Old/New Testament

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.’

‘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.^[b]

‘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.

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.’

‘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.’

‘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.’^[c]
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.^[d]
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?” ’

‘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?’

‘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.’