Bible-Reading.comIsaiah 46
1Bel is bent down, Nebo is falling; their images are on the beasts and on the cattle: the things which you took about have become a weight to the tired beast.
2They are bent down, they are falling together: they were not able to keep their images safe, but they themselves have been taken prisoner.
3Give ear to me, O family of Jacob, and all the rest of the people of Israel, who have been supported by me from their birth, and have been my care from their earliest days:
4Even when you are old I will be the same, and when you are grey-haired I will take care of you: I will still be responsible for what I made; yes, I will take you and keep you safe.
5Who in your eyes is my equal? or what comparison will you make with me?
6As for those who take gold out of a bag, and put silver in the scales, they give payment to a gold-worker, to make it into a god; they go down on their faces and give it worship.
7They put him on their backs, and take him up, and put him in his fixed place, from which he may not be moved; if a man gives a cry for help to him, he is unable to give an answer, or get him out of his trouble.
8Keep this in mind and be shamed; let it come back to your memory, you sinners.
9Let the things which are past come to your memory: for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like me;
10Making clear from the first what is to come, and from past times the things which have not so far come about; saying, My purpose is fixed, and I will do all my pleasure;
11Sending for a bird of strong flight from the east, the man of my purpose from a far country; I have said it, and I will give effect to it; the thing designed by me will certainly be done.
12Give ear to me, you feeble-hearted, who have no faith in my righteousness:
13My righteousness is near, it is not far off; salvation will come quickly; and I will make Zion free, and give Israel my glory.
Isaiah 47
1Come and take your seat in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; come down from your seat of power, and take your place on the earth, O daughter of the Chaldaeans: for you will never again seem soft and delicate.
2Take the crushing-stones and get the meal crushed: take off your veil, put away your robe, let your legs be uncovered, go through the rivers.
3The shame of your unclothed condition will be seen by all: I will give punishment without mercy,
4Says the Lord who takes up our cause; the Lord of armies is his name, the Holy One of Israel.
5Be seated in the dark without a word, O daughter of the Chaldaeans: for you will no longer be named, The Queen of Kingdoms.
6I was angry with my people, I put shame on my heritage, and gave them into your hands: you had no mercy on them; you put a cruel yoke on those who were old;
7And you said, I will be a queen for ever: you did not give attention to these things, and did not keep in mind what would come after.
8So now take note of this, you who are given up to pleasure, living without fear of evil, saying in your heart, I am, and there is no one like me; I will never be a widow, or have my children taken from me.
9But these two things will come on you suddenly in one day, the loss of children and of husband: in full measure they will come on you, for all your secret arts, and all your wonders.
10For you had faith in your evil-doing; you said, No one sees me; by your wisdom and knowledge you have been turned out of the way: and you have said in your heart, I am, and there is no other.
11Because of this evil will come on you, which may not be turned away for any price: and trouble will overtake you, from which no money will give salvation: destruction will come on you suddenly, without your knowledge.
12Go on now with your secret arts, and all your wonder-working, to which you have given yourself up from your earliest days; it may be that they will be of profit to you, or by them you may put fear into your attackers.
13But your mind is troubled by the number of your guides: let them now come forward for your salvation: the measurers of the heavens, the watchers of the stars, and those who are able to say from month to month what things are coming on you.
14Truly, they have become like dry stems, they have been burned in the fire; they are not able to keep themselves safe from the power of the flame: it is not a coal for warming them, or a fire by which a man may be seated.
15Small profit have you had from those who, from your earliest days, got great profit out of you; they have gone in flight, every one straight before him, and you have no saviour.
Isaiah 48
1Give ear to this, O family of Jacob, you who are named by the name of Israel, and have come out of the body of Judah; who take oaths by the name of the Lord, and make use of the name of the God of Israel, but not truly and not in good faith.
2For they say that they are of the holy town, and put their faith in the God of Israel: the Lord of armies is his name.
3I gave word in the past of the things which came about; they came from my mouth, and I made them clear: suddenly I did them, and they came about.
4Because I saw that your heart was hard, and that your neck was an iron cord, and your brow brass;
5For this reason I made it clear to you in the past, before it came I gave you word of it: for fear that you might say, My god did these things, and my pictured and metal images made them come about.
6All this has come to your ears and you have seen it; will you not give witness to it? I am now making clear new things, even secret things, of which you had no knowledge.
7They have only now been effected, and not in the past: and before this day they had not come to your ears; for fear that you might say, I had knowledge of them.
8Truly you had no word of them, no knowledge of them; no news of them in the past had come to your ears; because I saw how false was your behaviour, and that your heart was turned against me from your earliest days.
9Because of my name I will put away my wrath, and for my praise I will keep myself from cutting you off.
10See, I have been testing you for myself like silver; I have put you through the fire of trouble.
11For myself, even because of my name, I will do it; for I will not let my name be shamed; and my glory I will not give to another.
12Give ear to me, Jacob, and Israel, my loved one; I am he, I am the first and I am the last.
13Yes, by my hand was the earth placed on its base, and by my right hand the heavens were stretched out; at my word they take up their places.
14Come together, all of you, and give ear; who among you has given news of these things? the Lord's loved one will do his pleasure with Babylon, and with the seed of the Chaldaeans.
15I, even I, have given the word; I have sent for him: I have made him come, and have given effect to his undertakings.
16Come near to me, and give ear to this; from the start I did not keep it secret; from the time of its coming into existence I was there: and now the Lord God has sent me, and given me his spirit.
17The Lord who takes up your cause, the Holy One of Israel, says, I am the Lord your God, who is teaching you for your profit, guiding you by the way in which you are to go.
18If only you had given ear to my orders, then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea:
19Your seed would have been like the sand, and your offspring like the dust: your name would not be cut off or come to an end before me.
20Go out of Babylon, go in flight from the Chaldaeans; with the sound of song make it clear, give the news, let the word go out even to the end of the earth: say, The Lord has taken up the cause of his servant Jacob.
21They had no need of water when he was guiding them through the waste lands: he made water come out of the rock for them: the rock was parted and the waters came flowing out.
22There is no peace, says the Lord, for the evil-doers.