‘This thing that I hold in my right hand is completely false!’
The Lord takes care of his people
21 The Lord says:
‘Jacob's descendants, remember these things,
because you, Israel, are my servant.
I created you to be my servant.
Israel, I will not forget you.
22 I have removed the guilt of your sins,
like the wind blows away a cloud.
When you turned against me,
I have quickly forgiven you.
Return to me now,
because I have rescued you.’
23 Sing aloud with joy, you heavens above us,
because the Lord has done it!
Shout as loudly as you can,
places deep below the earth.
You mountains, sing with joy,
and you forests and trees as well!
Be happy, because the Lord has redeemed his people.
He has rescued the Israelites, Jacob's descendants,
to show how great he is.
24 The Lord is your Redeemer. He took care of you before you were born. He says,
‘I am the Lord. I made everything.
I alone hung up the sky like a curtain.
I made the whole earth by myself.
25 I show that the false prophets speak useless messages.
I show that those who use magic to say what will happen are fools.
I cause the ideas of wise people to become useless.
People think that their advice is foolish.
26 But I do the things that my servants say will happen.
I show that my prophets' messages are true.
I say about Jerusalem, “People will live there again.”
I say about the towns in Judah, “I will cause people to build them again,
so that they are no longer heaps of stones.”
27 I say to the deep sea, “Become dry!”
and its streams become dry.
28 I say about King Cyrus,
“He is my shepherd.[g]
He will do what I want him to do.”
He will give a command about Jerusalem.
He will say, “Build the city again!”
He will say about the temple,
“Build its foundation.” ’
45 The Lord says this to Cyrus, the king that he has chosen to serve him:
‘I hold your right hand.
I give you power over other nations,
to take away the weapons of their kings.
I will open the gates of cities in front of you,
and they will stay open.
2 I will go in front of you,
and I will make the mountains flat.
I will break bronze gates into pieces,
and I will cut through iron bars.[h]
3 I will take valuable things that people have stored in secret places,
and I will give them to you.
Then you will know that I am the Lord, Israel's God.
I am the one who calls you by your name.
4 I have called you on behalf of my people,
to help my servant, Jacob's descendants.
They are Israel's people, that I have chosen for myself.
You do not know me as your God,
but I have given to you an important name.
5 I am the Lord and there is nobody else like me.
There is no other God, except me.
You do not know me as your God,
but I will make you strong to fight battles.
6 Then all over the world, from east to west,
people will know that there is no other God.
Yes, I am the Lord
and there is nobody else like me.
7 I make light and I also make darkness.
I make peace as well as trouble.
I am the Lord.
I do all these things.
8 Let justice pour down from the sky like rain!
Let the earth be ready to receive it!
Then salvation and righteousness will grow together,
like strong plants.
I am the Lord,
and I will cause it to happen.’
9 It will be very bad for people who quarrel with their Maker. They are like pieces of a pot that are lying on the ground among all the other pieces. The clay does not say to the potter, ‘What do you think you are you making?’ The pot does not say to the potter, ‘Your work is useless!’
10 It will be very bad for people who say to their fathers, ‘What kind of child have you become a father to?’ And it will be bad for people who say to their mothers, ‘What kind of baby are you giving birth to?’
11 The Lord is Israel's Holy God. He is the one who created Israel. He says this about the things that will happen:
‘You should not ask me questions about my children.
You should not tell me what to do
with the people that I have made
12 It is I who made the earth.
I created the people who live on it.
I hung up the sky like a curtain.
I did that with my own hands!
I put all the stars in their places.
13 Now I have woken up Cyrus
to do for me things that are right.
I will make all his paths easy to travel on.
He will build again my city,
and he will make my people free to return home.
Nobody will have to pay him any money
or give him a bribe to do that.’
That is what the Lord Almighty says.
14 This is what the Lord says to his people:
‘I promise you that you will rule Egypt and Ethiopia,
and also those tall people from Seba.
They will bring to you the things that they buy and sell.
Those valuable things will belong to you.
They will walk behind you in chains,
as your slaves.
They will bend down low in front of you,
and they will even pray to you.
They will agree, “Surely God is with you.
There is nobody else like him. There is no other God.” ’
15 Yes, you are a God who hides yourself!
You are Israel's God, our Saviour!
16 People who make idols will all become ashamed.
People will insult them as they leave together.
17 The Lord will make Israel safe.
Israel will be safe and free for ever.
