Isaiah 35
1The wilderness and the dry land will be glad.
The desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose.
2It will blossom abundantly,
and rejoice even with joy and singing.
Lebanon’s glory will be given to it,
the excellence of Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the LORD’s glory,
the excellence of our God.
Strengthen the weak hands,
and make the feeble knees firm.
4Tell those who have a fearful heart, “Be strong!
Don’t be afraid!
Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God’s retribution.
He will come and save you.
Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,
and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
6Then the lame man will leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute will sing;
for waters will break out in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert.
7The burning sand will become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water.
Grass with reeds and rushes will be in the habitation of jackals, where they lay.
8A highway will be there, a road,
and it will be called “The Holy Way”.
The unclean shall not pass over it,
but it will be for those who walk in the Way.
Wicked fools shall not go there.
9No lion will be there,
nor will any ravenous animal go up on it.
They will not be found there;
but the redeemed will walk there.
10Then the LORD’s ransomed ones will return,
and come with singing to Zion;
and everlasting joy will be on their heads.
They will obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”
Isaiah 36
1Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all of the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. 2The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a large army. He stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool in the fuller’s field highway. 3Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph the recorder came out to him.
4Rabshakeh said to them, “Now tell Hezekiah, ‘The great king, the king of Assyria, says, “What confidence is this in which you trust? 5I say that your counsel and strength for the war are only vain words. Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? 6Behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt, which if a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 7But if you tell me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God,’ isn’t that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?” 8Now therefore, please make a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. 9How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 10Have I come up now without the LORD against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, “Go up against this land, and destroy it.”’”
11Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Don’t speak to us in the Jews’ language in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”
12But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you, to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?” 13Then Rabshakeh stood, and called out with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 14The king says, ‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you. 15Don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us. This city won’t be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”’ 16Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for the king of Assyria says, ‘Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and each of you eat from his vine, and each one from his fig tree, and each one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; 17until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? 19Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? 20Who are they among all the gods of these countries that have delivered their country out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”
21But they remained silent, and said nothing in reply, for the king’s commandment was, “Don’t answer him.”
22Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
Isaiah 37
1When King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the LORD’s house. 2He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. 3They said to him, “Hezekiah says, ‘Today is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to give birth. 4It may be the LORD your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’”
5So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
6Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘The LORD says, “Don’t be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7Behold, I will put a spirit in him and he will hear news, and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”’”
8So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish. 9He heard news concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “He has come out to fight against you.” When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10“Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem won’t be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” 11Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Shall you be delivered? 12Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar? 13Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?’”
14Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to the LORD’s house, and spread it before the LORD. 15Hezekiah prayed to the LORD, saying, 16“LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, who is enthroned among the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 17Turn your ear, LORD, and hear. Open your eyes, LORD, and behold. Hear all of the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to defy the living God. 18Truly, LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the countries and their land, 19and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them. 20Now therefore, LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the LORD, even you only.”
21Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “The LORD, the God of Israel says, ‘Because you have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22this is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you. 23Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel. 24By your servants, you have defied the Lord, and have said, “With the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon. I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypress trees. I will enter into its farthest height, the forest of its fruitful field. 25I have dug and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt.”
26“‘Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to destroy fortified cities, turning them into ruinous heaps. 27Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field, and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops, and like a field before its crop has grown. 28But I know your sitting down, your going out, your coming in, and your raging against me. 29Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.
30“‘This shall be the sign to you: You will eat this year that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs from it; and in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 31The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. 32For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go out, and survivors will escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of Armies will perform this.’
33“Therefore the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither will he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it. 34He will return the way that he came, and he won’t come to this city,’ says the LORD. 35‘For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.’”
36Then the LORD’s angel went out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 37So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, went away, returned to Nineveh, and stayed there. 38As he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place.
Isaiah 38
1In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, “The LORD says, ‘Set your house in order, for you will die, and not live.’”
2Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, 3and said, “Remember now, LORD, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” Then Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4Then the LORD’s word came to Isaiah, saying, 5“Go, and tell Hezekiah, ‘The LORD, the God of David your father, says, “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. 6I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. 7This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has spoken. 8Behold, I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps.”’” So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down.
9The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness:
10I said, “In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol.
I am deprived of the residue of my years.”
11I said, “I won’t see the LORD,
the LORD in the land of the living.
