Isaiah 45-50

Isaiah 45

¹The Lord says to the man of his selection, to Cyrus, whom I have taken by the right hand, putting down nations before him, and taking away the arms of kings; making the doors open before him, so that the ways into the towns may not be shut;

²I will go before you, and make the rough places level: the doors of brass will be broken, and the iron rods cut in two:

³And I will give you the stores of the dark, and the wealth of secret places, so that you may be certain that I am the Lord, who gave you your name, even the God of Israel.

⁴Because of Jacob my servant, and Israel whom I have taken for myself, I have sent for you by name, giving you a name of honour, though you had no knowledge of me.

⁵I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God but me: I will make you ready for war, though you had no knowledge of me:

⁶So that they may see from the east and from the west that there is no God but me: I am the Lord, and there is no other.

⁷I am the giver of light and the maker of the dark; causing blessing, and sending troubles; I am the Lord, who does all these things.

⁸Let righteousness come down, O heavens, from on high, and let the sky send it down like rain: let the earth be open to give the fruit of salvation, causing righteousness to come up with it; I the Lord have made it come about.

⁹Cursed is he who has an argument with his Maker, the pot which has an argument with the Potter! Will the wet earth say to him who is working with it, What are you doing, that your work has nothing by which it may be gripped?

¹⁰Cursed is he who says to a father, To what are you giving life? or to a woman, What are you in birth-pains with?

¹¹The Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, says, Will you put a question to me about the things which are to come, or will you give me orders about my sons, and the work of my hands?

¹²I have made the earth, forming man on it: by my hands the heavens have been stretched out, and all the stars put in their ordered places.

¹³I have sent him out to overcome the nations, and I will make all his ways straight: I will give him the work of building my town, and he will let my prisoners go free, without price or reward, says the Lord of armies.

¹⁴The Lord says, The workmen of Egypt, and the traders of Ethiopia, and the tall Sabaeans, will come over the sea to you, and they will be yours; they will go after you; in chains they will come over: and they will go down on their faces before you, and will make prayer to you, saying, Truly, God is among you; and there is no other God.

¹⁵Truly, you have a secret God, the God of Israel is a Saviour!

¹⁶All those who have gone against him will be put to shame; the makers of images will be made low.

¹⁷But the Lord will make Israel free with an eternal salvation: you will not be put to shame or made low for ever and ever.

¹⁸For this is the word of the Lord who made the heavens; he is God; the maker and designer of the earth; who made it not to be a waste, but as a living-place for man: I am the Lord, and there is no other.

¹⁹I have not given my word in secret, in a place in the underworld; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, Go into a waste land to make request of me: I the Lord say what is true, my word is righteousness.

²⁰Come together, even come near, you nations who are still living: they have no knowledge who take up their image of wood, and make prayer to a god in whom is no salvation.

²¹Give the word, put forward your cause, let us have a discussion together: who has given news of this in the past? who made it clear in early times? did not I, the Lord? and there is no God but me; a true God and a saviour; there is no other.

²²Let your hearts be turned to me, so that you may have salvation, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is no other.

²³By myself have I taken an oath, a true word has gone from my mouth, and will not be changed, that to me every knee will be bent, and every tongue will give honour.

²⁴Only in the Lord will Jacob overcome and be strong: together all those who were angry with him will be put to shame and come to destruction.

²⁵In the Lord will all the seed of Israel get their rights, and they will give glory to him.

Isaiah 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.

Isaiah 49

¹Give ear, O sea-lands, to me; and take note, you peoples from far: I have been marked out by the Lord from the first; when I was still in my mother's body, he had my name in mind:

²And he has made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shade of his hand he has kept me; and he has made me like a polished arrow, keeping me in his secret place;

³And he said to me, You are my servant, Israel, in whom my glory will be seen;

⁴And I said, I have undergone weariness for nothing, I have given my strength for no purpose or profit: but still the Lord will take up my cause, and my God will give me my reward.

⁵And now, says the Lord, who made me his servant when I was still in my mother's body, so that I might make Jacob come back to him, and so that Israel might come together to him: and I was honoured in the eyes of the Lord, and my God became my strength.

⁶It is not enough for one who is my servant to put the tribes of Jacob again in their place, and to get back those of Israel who have been sent away: my purpose is to give you as a light to the nations, so that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.