You will never be ashamed again.
People will never insult you again.
18 The Lord created the heavens. He is the true God. He created the earth and he put it in its place. He built it to be strong. He did not create it as an empty place. He made it for people to live there. He says,
‘I am the Lord.
There is nobody else who is like me.
19 I have not spoken secretly,
as I hid in a dark place.
I did not say to Jacob's descendants,
“Look for me, but you will not find me.”
I am the Lord. I speak what is right.
My message is true.
20 So come, you people of the nations,
you who have escaped from war.
Bring yourselves in front of me together!
People who carry wooden idols are fools!
They pray to gods who cannot rescue them.
21 Now decide together what you will say in court!
Tell me what you think!
Who said a long time ago what would happen?
Who spoke about it long before it happened?
It was I, the Lord!
There is nobody else like me.
There is no other God, except me.
I am a righteous God and I save my people.
There is no other God.
22 So turn to me and I will make you safe.
I say that to everybody all over the world.
Turn to me, because I am God.
There is nobody else like me.
23 This is my promise that I say is true.
I have spoken it honestly and I will not change it.
I promise this:
Everybody will go down on their knees in front of me.
Everybody will promise to serve me.
24 They will all say this about me:
“The Lord alone is true and strong.” ’
Everybody who has been angry with God will come to him.
They will be ashamed that they were angry.
25 The Lord will bring justice
for all the descendants of Israel.
They will say that the Lord is great!
Babylon's false gods have no power
46 Bel bends down to the ground.
Nebo lies down low.[i]
Their images are heavy loads on the backs of animals.
The animals become tired and weak as they carry them away.
2 Those gods fall down and they lie together on the ground!
They have no power to rescue their images.
The gods themselves go as prisoners to a foreign land,
together with their images.
3 The Lord says,
‘Listen to me, you family of Jacob.
Yes, listen to me, all you Israelites who are still alive.
I have taken care of you since you first became a nation.
I have carried you since you were born.
4 I will continue to take care of you until you are old,
until your hair becomes grey.
I made you who you are,
and I will supply everything that you need.
I will carry you,
and I will save you.
5 You know that there is no God like me!
You cannot say about any god,
that he is the same as me.
6 Some people make idols for themselves.
They pour out gold coins from their purse.
They weigh silver on their scales.
They pay a worker with special skill to use the silver and the gold
to make a god.
Then they bend down low in front of it,
and they worship it!
7 They lift the idol onto their shoulders
and they carry it home.
They put it in its place and it stands there.
It cannot move anywhere else.
If someone calls out to it for help,
it does not answer.
It cannot save anyone from their trouble.
8 Remember this, you people who do not obey me.
Think about it carefully.
9 Remember all the things that I did a long time ago.
I am God. There is nobody else like me.
There is no other God, except me.
10 From the beginning, I say what will happen at the end.
Long ago, I spoke about future things that have not yet happened.
I say this: “My purpose will not change.
I will do everything that I want to do.”
11 Now I will call somebody to come from the east.
He will come down quickly,
like an eagle that catches small birds to eat.
He will come from a country that is far away.
He will do for me what I want to do.
Yes, I will surely do what I have decided to do.
I have given the command,
and I will cause it to happen.
12 Listen to me, you people who refuse to obey me.
You choose not to do anything that is right.
13 But now I am ready to rescue you,
and I will show you what is right.
This will soon happen!
I will save the people in Zion.
I will make Israel great and beautiful.’
God's message to Babylon
47 ‘Babylon, get down on the ground, and sit in the dirt!
Come down off your throne, young lady!
In the past, nobody has touched you,
but people will no longer say that you are so pretty.
2 Use heavy stones to make grain into flour.
Take the veil off your face.
Lift up your skirt.
Walk through streams of water with bare legs.
3 Stand there with your body completely bare!
Everybody will see your great shame.
I will punish you for your sins,
and nobody will escape.’
4 This is what the Lord Almighty says. He is our Redeemer, Israel's Holy God.
5 ‘You city of the Babylonians, sit there quietly!
Go and hide in a dark place.
People will no longer call you the queen of all kingdoms.
6 I was angry with my own people.
They belonged to me as my special people,
but I punished them like ordinary people.
I gave you the power to hurt them,
and you were not kind to them.
You were very cruel to old people.
7 You boasted,
“I will rule other nations as queen for ever!”
But you did not think about what you were doing.