I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
12My dwelling is removed,
and is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent.
I have rolled up my life like a weaver.
He will cut me off from the loom.
From day even to night you will make an end of me.
13I waited patiently until morning.
He breaks all my bones like a lion.
From day even to night you will make an end of me.
14I chattered like a swallow or a crane.
I moaned like a dove.
My eyes weaken looking upward.
Lord, I am oppressed.
Be my security.”
15What will I say?
He has both spoken to me, and himself has done it.
I will walk carefully all my years because of the anguish of my soul.
16Lord, men live by these things;
and my spirit finds life in all of them.
You restore me, and cause me to live.
17Behold, for peace I had great anguish,
but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption;
for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
18For Sheol can’t praise you.
Death can’t celebrate you.
Those who go down into the pit can’t hope for your truth.
19The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do today.
The father shall make known your truth to the children.
20The LORD will save me.
Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in the LORD’s house.
21Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.” 22Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I will go up to the LORD’s house?”
Isaiah 39
1At that time, Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick, and had recovered. 2Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah didn’t show them. 3Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and asked him, “What did these men say? From where did they come to you?” Hezekiah said, “They have come from a country far from me, even from Babylon.”
4Then he asked, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.”
5Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of Armies: 6‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up until today, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left,’ says the LORD. 7‘They will take away your sons who will issue from you, whom you shall father, and they will be eunuchs in the king of Babylon’s palace.’”
8Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The LORD’s word which you have spoken is good.” He said moreover, “For there will be peace and truth in my days.”
Isaiah 40
1“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. 2“Speak comfortably to Jerusalem, and call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.”
3The voice of one who calls out,
“Prepare the way of the LORD in the wilderness!
Make a level highway in the desert for our God.
4Every valley shall be exalted,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The uneven shall be made level,
and the rough places a plain.
5The LORD’s glory shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together;
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.”
The voice of one saying, “Cry out!”
One said, “What shall I cry?”
“All flesh is like grass,
and all its glory is like the flower of the field.
7The grass withers,
the flower fades,
because the LORD’s breath blows on it.
Surely the people are like grass.
8The grass withers,
the flower fades;
but the word of our God stands forever.”
You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain.
You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength!
Lift it up! Don’t be afraid!
Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold, your God!”
10Behold, the Lord GOD will come as a mighty one,
and his arm will rule for him.
Behold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
11He will feed his flock like a shepherd.
He will gather the lambs in his arm,
and carry them in his bosom.
He will gently lead those who have their young.
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
and marked off the sky with his span,
and calculated the dust of the earth in a measuring basket,
and weighed the mountains in scales,
and the hills in a balance?
13Who has directed the LORD’s Spirit,
or has taught him as his counselor?
14Who did he take counsel with,
and who instructed him,
and taught him in the path of justice,
and taught him knowledge,
and showed him the way of understanding?
15Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket,
and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance.
Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing.
16Lebanon is not sufficient to burn,
nor its animals sufficient for a burnt offering.
17All the nations are like nothing before him.
They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity.
To whom then will you liken God?
Or what likeness will you compare to him?
19A workman has cast an image,
and the goldsmith overlays it with gold,
and casts silver chains for it.
20He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot.
He seeks a skillful workman to set up a carved image for him that will not be moved.
Haven’t you known?
Haven’t you heard?
Haven’t you been told from the beginning?
Haven’t you understood from the foundations of the earth?
22It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in,
23who brings princes to nothing,
who makes the judges of the earth meaningless.
24They are planted scarcely.
They are sown scarcely.
Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground.
He merely blows on them, and they wither,
and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.
“To whom then will you liken me?
Who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
26Lift up your eyes on high,
and see who has created these,
who brings out their army by number.
He calls them all by name.
By the greatness of his might,
and because he is strong in power,
not one is lacking.
Why do you say, Jacob,
and speak, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD,
and the justice due me is disregarded by my God”?
28Haven’t you known?
Haven’t you heard?
The everlasting God, the LORD,
the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint.
He isn’t weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.
29He gives power to the weak.
He increases the strength of him who has no might.
30Even the youths faint and get weary,
and the young men utterly fall;
31but those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength.
They will mount up with wings like eagles.
They will run, and not be weary.
