Old/New Testament

47 Eternal One: Ah, pretty virgin daughter, Miss Babylon,
        come down and sit in the dust.
    Sit on the ground where you belong: your throne is no more,
        daughter of the Chaldeans, no longer all dainty, delicate.
²     And with those delicate fingers grab the heavy millstones and grind the grain.
        Take off your lacy veil, lift your skirt, bare your legs, and
    Cross the mud and muck of the river on foot like any other slave.
³     Everyone will see you naked; your humiliation will be most public.
        I intend to make you pay, and no one will interfere.^[a]

⁴ Israel: Our Savior, our hero—the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies,
        by name—is the Holy One of Israel!
⁵     So you’d best go quietly, Babylon, daughter of the Chaldeans.
        Slink off into the dark. No one will ever again call you Queen of All Lands.

⁶ Eternal One: Some time ago, I got fed up with My people.
        I left My heritage to you, let you defeat them and take them away.
    But you showed no mercy, abused and denigrated them;
        you even made the elderly suffer beneath your heavy burden.
⁷     But You were carried away with your power,
        thinking you would always be in charge.
    You didn’t consider your limits or think about how all this would end.
⁸     You, pursuer of pleasure, resting in the thought,
        “No one exists in the world of any consequence except me.
    I’ll never feel as a widow or suffer the loss of my children.”
⁹     Despite all your magic and charms, all of a sudden, in a single day,
        terror and death to the highest degree.
    In the midst of it all, your children and husband, too, will be gone.
¹⁰     In your wickedness you thought you were immune,
        so hidden away that no one could find your faults.
    But your version of wisdom and knowledge were your undoing; you thought,
        “No one exists in the world of any consequence except me.”
¹¹     Evil will break upon you full force.
        You won’t be able to hold it off or charm it away.
    Disaster will fall and, even with all your wealth, you won’t stand a chance.
        There’s no way to know what is coming; all of a sudden,
    It will ruin all that you have and all that you are.
¹²     But keep trying your spells;
        your magic and charms have brought you this far.
    Maybe they’ll help in some way. Maybe they’ll incite fear.
¹³     All of your scheming has only exhausted you.
        Let the astrologers step up and save you,
    After all they chart the heavens, read the stars,
        and predict the future month after month.
¹⁴     Look, they’re like dry straw that ignites in a flash and is burned away.
        They cannot help you—they cannot help themselves
    From the power of the flame.
        And this is not some warm and cozy fire shared among friends!
¹⁵     So that’s what they’re worth to you—absolutely nothing,
        even after all these years of working together.
    They’re gone. No one’s left to rescue you.

48 Listen closely, you descendants of Jacob who are called Israel!
    Hear this, you who trace your ancestors back to Judah,
Who take oaths in the name of the Eternal, and call on the God of Israel,
    but do so dishonestly and inappropriately:
² Your identity is wrapped up in the holy city,
    and you claim to rely on the God of Israel,
The One who is called the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies.

³ Eternal One: In times long past, I determined
        and announced the things that would come.
    Then suddenly I acted, and they indeed happened.
⁴     Long ago, I figured that you’d resist
        (after all, you are a hard-headed and stubborn lot).
⁵     Way back then, I told you what would happen so that you wouldn’t claim
        that some other god was responsible—that some figurine you crafted
    From wood and molded metal commanded and accomplished it.
⁶     You’ve heard what I foretold; now you’ve seen what has happened—
        do you agree that I’m God?
    Well, from this moment, I am telling you new things,
        secrets hidden that no one has known.
⁷     They are created now—brand new, never before announced, never before heard.
        So you can’t claim, “Look, I already knew them.”
⁸     There’s no way you could have heard or known
        because, even from long ago, you have never listened.
    For I’ve always known that you are a conniving lot;
        you’ve been a troublesome rebel from birth.

⁹     On account of My reputation, I hold back my anger;
        for My own weighty grandeur, I am patient with you,
    So that I don’t make an absolute break with you.
¹⁰     I have refined you, but not in the way silver is refined.
        Instead, I try you in the furnace of suffering.

¹¹     But it is all on account of Me, not of you, that I act,
        that I retain honor, that My glory is Mine alone, and not sullied.

¹²     Listen to Me, O Jacob, Israel whom I’ve specially named,
        specially chosen, and not without purpose.
    I Am the first of all things, and I will be the last.
¹³     It is by My power, My desire, My doing that the earth was anchored.
        My hand flung the skies. I established them,
    And when I call, they pay the strictest attention.

¹⁴ Come and listen, all of you! Did any of you tell in advance
    that the Eternal’s beloved would press diligently
Against Babylon’s might and overcome Chaldea as He desired?

¹⁵ Eternal One: No, only I, I the Eternal One knew this would happen.
        I was the one who summoned him, who led him,
    Who determined that he would have such victory.
¹⁶     Come even closer, and hear: from the beginning I spoke,
        not hiding away in hushed secret. I Am and will be;
    I was before anything was at all.

    The Lord, the Eternal, has sent me and His Spirit.
¹⁷         The Eternal One, who rescued you, the Holy One of Israel declares,

Eternal One: I am the Eternal One your God. I have given you My instruction
        for living well and right, leading you in how you should be and do.
¹⁸     If only you had listened to My instruction,
        then you would have been flooded with peace;
    Your righteousness would have risen and crested like waves on the sea.
¹⁹     Your people would have multiplied to become like the grains of sand,
        and your children would be like grains of wheat.
    And they would be forever in My mind and My presence.