You did not think about what would happen in the end.
8 So listen to me, Babylon!
You love to enjoy expensive things.
You think that you are strong and safe.
You say to yourself, “Here I am!
There is nobody as good as I am.
I will never be alone as a widow.
I will never lose my children.”
9 But both of those things will happen to you!
They will happen suddenly, in only one day.
You will lose your children
and you will become a widow.
All these troubles will come to hurt you.
You can use all your powerful magic
but you will not stop this trouble!
10 You thought that your evil deeds would keep you safe.
You said, “Nobody sees me!”
You think that you are very wise
and that you know everything.
But your wisdom has deceived you.
You say, “Here I am!
There is nobody as good as I am.”
11 But trouble will suddenly come to you.
Your magic words will not stop it.
Trouble will come and destroy you.
You cannot pay anyone to take it away.
It will suddenly hit you,
before you even recognize it.
12 So continue with your magic, if you want to.
Say your magic words.
You have always used that magic,
since you were young.
Perhaps your magic will help you.
Perhaps you will frighten your enemies!
13 You receive a lot of advice,
and it has made you become tired.
Let your advisors come and stand there.
They study the sky and the stars to decide what will happen.
They say what will happen each month.
So let them come and help you!
See if they can rescue you from the trouble that is coming!
14 But they are as useless as straw
that quickly burns in a fire.
They cannot save themselves,
because the fire is too hot!
This is not a nice fire to sit beside and enjoy the heat.
15 You have worked with those magicians since you were young,
but you will have no help from them now.
They have gone their own separate ways.
There is nobody left who can save you.’
The Lord warns his people
48 Listen to this, family of Jacob. You are called ‘Israel’, and you are Judah's descendants.[j] You use the name of the Lord when you make promises. You pray to Israel's God. But you do not do those things honestly and fairly. 2 Your people are proud to say that they live in the holy city. They trust in Israel's God, whose name is the Lord Almighty.
3 The Lord says to his people,
‘I already spoke about things that would happen at a future time.
A long time ago I told you what would happen.
Then I suddenly did my work,
and I caused those things to happen!
4 I did it because I know what you are like.
You refuse to obey me.
You do not want to change the way that you live.
Your neck is like iron and it will not bend!
Your head is as hard as bronze!
5 So I told you about these things a long time ago.
Before they happened, I told you about them.
Then you could not say, “My idol did them.
Yes, my wooden image and my idol made of metal
decided that these things would happen.”
6 You heard what I said would happen,
and now you have seen it happen.
Agree that what I say is true!
Now I will tell you about new things that will happen.
They are secret things that you do not yet know about.
7 They are not things that started long ago.
I am causing them to happen now.
You did not hear about them before today.
So you cannot say, “Yes, I already knew about them.”
8 You have not heard about them before.
You know nothing about them.
From long ago you refused to listen to me.
I know that you are never honest.
Since you first became a nation,
you have refused to obey me.
9 Because of who I am,
I will keep my anger until later.
I will not destroy you now,
so that people will praise my name.
10 Listen! I have made you pure.
But I have not done it in the way that people make silver pure.
Instead, I have sent pain and trouble to you.
That is how I make you pure.
11 I do these things to show who I am.
That is why I do it!
I will not let people insult my good name.
I will not let anyone else share my glory.
12 So listen to me, descendants of Jacob!
I called you to belong to me, you Israelite people.
I am the only One.
I am the first, and I am also the last.
13 I created the earth with my own hand.
With my right hand, I hung up the sky like a curtain.
When I call to the stars,
they all appear in their places.
14 All of you, come together and listen to me.
Not one of your idols has said
what will happen now.
I, the Lord, have chosen a friend to attack Babylon.
He will do what I want.
He will have the power to punish the Babylonians.
15 Yes, that is what I have commanded.
I have called him to do this work.
I have shown him what he must do,
and he will do it!
16 Come near to me! Listen to my message!
From the beginning, I have not spoken secretly.
When these things happen, I will already be there.’
Now the Almighty Lord has sent me, with the power of his Spirit.[k]
17 The Lord is your Redeemer, Israel's Holy God. He says,
‘I am the Lord your God.
I teach you what will be good for you.
I lead you along a good path in life.
18 You should have obeyed my commands.
Then you would have had peace in your lives,
like a river that runs quietly.
You would have been safe and well,
like the strong waves in the sea.