They will walk, and not faint.
Isaiah 41
1“Keep silent before me, islands,
and let the peoples renew their strength.
Let them come near,
then let them speak.
Let’s meet together for judgment.
2Who has raised up one from the east?
Who called him to his feet in righteousness?
He hands over nations to him
and makes him rule over kings.
He gives them like the dust to his sword,
like the driven stubble to his bow.
3He pursues them
and passes by safely,
even by a way that he had not gone with his feet.
4Who has worked and done it,
calling the generations from the beginning?
I, the LORD, the first, and with the last, I am he.”
The islands have seen, and fear.
The ends of the earth tremble.
They approach, and come.
6Everyone helps his neighbor.
They say to their brothers, “Be strong!”
7So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith.
He who smooths with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil,
saying of the soldering, “It is good;”
and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter.
“But you, Israel, my servant,
Jacob whom I have chosen,
the offspring of Abraham my friend,
9you whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth,
and called from its corners,
and said to you, ‘You are my servant. I have chosen you and have not cast you away.’
10Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you.
Don’t be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you.
Yes, I will help you.
Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.
11Behold, all those who are incensed against you will be disappointed and confounded.
Those who strive with you will be like nothing, and shall perish.
12You will seek them, and won’t find them,
even those who contend with you.
Those who war against you will be as nothing,
as a nonexistent thing.
13For I, the LORD your God, will hold your right hand,
saying to you, ‘Don’t be afraid.
I will help you.’
14Don’t be afraid, you worm Jacob,
and you men of Israel.
I will help you,” says the LORD.
“Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
15Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth.
You will thresh the mountains,
and beat them small,
and will make the hills like chaff.
16You will winnow them,
and the wind will carry them away,
and the whirlwind will scatter them.
You will rejoice in the LORD.
You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.
The poor and needy seek water, and there is none.
Their tongue fails for thirst.
I, the LORD, will answer them.
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
18I will open rivers on the bare heights,
and springs in the middle of the valleys.
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
and the dry land springs of water.
19I will put cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oil trees in the wilderness.
I will set cypress trees, pine, and box trees together in the desert;
20that they may see, know, consider, and understand together,
that the LORD’s hand has done this,
and the Holy One of Israel has created it.
Produce your cause,” says the LORD.
“Bring out your strong reasons!” says the King of Jacob.
22“Let them announce and declare to us what will happen!
Declare the former things, what they are,
that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them;
or show us things to come.
23Declare the things that are to come hereafter,
that we may know that you are gods.
Yes, do good, or do evil,
that we may be dismayed,
and see it together.
24Behold, you are nothing,
and your work is nothing.
He who chooses you is an abomination.
“I have raised up one from the north, and he has come,
from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name,
and he shall come on rulers as on mortar,
and as the potter treads clay.
26Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know?
and before, that we may say, ‘He is right’?
Surely, there is no one who declares.
Surely, there is no one who shows.
Surely, there is no one who hears your words.
27I am the first to say to Zion, ‘Behold, look at them;’
and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem.
28When I look, there is no man,
even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask, can answer a word.
29Behold, all of their deeds are vanity and nothing.
Their molten images are wind and confusion.
Isaiah 42
1“Behold, my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights:
I have put my Spirit on him.
He will bring justice to the nations.
2He will not shout,
nor raise his voice,
nor cause it to be heard in the street.
3He won’t break a bruised reed.
He won’t quench a dimly burning wick.
He will faithfully bring justice.
4He will not fail nor be discouraged,
until he has set justice on the earth,
and the islands wait for his law.”
God the LORD,
he who created the heavens and stretched them out,
he who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it,
he who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it, says:
6“I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness.
I will hold your hand.
I will keep you,
and make you a covenant for the people,
as a light for the nations,
7to open the blind eyes,
to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon,
and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.
“I am the LORD.
That is my name.
I will not give my glory to another,
nor my praise to engraved images.
9Behold, the former things have happened
and I declare new things.
I tell you about them before they come up.”
Sing to the LORD a new song,
and his praise from the end of the earth,
you who go down to the sea,
and all that is therein,
the islands and their inhabitants.
11Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices,
with the villages that Kedar inhabits.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing.
Let them shout from the top of the mountains!
12Let them give glory to the LORD,
and declare his praise in the islands.
