The Daily Audio Bible

²¹ Present your case, says the Lord.
    Bring forward your evidence, says Jacob’s king.
²² Let the idols^[a] approach
    and tell us what will happen.
The prior things—what are they?
    Announce them, and we’ll think about them
    and know their significance.
    Or proclaim to us what is to come!
²³ Report things that will happen in the future,
    then we’ll know that you are gods.
Do good! Or do bad!
    Then we will all be afraid and fearful.
²⁴ Look! You are nobody, and your deeds are nothing.
    Whoever chooses you is disgusting.
²⁵ I woke up one from the north and he came;
    from the east, one who calls my name.
He tramples governors like mud,
    as a potter treads clay.
²⁶ Who announced this from the start
        so that we would know;
    from an earlier time
        so we would say, “That’s right”?
Truly, no one announced it,
    no one proclaimed it,
    and no one heard your words.
²⁷ I first said it to Zion, “Look, here they are”;
    to Jerusalem I now send a herald.
²⁸ But I look, and there’s no one
    among them, no counselor;
    and when I ask,
    no one can answer.
²⁹ Look, all of them are frauds;
    their deeds amount to nothing;
    their images are a total delusion.

42 But here is my servant, the one I uphold;
    my chosen, who brings me delight.
I’ve put my spirit upon him;
    he will bring justice to the nations.
² He won’t cry out or shout aloud
    or make his voice heard in public.
³ He won’t break a bruised reed;
    he won’t extinguish a faint wick,
    but he will surely bring justice.
⁴ He won’t be extinguished or broken
    until he has established justice in the land.
The coastlands await his teaching.

¹⁰ Sing to the Lord a new song!
    Sing his praise from the ends of the earth!
You who sail the sea and all that fills it,
    the coastlands and their residents.
¹¹ Let the desert and its towns shout aloud,
    the villages that Kedar inhabits.
Let the cliff dwellers sing;
    from the top of the mountains let them shout.
¹² Let them give the Lord glory
    and declare God’s praise in the coastlands.
¹³ The Lord will go out like a soldier;
    like a warrior God will stir up rage.
God will shout, will roar;
    over enemies he will prevail.
¹⁴ I’ve kept still for a very long time.
    I’ve been silent and restrained myself.
Like a woman in labor I will moan;
    I will pant, I will gasp.
¹⁵ I will wither mountains and valleys,
    and I will dry up all their vegetation.
I will turn rivers into deserts,^[b]
    and I will dry up pools.
¹⁶ I will make the blind walk a road they don’t know,
    and I will guide them in paths they don’t know.
But I will make darkness before them into light
    and rough places into level ground.
These things I will do;
    I won’t abandon them.

¹⁷ Turned backward, utterly shamed
    are those who trust in idols,
    who say to a cast image,
    “You are our god!”
¹⁸ Hear, deaf ones,
    and blind ones, look and see!
¹⁹ Who is blind if not my servant
    and deaf like my messenger whom I send?
Who is blind like the restored one,^[c]
    blind like the servant of the Lord?
²⁰ You have seen many things, but don’t keep watch.
    With ears open, you don’t hear.^[d]
21 The Lord desired for the sake of his righteousness
    to expand and glorify the Instruction.
²² But this is a people plundered and looted,
    everyone trapped in holes and hidden in dungeons.
They have become plunder with no one to rescue,
    loot with no one to say, “Give it back.”

43 But now, says the Lord—
the one who created you, Jacob,
    the one who formed you, Israel:
Don’t 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;
    when through the rivers, they won’t sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you won’t be scorched
    and flame won’t burn you.
³ I am the Lord your God,
    the holy one of Israel, your savior.
I have given Egypt as your ransom,
    Cush and Seba in your place.
⁴ Because you are precious in my eyes,
    you are honored, and I love you.
    I give people in your place,
        and nations in exchange for your life.
⁵ Don’t fear,
    I am with you.
From the east I’ll bring your children;
    from the west I’ll gather you.
⁶ I’ll say to the north, “Give them back!”
    and to the south, “Don’t detain them.”
Bring my sons from far away,
    and my daughters from the end of the earth,
⁷     everyone who is called by my name
    and whom I created for my glory,
    whom I have formed and made.

67 Let God grant us grace and bless us;
    let God make his face shine on us, Selah
²     so that your way becomes known on earth,
    so that your salvation becomes known among all the nations.