19 You would have had many descendants,
as much as the sand on the shore of the sea.
I would not need to destroy them.
Their family name would continue for ever.’
20 Now leave Babylon as free people!
No longer serve the Babylonians!
Shout the news with joy!
Tell everyone about it, all over the world.
Tell them that the Lord has redeemed his people,
his servants, the Israelites.
21 When he led them through the desert,
they did not become thirsty.
He broke open a rock for them,
so that water poured out.
They could drink as much as they needed.
22 But the Lord says, ‘Wicked people will have no peace in their lives.’
The Lord's Servant
49 Listen to me, you islands.
Listen carefully, you people who live far away.
The Lord called me to serve him
before I was born.
Before my mother gave birth,
he used my name to speak to me.
2 The message that he gave me to speak
was like a sharp sword.
He kept me safe in his hand.
He made me like a sharp arrow
that he keeps safe and ready to use.
3 He said to me, ‘You are my servant, Israel.
Because of you, I will cause people to know that I am great.’
4 I said, ‘My work has been useless.
I have worked hard with no results.’
But the Lord will do what is right for me.
He will give me what I deserve for my work.
5 The Lord chose me to be his servant, even before I was born. He chose me to bring Jacob's descendants back to himself. He chose me to bring Israel's people together to serve him. As a result, the Lord will honour me. He is the one who makes me strong. The Lord, my God, says,
6 ‘As my servant, I have a greater job for you to do.
It will not only be to make Jacob's tribes strong again.
It will not only be to bring back Israel's people that I have kept safe.
It will also be your job
to bring light to the other nations.
You will show people all over the world
that I have the power to save them.’
7 The Lord is Israel's Redeemer, their Holy God. Nations refuse to accept his servant. Their people hate him and their rulers have made him their slave. The Lord says to his servant,
‘Kings will see you and they will rise up to respect you.
Princes will bend down low in front of you.
They will see that the Lord is faithful.
He is Israel's Holy God,
who has chosen you to serve him.’
8 This is what the Lord says:
‘I will answer your prayers
at the time that I have chosen to help you.
Yes, I will come to save you on that day.
I will keep you safe,
so that I can make a covenant with people through you.
You will make the land safe again.
People will return to live there,
in places that had become empty.
9 You will say to the prisoners,
“Come out!”
You will say to people who are in dark prisons,
“Come outside!”
Then they will be free to find food for themselves.
They will eat along the road and on the tops of the hills.
10 They will not be hungry or thirsty.
The strong heat of the sun will not hurt them.
The one who loves them will be their guide.
He will lead them to drink from springs of water.
11 I will make all my mountains become roads.
I will build good roads for my people to travel on.
12 Look! People will return to the land
from places that are far away.
Yes, some of them will come from the north and from the west.
And some will come from the land of Sinim.’[l]
13 Shout with joy, everything in the sky!
Be happy, everything on the earth!
Sing loudly, you mountains!
Be happy, because the Lord comforts his people.
He will be kind to his people who have trouble and pain.
14 But Zion's people said,
‘The Lord has left us alone.
The Lord God has forgotten about us.’
15 The Lord replies,
‘Can a mother forget the baby
who drinks milk at her breast?
Can she refuse to be kind to the child
that she has given birth to?
Perhaps those mothers might forget their children.
But I would not ever forget you, Zion.[m]
16 Look! I have written your name on my own hand.
I always see the walls of your city in my mind.
17 Your children will hurry back to you,
to build you again.
The enemies who destroyed you will go away.
18 Look all round you!
See all your people as they return together.’
The Lord says, ‘I tell you clearly, as the God who lives,
you will be happy with your people.
They will make you beautiful again,
like a bride with her beautiful jewels.
19 Enemies have destroyed your land.
Its towns have become heaps of stones.
But soon your land will be too small for all your people to live in.
The enemies who destroyed you will be far away from you.
20 The children who were born in a foreign land
will return to you.
You will hear them say,
“This place is too small for us.
Find more room for us to live in.”
21 Then you will think, “Who gave me all these children?
Who is their father?
I was alone, with no husband.
They killed my children
or they took them away to a foreign land.
I could no longer give birth.
So where did all these children come from?” ’
22 The Almighty Lord says,
‘Look! I will lift up my hand,
to call the nations.
I will raise up a flag
as a sign to those people.
Then they will bring back your sons and your daughters.
They will carry them in their arms and on their shoulders.
