Isaiah 42-46

Common English Bible

42 But here is my servant, the one I uphold;
    my chosen, who brings me delight.
I’ve put my spirit upon him;
    he will bring justice to the nations.
² He won’t cry out or shout aloud
    or make his voice heard in public.
³ He won’t break a bruised reed;
    he won’t extinguish a faint wick,
    but he will surely bring justice.
⁴ He won’t be extinguished or broken
    until he has established justice in the land.
The coastlands await his teaching.

¹⁰ Sing to the Lord a new song!
    Sing his praise from the ends of the earth!
You who sail the sea and all that fills it,
    the coastlands and their residents.
¹¹ Let the desert and its towns shout aloud,
    the villages that Kedar inhabits.
Let the cliff dwellers sing;
    from the top of the mountains let them shout.
¹² Let them give the Lord glory
    and declare God’s praise in the coastlands.
¹³ The Lord will go out like a soldier;
    like a warrior God will stir up rage.
God will shout, will roar;
    over enemies he will prevail.
¹⁴ I’ve kept still for a very long time.
    I’ve been silent and restrained myself.
Like a woman in labor I will moan;
    I will pant, I will gasp.
¹⁵ I will wither mountains and valleys,
    and I will dry up all their vegetation.
I will turn rivers into deserts,^[a]
    and I will dry up pools.
¹⁶ I will make the blind walk a road they don’t know,
    and I will guide them in paths they don’t know.
But I will make darkness before them into light
    and rough places into level ground.
These things I will do;
    I won’t abandon them.

¹⁷ Turned backward, utterly shamed
    are those who trust in idols,
    who say to a cast image,
    “You are our god!”
¹⁸ Hear, deaf ones,
    and blind ones, look and see!
¹⁹ Who is blind if not my servant
    and deaf like my messenger whom I send?
Who is blind like the restored one,^[b]
    blind like the servant of the Lord?
²⁰ You have seen many things, but don’t keep watch.
    With ears open, you don’t hear.^[c]
21 The Lord desired for the sake of his righteousness
    to expand and glorify the Instruction.
²² But this is a people plundered and looted,
    everyone trapped in holes and hidden in dungeons.
They have become plunder with no one to rescue,
    loot with no one to say, “Give it back.”

43 But now, says the Lord—
the one who created you, Jacob,
    the one who formed you, Israel:
Don’t fear, for I have redeemed you;
    I have called you by name; you are mine.
² When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
    when through the rivers, they won’t sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you won’t be scorched
    and flame won’t burn you.
³ I am the Lord your God,
    the holy one of Israel, your savior.
I have given Egypt as your ransom,
    Cush and Seba in your place.
⁴ Because you are precious in my eyes,
    you are honored, and I love you.
    I give people in your place,
        and nations in exchange for your life.
⁵ Don’t fear,
    I am with you.
From the east I’ll bring your children;
    from the west I’ll gather you.
⁶ I’ll say to the north, “Give them back!”
    and to the south, “Don’t detain them.”
Bring my sons from far away,
    and my daughters from the end of the earth,
⁷     everyone who is called by my name
    and whom I created for my glory,
    whom I have formed and made.

¹⁴ The Lord your redeemer,
    the holy one of Israel, says,
For your sake, I have sent an army^[d] to Babylon,
    and brought down all the bars,
    turning the Chaldeans’ singing into a lament.^[e]
15 I am the Lord, your holy one,
    Israel’s creator, your king!
¹⁶ The Lord says—who makes a way in the sea
    and a path in the mighty waters,
¹⁷     who brings out chariot and horse,
    army and battalion;
    they will lie down together and will not rise;
    they will be extinguished, extinguished like a wick.
¹⁸ Don’t remember the prior things;
    don’t ponder ancient history.
¹⁹ Look! I’m doing a new thing;
    now it sprouts up; don’t you recognize it?
I’m making a way in the desert,
    paths^[f] in the wilderness.
²⁰ The beasts of the field,
        the jackals and ostriches, will honor me,
    because I have put water in the desert
    and streams in the wilderness
    to give water to my people,
    my chosen ones,
²¹     this people whom I formed for myself,
        who will recount my praise.