²⁰ Leave Babylon; run swiftly from Chaldea! And let it be known
    with a joyous shout, to the ends of the earth,
That the Eternal One has rescued Jacob, His servant!
²¹ And though He guided them through desert places, with no water in sight,
    they were never thirsty.
Just as in Moses’ time, God made the rocks gush water,
    split the rock and made water pour streaming out.

²² Eternal One: Ah, but the malicious and wicked will never be at peace.

49 Listen to this, everyone—near and far:
    The Eternal One singled me out, even before I was born.
He called me and named me when I was still in my mother’s belly.
² Even then, God was preparing my mouth to speak like a sharp sword.
    He kept my purpose quiet, kept me safe in the shadow of His hand,
He crafted me into a sharp-tipped arrow and tucked me away in His quiver;
³ God said to me, “You are My servant, Israel.
    Through you, I will be glorified.”
⁴ I said, “I’ve worked hard for nothing.
    I spent my strength, and what have I accomplished—nothing,
Yet my justice and reward are secure with my God, the Eternal One.”
⁵ And now the Eternal who watched, shaped, and made me His own servant
    from the womb has determined to restore Jacob’s family;
Israel will be made right with the Eternal again.
    For God has counted me worthy and He has been my strength right along.

⁶ Eternal One: As My servant you will do even more than this,
        even more than restoring Jacob’s family to Me
    And making Israel right with Me again.
        I will make you a light for the nations,
    And You will illumine them until My salvation reaches to the ends of the earth.^[b]

⁷ This is what the Eternal One, the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel,
    told to the one who is despised and loathed by the nation,
To the servant of national leaders.

Eternal One: At the sight of you, kings will rise and princes will bow down,
        for I, the Eternal, faithful and true, the Holy One of Israel, have chosen you.

⁸ Eternal One: When the time was right, I answered you;
        on the day you were delivered, I was your help.^[c]
    I will watch over you, and give you
        as a promise, a binding covenant to the people.
    Through you, My gift to the people, the land of promise will recover.
        Ancestral ground, once deserted, will be entrusted to them.
⁹     Through you, My gift to the people, I will declare to the prisoners,
        “Come out. Now you are free”;
    To those who are held in darkness, “Come out into the light.”
        They will find sustenance wherever they are—
    Along the roads or in the open hills—
        with peace of mind, in comfort and security.
¹⁰     Wherever they are, they will be fine, never hungry nor thirsty.
        They will be protected from oppressive heat and the burning sun
    Because the One who loves them—as a mother loves her child—will be their guide.
        God will lead them to restful places, rejuvenating springs of water.
¹¹     I will make their going easy, level the mountain road
        and smooth the path that leads them home.
¹²     Look! Even now, they are coming from lands far away,
        some from the north, others from the west, these from the land of Sinim.^[d]

¹³ Oh joy! Be glad—sky! Take joy—earth! Burst into song—mountains!
    For the Eternal, moved to compassion, has comforted and consoled His people.

¹⁴ Zion: The Eternal One has abandoned me. God has walked out the door;
        my Lord left me alone. He has forgotten all about me.

¹⁵ Eternal One: Is it possible for a mother, however disappointed,
        however hurt, to forget her nursing child?
    Can she feel nothing for the baby she carried and birthed?
        Even if she could, I, God, will never forget you.
¹⁶     Look here. I have made you a part of Me, written you on the palms of My hands.
        Your city walls are always on My mind, always My concern.
¹⁷     Now sweet Zion your children are running pell-mell back to you
    Just as fast as those who destroyed you are leaving.
¹⁸     Raise your head, lift up your eyes,
        and watch your heart’s desire come—
    All your children, gathered and returning to you. As I live, so I promise.
        You will wear them with pride all like shining ornaments;
        you will put them on as a bride on her wedding day.
¹⁹     Because of all of your destroyed land—the barren fields and abandoned farms—
        you are now too small, too cramped for all your citizens;
    And those who tried to swallow you whole will be far, far away.
²⁰     The children you mourned, those born in exile, will return and say,
        “It is too cramped and crowded for us;
    We’re going to need more room if we are to live here.”
²¹     You’ll say to yourself, “Where in the world did all these people come from?
        Could these really be mine?
    I thought I’d been desolated, left empty.
        Where have you all been? Where did you come from?”

Eternal One: I will lift My hand and signal every nation that holds your people
    And they will bring your children back again:
        boys bundled in their arms, girls riding on their shoulders.
²³     Kings will tend the children of Zion, and their queens will nurse and nurture them.
        These greats will humble themselves before you.
    They will bow and lick the dust off your feet,
        and in the course of it all, you will remember that I am the Eternal.
    Whoever trusts in Me will never be put to shame.

²⁴ Jerusalem: Can the spoil of war be taken from the mighty?
        Can the captives be freed from the hand of a tyrant?

²⁵ Eternal One: Hard to believe, but it shall be so.
        The captives will be taken from the hand of the mighty,
    And the spoil of war will be rescued from the tyrant.
        I will liberate them from their captors and contend with your enemies.
    I will save your children.
²⁶     I will turn your enemies’ violence back on themselves,
        and they will suffer their own atrocities:
    They will feed on their own flesh and drink their own blood like wine.
        Then every person on earth will know for certain that I, the Eternal, am your Savior.
    I am your hero, the strong One of Jacob from whom you come.
        I will rescue you, whatever the price.