23 The kings of those nations will take care of your children.
The kings' daughters will feed them.
The rulers will bend down low in front of you,
so that their faces touch the ground.
They will taste the dirt by your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord.
I will not disappoint people who wait for me to help them.
24 Can anyone rob a brave soldier?
Can anyone rescue prisoners from a cruel ruler?’
25 But the Lord says,
‘Yes! One day the brave soldier's prisoners will be free.
One day the cruel ruler will lose the valuable things that he has taken for himself.
I myself will fight against your enemies.
I will rescue your children.
26 I will cause your cruel enemies to destroy themselves.
There will be so much blood that it will seem like wine.
They will seem like people who have become drunk.
Then people everywhere will recognize that I am the Lord.
They will know that I am your Saviour and your Redeemer,
and I am the Mighty One of Jacob.’
50 This is what the Lord says to his people:
‘Did I send your mother away,
like a man sends away his wife?
Where is the paper to say
why I have sent her away?
Did I sell you to pay people that I was in debt to?
Where is the paper that shows
the reason for my debt?
Listen! I sold you because of your sins.
I sent your mother away
because you have not obeyed me.[n]
2 Nobody was there to meet me,
when I came to help you.
When I called out to you,
nobody answered me.
Do you think that my arm is too weak to rescue you?
Am I not strong enough to save you?
Look! I can speak to the sea so that it becomes dry!
I can cause rivers to become deserts.
Then the fish die because they have no water.
3 I can cause the sky to become dark,
as if I have covered it with sackcloth.’
The Lord's Servant
4 ‘The Almighty Lord has given his message to me, his servant.
I speak it on his behalf.
I know what to say to help weak and tired people.
The Lord wakes me up every morning
so that I can learn something.
I listen carefully to him,
as a student listens to his teacher.
5 The Almighty Lord has spoken clearly to me.
I have accepted his message,
and I have not turned back.
6 I offered my back
to the people who hit me.
I offered my face
to the people who pulled out my beard.
When they insulted me and they spat at me,
I did not hide my face from them.
7 The Almighty Lord helps me,
so I will not be ashamed.
I have decided to stand and be strong,
because I know that I will not be ashamed.
8 God is the one who says that I am right,
and he stands beside me.
So who will accuse me that I have done something wrong?
We should meet in court!
Anyone who accuses me should come and speak!
9 Look! The Almighty Lord himself helps me.
So nobody can say that I am guilty.
All the people who accuse me will soon disappear.
They will spoil like old clothes that moths have eaten!’
10 Do any of you respect the Lord with fear?
Do any of you obey his servant's message?
Are you walking in a place that is completely dark,
where there is no light?
Then you should trust in the Lord
as the God who will help you.
11 But no! You have lit your own fires.
You have burned branches to give yourselves light.
So now you must walk in the light of the fires that you have lit.
And this is what I will do for you:
I will punish you with great pain!
The Lord will bless his people
51 ‘Listen to me,
you people who want to do what is right.
You people who want to serve the Lord,
listen to me!
Think about the rock that you are a part of.[o]
Think about the ground that they dug you out from.
2 You all started from your ancestor Abraham,
and his wife Sarah.
When I first spoke to Abraham,
he had no children.
But I blessed him,
so that he had many descendants.’
3 Surely, the Lord will comfort Zion's people.
He will take care of the buildings
that enemies have destroyed.
Zion's land that is now a wilderness
will become like the beautiful Garden of Eden.
It will be the Lord's own garden!
People will be happy again in Zion.
They will sing with joy to thank God.
4 ‘Listen to me, my people.
Listen carefully, my nation.
I will tell all people about my laws.
I will cause my justice to be like a light to all nations.
5 I am ready to do what is right for them.
I am ready to save them.
I will judge all the nations fairly.
Lands that are far away will wait for me to help them.
They wait for me to come and rule them all with power.
6 Look up at the sky!
Look down at the earth below!
One day, the sky will disappear
like smoke that blows away.
The earth will become useless,
like old clothes.
The people who live on it will die.
They will fall like flies.
But I will keep my people safe for ever.
I will always rule with righteousness.
7 Listen to me,
you people who know what is right.
You people who think carefully about my law,
listen to me.
When people speak against you,
do not be afraid.
Do not be upset,
when they insult you.
8 Those people will soon disappear,
like clothes that moths have eaten,
like wool that worms have eaten.