44 But now hear this, Jacob my servant,
    and Israel, whom I have chosen.
² The Lord your maker,
    who formed you in the womb and will help you, says:
    Don’t fear, my servant Jacob,
    Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.
³ I will pour out water upon thirsty ground
    and streams upon dry land.
I will pour out my spirit upon your descendants
    and my blessing upon your offspring.
⁴ They will spring up from among the reeds
    like willows by flowing streams.
⁵ This one will say, “I am the Lord’s,”
        and that one will be named after Jacob.
    Another will write on his hand, “The Lord’s”
        and will take the name Israel.

⁹ Idol-makers are all as nothing;
    their playthings do no good.
Their promoters neither see nor know anything,
    so they ought to be ashamed.
¹⁰ Who would form a god or cast an idol
    that does no good?
¹¹ All its worshippers will be ashamed,
    and its artisans, who are only human.
They will all gather and stand,
    tremble and be ashamed together.
¹² A blacksmith with his tools
    works it over coals,
    and shapes it with hammers,
    and works it with his strong arm.
He even becomes hungry and weak.
    If he didn’t drink water, he’d pass out.
¹³ A carpenter stretches out a string,
    marks it out with a stylus,
    fashions it with carving tools,
    and marks it with a compass.
He makes it into a human form,
    like a splendid human,
    to live in a temple.
¹⁴ He cuts down cedars for himself,
    or chooses a cypress^[i] or oak,
    selecting from all the trees of the forest.
    He plants a pine,^[j] and the rain makes it grow.
¹⁵     It becomes suitable to burn for humans,
        so he takes some of the wood and warms himself.
    He kindles fire and bakes bread.
He fashions a god and worships it;
    he makes an idol and bows down to it.
¹⁶ Half of it he burns in the fire;
    on that half he roasts and eats meat, and he is satisfied.
He warms himself and says,
    “Ah, I’m warm, watching the fire!”
¹⁷ And the rest of it he makes into a god,
    into his idol,
    and he bows down, worships, and prays to it, saying, “Save me, for you are my god!”
¹⁸ They don’t know or comprehend,
    for their eyes can’t see
    and their minds can’t comprehend.
¹⁹ He doesn’t think,
    and has no knowledge or understanding to think:
Half of it I burned in the fire,
    and I baked bread on its coals,
    and roasted meat and ate.
Should I make the rest into something detestable?
    Should I bow down to a block of wood?
²⁰ He’s feeding on ashes;
    his deluded mind has led him astray.
He can’t save himself and say,
    “Isn’t this thing in my hand a lie?”

²¹ Remember these things, Jacob;
    Israel, for you are my servant.
I formed you; you are my servant!
    I won’t forget you, Israel.
²² I swept away your rebellions like a cloud,
    and your sins like fog.
Return to me,
    because I have redeemed you.

45 The Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus,
    whom I have grasped by the strong hand,
    to conquer nations before him,
    disarming kings,
    and opening doors before him,
    so no gates will be shut:
² I myself will go before you,
    and I will level mountains.
I will shatter bronze doors;
    I will cut through iron bars.
³ I will give you hidden treasures of secret riches,
    so you will know that I am the Lord,
    the God of Israel, who calls you by name.
⁴ For the sake of my servant Jacob and Israel my chosen,
    I called you by name.
I gave you an honored title,
    though you didn’t know me.
⁵ I am the Lord, and there is no other;
    besides me there is no God.
I strengthen you—
    though you don’t know me—
⁶ so all will know, from the rising of the sun to its setting,
    that there is nothing apart from me.
I am the Lord; there’s no other.
⁷     I form light and create darkness,
    make prosperity and create doom;
    I am the Lord, who does all these things.