13The LORD will go out like a mighty man.
He will stir up zeal like a man of war.
He will raise a war cry.
Yes, he will shout aloud.
He will triumph over his enemies.
“I have been silent a long time.
I have been quiet and restrained myself.
Now I will cry out like a travailing woman. I will both gasp and pant.
15I will destroy mountains and hills,
and dry up all their herbs.
I will make the rivers islands,
and will dry up the pools.
16I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know.
I will lead them in paths that they don’t know.
I will make darkness light before them,
and crooked places straight.
I will do these things,
and I will not forsake them.
“Those who trust in engraved images,
who tell molten images,
‘You are our gods,’
will be turned back.
They will be utterly disappointed.
“Hear, you deaf,
and look, you blind,
that you may see.
19Who is blind, but my servant?
Or who is as deaf as my messenger whom I send?
Who is as blind as he who is at peace,
and as blind as the LORD’s servant?
20You see many things, but don’t observe.
His ears are open, but he doesn’t listen.
21It pleased the LORD, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify the law
and make it honorable.
22But this is a robbed and plundered people.
All of them are snared in holes,
and they are hidden in prisons.
They have become captives, and no one delivers,
and a plunder, and no one says, ‘Restore them!’
Who is there among you who will give ear to this?
Who will listen and hear for the time to come?
24Who gave Jacob as plunder,
and Israel to the robbers?
Didn’t the LORD, he against whom we have sinned?
For they would not walk in his ways,
and they disobeyed his law.
25Therefore he poured the fierceness of his anger on him,
and the strength of battle.
It set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know.
It burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart.”
Isaiah 43
1But now the LORD who created you, Jacob,
and he who formed you, Israel, says:
“Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you.
I have called you by your name.
You are mine.
2When you pass through the waters, I will be with you,
and through the rivers, they will not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned,
and flame will not scorch you.
3For I am the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
your Savior.
I have given Egypt as your ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba in your place.
4Since you have been precious and honored in my sight,
and I have loved you,
therefore I will give people in your place,
and nations instead of your life.
5Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and gather you from the west.
6I will tell the north, ‘Give them up!’
and tell the south, ‘Don’t hold them back!
Bring my sons from far away,
and my daughters from the ends of the earth—
7everyone who is called by my name,
and whom I have created for my glory,
whom I have formed,
yes, whom I have made.’”
Bring out the blind people who have eyes,
and the deaf who have ears.
9Let all the nations be gathered together,
and let the peoples be assembled.
Who among them can declare this,
and show us former things?
Let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified,
or let them hear, and say, “That is true.”
“You are my witnesses,” says the LORD,
“With my servant whom I have chosen;
that you may know and believe me,
and understand that I am he.
Before me there was no God formed,
neither will there be after me.
11I myself am the LORD.
Besides me, there is no savior.
12I have declared, I have saved, and I have shown,
and there was no strange god among you.
Therefore you are my witnesses”,
says the LORD, “and I am God.
13Yes, since the day was, I am he.
There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.
I will work, and who can hinder it?”
14The LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: “For your sake, I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring all of them down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing. 15I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.”
16The LORD, who makes a way in the sea,
and a path in the mighty waters,
17who brings out the chariot and horse,
the army and the mighty man
(they lie down together, they shall not rise;
they are extinct, they are quenched like a wick) says:
18“Don’t remember the former things,
and don’t consider the things of old.
19Behold, I will do a new thing.
It springs out now.
Don’t you know it?
I will even make a way in the wilderness,
and rivers in the desert.
20The animals of the field, the jackals and the ostriches, shall honor me,
because I give water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my people, my chosen,
21the people which I formed for myself,
that they might declare my praise.
Yet you have not called on me, Jacob;
but you have been weary of me, Israel.
23You have not brought me any of your sheep for burnt offerings,
neither have you honored me with your sacrifices.
I have not burdened you with offerings,
nor wearied you with frankincense.
24You have bought me no sweet cane with money,
nor have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices,
but you have burdened me with your sins.
You have wearied me with your iniquities.
I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake;
and I will not remember your sins.
26Put me in remembrance.
Let us plead together.
Declare your case,
that you may be justified.
27Your first father sinned,
and your teachers have transgressed against me.
28Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary;
and I will make Jacob a curse,
and Israel an insult.”
Isaiah 44
1Yet listen now, Jacob my servant,
and Israel, whom I have chosen.
2This is what the LORD who made you,
and formed you from the womb,
who will help you says:
“Don’t be afraid, Jacob my servant;
and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.
3For I will pour water on him who is thirsty,
and streams on the dry ground.
I will pour my Spirit on your descendants,
and my blessing on your offspring;
4and they will spring up among the grass,
as willows by the watercourses.
5One will say, ‘I am the LORD’s.’
Another will be called by the name of Jacob;
and another will write with his hand ‘to the LORD,’
and honor the name of Israel.”
This is what the LORD, the King of Israel,
and his Redeemer, the LORD of Armies, says:
“I am the first, and I am the last;
and besides me there is no God.
7Who is like me?
Who will call,
and will declare it,
and set it in order for me,
since I established the ancient people?
Let them declare the things that are coming,
and that will happen.
8Don’t fear,
neither be afraid.
Haven’t I declared it to you long ago,
and shown it?
You are my witnesses.
Is there a God besides me?
Indeed, there is not.
I don’t know any other Rock.”
Everyone who makes a carved image is vain.
The things that they delight in will not profit.
Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that they may be disappointed.
10Who has fashioned a god,
or molds an image that is profitable for nothing?
11Behold, all his fellows will be disappointed;
and the workmen are mere men.
Let them all be gathered together.
Let them stand up.
They will fear.
They will be put to shame together.
The blacksmith takes an ax,
works in the coals,
fashions it with hammers,
and works it with his strong arm.
He is hungry,
and his strength fails;
he drinks no water,
and is faint.
13The carpenter stretches out a line.
He marks it out with a pencil.
He shapes it with planes.
He marks it out with compasses,
and shapes it like the figure of a man,
with the beauty of a man,
to reside in a house.
14He cuts down cedars for himself,
and takes the cypress and the oak,
and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest.
He plants a cypress tree,
and the rain nourishes it.
15Then it will be for a man to burn;
and he takes some of it and warms himself.
Yes, he burns it and bakes bread.
Yes, he makes a god and worships it;
he makes it a carved image, and falls down to it.
16He burns part of it in the fire.
With part of it, he eats meat.
He roasts a roast and is satisfied.
Yes, he warms himself
and says, “Aha! I am warm. I have seen the fire.”
17The rest of it he makes into a god,
even his engraved image.
He bows down to it and worships,
and prays to it, and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”
They don’t know, neither do they consider,
for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see,
and their hearts, that they can’t understand.
19No one thinks,
neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say,
“I have burned part of it in the fire.
Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals.
I have roasted meat and eaten it.
Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination?
Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?”
20He feeds on ashes.
A deceived heart has turned him aside;
and he can’t deliver his soul,
nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”
Remember these things, Jacob and Israel,
for you are my servant.
I have formed you.
You are my servant.
Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.
22I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions,
and, as a cloud, your sins.
Return to me, for I have redeemed you.
Sing, you heavens, for the LORD has done it!
Shout, you lower parts of the earth!
Break out into singing, you mountains, O forest, all of your trees,
for the LORD has redeemed Jacob,
and will glorify himself in Israel.
The LORD, your Redeemer,
and he who formed you from the womb says:
“I am the LORD, who makes all things;
who alone stretches out the heavens;
who spreads out the earth by myself;
25who frustrates the signs of the liars,
and makes diviners mad;
who turns wise men backward,
and makes their knowledge foolish;
26who confirms the word of his servant,
and performs the counsel of his messengers;
who says of Jerusalem, ‘She will be inhabited;’
and of the cities of Judah, ‘They will be built,’
and ‘I will raise up its waste places;’
27who says to the deep, ‘Be dry,’
and ‘I will dry up your rivers,’
28who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure,’
even saying of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built;’
and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’”
Isaiah 45
1The LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held to subdue nations before him and strip kings of their armor, to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut:
2“I will go before you
and make the rough places smooth.
I will break the doors of bronze in pieces
and cut apart the bars of iron.
3I will give you the treasures of darkness
and hidden riches of secret places,
that you may know that it is I, the LORD, who calls you by your name,
even the God of Israel.