But I will always rule with righteousness.
I will keep my people safe for ever.’
9 Wake up, Lord!
Get ready to show your strength!
Do great things, as you did in past days,
when our ancestors were alive.
Remember how you cut the monster, Rahab, into pieces.[p]
10 You made the sea become dry,
so that there was a path through the deep water.
The slaves that you rescued
could then cross over.[q]
11 The people that the Lord has rescued
will return from exile.
They will sing with joy
while they go into Zion city.
Their joy will be like a crown
that they wear on their heads for ever.
They will continue to be very happy.
They will never be sad or weep again.
12 ‘I am the Lord who comforts you.
You do not need to be afraid of people who are only human.
Remember that they will all die one day,
like grass that only lives for a short time.
13 Do not forget about the Lord who made you!
I hung up the sky like a curtain.
I made the foundation of the earth.
So why are you always shaking with fear?
Do not be afraid when your enemy is angry,
and he is ready to attack you.
Your enemy's anger is useless!
14 The people who have trouble and pain
will soon become free.
They will not stay in the prison of death.
They will have all the food that they need.
15 Remember that I am the Lord your God.
I shake the sea so that its waves roar!
My name is the Lord Almighty.
16 I have given you my message
to speak on my behalf.
I have kept you safe in my hand.
I hung up the sky like a curtain,
and I made the foundation of the earth.
I say to Zion, “You are my people.” ’
17 Wake up, people in Jerusalem! Get ready!
The Lord has been angry with you,
and he has punished you.
You had to receive all of his anger,
like you were drinking strong wine from a cup.
Now that you have drunk it all,
you cannot stand up straight!
18 Among all of Jerusalem's people,
there was nobody left to be your leader.
There was nobody who could take care of you.
19 War and famine have destroyed you.
Both those terrible things have happened to you.
Who feels sorry for you?
Who is there to comfort you?
20 Your children have become weak,
and they lie on the ground at the side of every street.
They are like deer that a trap has caught.
The anger of the Lord your God has made them helpless.
He has warned them loudly.
21 So listen to this, you people who are in trouble.
You walk like drunk people,
but wine has not done that to you.
22 The Lord God who is your Lord stands beside his people. He says,
‘Look! Now I have taken the cup of my punishment out of your hand.
You will no longer have to drink the strong wine of my anger
that makes you drunk.
23 Instead, I will give it to your cruel enemies
to punish them.
They said to you, “Lie down on the ground,
so that we can walk over you.”
You made your backs become like the ground.
You became like a street for your enemies to walk on.’
God will make Jerusalem safe again[r]
52 Wake up, Zion!
Be ready to show your strength!
Jerusalem, God's holy city,
Put on your beautiful clothes!
Foreign people who do not serve God
will not attack your city again.
2 Shake off the dirt, Jerusalem!
Get up and sit on your throne.
People of Zion, you are no longer prisoners,
so take the chains off your neck.
3 This is what the Lord says to you:
‘I received no money when I sold you.
And I will not pay anything to make you free again.’
4 The Almighty Lord says,
‘Long ago, my people went to live for some time in Egypt.
At a later time, Assyria's army was cruel to them.
5 But now, what is happening?
An enemy has taken my people away as slaves,
for no good reason.[s]
Their leaders boast loudly,
and they insult me all the time.
6 So I will cause my people to know my name.
When all this happens, they will know
that I am the God who speaks to them.
I tell them that I am with them.’
7 Somebody is coming across the mountains
to bring good news to us!
It is a beautiful thing to see him run towards us!
He has come to tell us that there will be peace,
because God will save our city.
He says to Zion,
‘Your God rules as king!’
8 Listen! The guards on the city's walls are shouting!
They all shout together with joy!
They can see for themselves
that the Lord is returning to Zion.
9 Jerusalem, your buildings have become heaps of stones,
but now you can all shout together with joy!
Sing aloud, because the Lord has comforted his people.
He has made Jerusalem safe again.
10 The Lord has shown all the nations how strong he is.
They can all see his holy power.
People all over the world will know
that our God has rescued his people.
11 Leave! Leave! Go out from there.[t]
Do not touch anything that is unclean.
Leave that foreign place!
The people who carry the Lord's special things
must keep themselves pure.
12 But you will not have to hurry and run away.
No, the Lord, Israel's God, will keep you safe.
He will lead you at the front,
and he will be your guard at the back.
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