⁷The Lord who takes up Israel's cause, even his Holy One, says to him whom men make sport of, who is hated by the nations, a servant of rulers: Kings will see and get up from their places, and chiefs will give worship: because of the Lord who keeps faith; even the Holy One of Israel who has taken you for himself.

⁸This is the word of the Lord: I have given ear to you at a good time, and I have been your helper in a day of salvation: and I will keep you safe, and will make you a glory for the people, putting the land in order, and giving them the heritages which now are waste;

⁹Saying to those who are in chains, Go free; to those who are in the dark, Come out into the light. They will get food by the way wherever they go, and have grass-lands on all the dry mountain-tops.

¹⁰They will not be in need of food or drink, or be troubled by the heat or the sun: for he who has mercy on them will be their guide, taking them by the springs of water.

¹¹And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways will be lifted up.

¹²See, these are coming from far; and these from the north and the west; and these from the land of Sinim.

¹³Let your voice be loud in song, O heavens; and be glad, O earth; make sounds of joy, O mountains, for the Lord has given comfort to his people, and will have mercy on his crushed ones.

¹⁴But Zion said, The Lord has given me up, I have gone from his memory.

¹⁵Will a woman give up the child at her breast, will she be without pity for the fruit of her body? yes, these may, but I will not let you go out of my memory.

¹⁶See, your name is marked on my hands; your walls are ever before me.

¹⁷Your builders are coming quickly; your haters and those who made you waste will go out of you.

¹⁸Let your eyes be lifted up round about, and see: they are all coming together to you. By my life, says the Lord, truly you will put them all on you as an ornament, and be clothed with them like a bride.

¹⁹For though the waste places of your land have been given to destruction, now you will not be wide enough for your people, and those who made you waste will be far away.

²⁰The children to whom you gave birth in other lands will say in your ears, The place is not wide enough for me: make room for me to have a resting-place.

²¹Then you will say in your heart, Who has given me all these children? when my children had been taken from me, and I was no longer able to have others, who took care of these? when I was by myself, where then were these?

²²This is the word of the Lord God: See, I will make a sign with my hand to the nations, and put up my flag for the peoples; and they will take up your sons on their beasts, and your daughters on their backs.

²³And kings will take care of you, and queens will give you their milk: they will go down on their faces before you, kissing the dust of your feet; and you will be certain that I am the Lord, and that those who put their hope in me will not be shamed.

²⁴Will the goods of war be taken from the strong man, or the prisoners of the cruel one be let go?

²⁵But the Lord says, Even the prisoners of the strong will be taken from him, and the cruel made to let go his goods: for I will take up your cause against your haters, and I will keep your children safe.

²⁶And the flesh of your attackers will be taken by themselves for food; and they will take their blood for drink, as if it was sweet wine: and all men will see that I the Lord am your saviour, even he who takes up your cause, the Strong One of Jacob.

Isaiah 50

¹This is the word of the Lord: Where is the statement which I gave your mother when I put her away? or to which of my creditors have I given you for money? It was for your sins that you were given into the hands of others, and for your evil-doing was your mother put away.

²Why, then, when I came, was there no man? and no one to give answer to my voice? has my hand become feeble, so that it is unable to take up your cause? or have I no power to make you free? See, at my word the sea becomes dry, I make the rivers a waste land: their fish are dead for need of water, and make an evil smell.

³By me the heavens are clothed with black, and I make haircloth their robe.

⁴The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are experienced, so that I may be able to give the word a special sense for the feeble: every morning my ear is open to his teaching, like those who are experienced:

⁵And I have not put myself against him, or let my heart be turned back from him.

⁶I was offering my back to those who gave me blows, and my face to those who were pulling out my hair: I did not keep my face covered from marks of shame.

⁷For the Lord God is my helper; I will not be put to shame: so I have made my face like a rock, and I am certain that he will give me my right.

⁸He who takes up my cause is near; who will go to law with me? let us come together before the judge: who is against me? let him come near to me.

⁹See, the Lord God is my helper; who will give a decision against me? truly, all of them will become old like a robe; they will be food for the worm.

¹⁰Who among you has the fear of the Lord, giving ear to the voice of his servant who has been walking in the dark and has no light? Let him put his faith in the name of the Lord, looking to his God for support.

¹¹See, all you who make a fire, arming yourselves with burning branches: go in the flame of your fire, and among the branches you have put a light to. This will you have from my hand, you will make your bed in sorrow.