4For Jacob my servant’s sake,
and Israel my chosen,
I have called you by your name.
I have given you a title,
though you have not known me.
5I am the LORD, and there is no one else.
Besides me, there is no God.
I will strengthen you,
though you have not known me,
6that they may know from the rising of the sun,
and from the west,
that there is no one besides me.
I am the LORD, and there is no one else.
7I form the light
and create darkness.
I make peace
and create calamity.
I am the LORD,
who does all these things.
Rain, you heavens, from above,
and let the skies pour down righteousness.
Let the earth open, that it may produce salvation,
and let it cause righteousness to spring up with it.
I, the LORD, have created it.
Woe to him who strives with his Maker—
a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth!
Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’
or your work, ‘He has no hands’?
10Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What have you become the father of?’
or to a mother, ‘What have you given birth to?’”
The LORD, the Holy One of Israel
and his Maker says:
“You ask me about the things that are to come, concerning my sons,
and you command me concerning the work of my hands!
12I have made the earth, and created man on it.
I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens.
I have commanded all their army.
13I have raised him up in righteousness,
and I will make all his ways straight.
He shall build my city,
and he shall let my exiles go free,
not for price nor reward,” says the LORD of Armies.
The LORD says: “The labor of Egypt,
and the merchandise of Ethiopia,
and the Sabeans, men of stature, will come over to you,
and they will be yours.
They will go after you.
They shall come over in chains.
They will bow down to you.
They will make supplication to you:
‘Surely God is in you; and there is no one else.
There is no other god.
15Most certainly you are a God who has hidden yourself,
God of Israel, the Savior.’”
16They will be disappointed,
yes, confounded, all of them.
Those who are makers of idols will go into confusion together.
17Israel will be saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation.
You will not be disappointed nor confounded to ages everlasting.
For the LORD who created the heavens,
the God who formed the earth and made it,
who established it and didn’t create it a waste,
who formed it to be inhabited says:
“I am the LORD.
There is no other.
19I have not spoken in secret,
in a place of the land of darkness.
I didn’t say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’
I, the LORD, speak righteousness.
I declare things that are right.
“Assemble yourselves and come.
Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations.
Those have no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image,
and pray to a god that can’t save.
21Declare and present it.
Yes, let them take counsel together.
Who has shown this from ancient time?
Who has declared it of old?
Haven’t I, the LORD?
There is no other God besides me, a just God and a Savior.
There is no one besides me.
“Look to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth;
for I am God, and there is no other.
23I have sworn by myself.
The word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and will not be revoked,
that to me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall take an oath.
24They will say of me,
‘There is righteousness and strength only in the LORD.’”
Even to him will men come.
All those who raged against him will be disappointed.
25All the offspring of Israel will be justified in the LORD,
and will rejoice!
Isaiah 46
1Bel bows down.
Nebo stoops.
Their idols are carried by animals,
and on the livestock.
The things that you carried around are heavy loads,
a burden for the weary.
2They stoop and they bow down together.
They could not deliver the burden,
but they have gone into captivity.
“Listen to me, house of Jacob,
and all the remnant of the house of Israel,
that have been carried from their birth,
that have been carried from the womb.
4Even to old age I am he,
and even to gray hairs I will carry you.
I have made, and I will bear.
Yes, I will carry, and will deliver.
“To whom will you compare me, and consider my equal,
and compare me, as if we were the same?
6Some pour out gold from the bag,
and weigh silver in the balance.
They hire a goldsmith,
and he makes it a god.
They fall down—
yes, they worship.
7They bear it on their shoulder.
They carry it, and set it in its place, and it stands there.
It cannot move from its place.
Yes, one may cry to it, yet it can not answer.
It cannot save him out of his trouble.
“Remember this, and show yourselves men.
Bring it to mind again, you transgressors.
9Remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other.
I am God, and there is none like me.
10I declare the end from the beginning,
and from ancient times things that are not yet done.
I say: My counsel will stand,
and I will do all that I please.
11I call a ravenous bird from the east,
the man of my counsel from a far country.
Yes, I have spoken.
I will also bring it to pass.
I have planned.
I will also do it.
Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted,
who are far from righteousness!
13I bring my righteousness near.
It is not far off,
and my salvation will not wait.
I will grant salvation to Zion,
my glory to Israel.