⁹ Doom to the one who argues with the potter,^[l]
    as if he were just another clay pot!
Does the clay say to the potter, “What are you making?”
    or “Your work has no handles”?
¹⁰ Doom to one who says to a father,
    “What have you fathered?”
    and to a woman,
    “With what are you in labor?”
¹¹ The Lord, the holy one of Israel and its maker,^[m] says:
Are you questioning me^[n] about my own children?
    Are you telling me what to do with the work of my hands?
¹² I myself made the earth,
    and created humans upon it.
    My own hands stretched out the heavens.
    I commanded all their forces.
¹³ I have a right to awaken Cyrus;
    I will smooth all his paths.
He will build my city
    and set my exiles free,
    not for a price and not for a bribe,
    says the Lord of heavenly forces.

¹⁶ They will all be shamed and disgraced;
    the makers of idols will end up disgraced together.
¹⁷ Israel has been saved by the Lord of everlasting salvation.
You won’t be shamed,
    and you won’t be disgraced forever and always.
¹⁸ For this is what the Lord said, who created the heavens,
    who is God,
    who formed the earth and made it,
    who established it,
    who didn’t create it a wasteland but formed it as a habitation:
    I, the Lord, and none other!
¹⁹ I didn’t speak in secret
    or in some land of darkness;
I didn’t say to the offspring of Jacob,
    “Seek me in chaos.”
I am the Lord, the one who speaks truth,
    who announces what is correct.
²⁰ Gather and come,
    draw near together,
    fugitives of the nations!
Those who carry their wooden idols don’t know;
    those who pray to a god who won’t save.
²¹ Announce! Approach! Confer together!
    Who proclaimed this from the beginning, announced it from long ago?
Wasn’t it I, the Lord?
    There’s no other God except me,
    a righteous God and a savior;
    there’s none besides me!
²² Turn to me and be saved,
    all you ends of the earth,
    for I am God, and there’s no other.
²³ I have sworn a solemn pledge;
    a word has left my mouth;
    it is reliable and won’t fail.
Surely every knee will bow
and every tongue will confess;
²⁴     they will say, “Righteousness and strength come only from the Lord.
    All who are angry with him will come to shame.
²⁵ All the Israelites
    will be victorious and rejoice.”

46 Bel crouches down; Nebo cowers.
    Their idols sit on animals, on beasts.
The objects you once carried about
    are now borne as burdens by the weary animals.
² They crouch down and cower together.
They aren’t able to rescue the burden,
    but they themselves go into captivity.
³ Listen to me, house of Jacob,
    all that remains from the house of Israel
    who have been borne by me since pregnancy,
    whom I carried from the womb
⁴     until you grow old. I am the one,
    and until you turn gray I will support you.
I have done it, and I will continue to bear it;
    I will support and I will rescue.
⁵ To whom will you liken me and count me equal
    and compare me so that we are alike?
⁶ Those who pour out gold from a bag
    and weigh silver with a balance
    hire a metalworker; then he makes a god.
They bow down; they worship;
⁷     they carry the idol^[p] on their shoulders and support it;
    they set it down, and it stands still,
    unable to move from its place.
If one cries out to it, it doesn’t answer.
    It can’t save people from their distress.

⁸ Remember this and take courage;
    take it to heart, you rebels.
⁹ Remember the prior things—from long ago;
    I am God, and there’s no other.
I am God! There’s none like me,
¹⁰     who tells the end at the beginning,
    from ancient times things not yet done,
    saying, “My plan will stand;
    all that I decide I will do,”
¹¹ I call a bird of prey from the east,
    a man from a distant land for my plan.
As surely as I have spoken, I’ll make it happen;
    I have planned, and yes, I’ll do it.
¹² Listen to me, you bullheaded people
    who are far from victory:
¹³ I’m bringing my victory near—it isn’t far,
    and my salvation—it won’t delay.
I will establish salvation in Zion
    and grant my splendor to Israel.