Isaiah 47-51

Common English Bible

⁵ Sit silent and go into darkness, Daughter Chaldea,
    because they will no longer call you Queen of Kingdoms.
⁶ I was enraged with my people;
    I made my inheritance impure
    and put them under your power.
You took no pity on them.
    You made your yoke heavy even on the elderly.
⁷     You said, “I’m forever; I’m the eternal mistress.”
    You didn’t stop and think;
    you didn’t consider the outcome.
⁸ So listen to this,
luxuriant one who sits secure,
    who says in her heart, I’m utterly unique;
    I’ll never sit as a widow;
    I’ll never know childlessness:
⁹ Both of these will happen to you at once, on a single day:
    childlessness and widowhood
    will envelop you in full measure,
    despite your many sorceries,
    despite your very powerful spells.
¹⁰ You felt secure in your evil;
    you said, “No one sees me.”
Your wisdom and knowledge spun you around.
    You thought to yourself, I and no one else.
¹¹ Now evil will come against you,
    something you won’t anticipate.
A curse will fall upon you,
    something you won’t be able to dispel.
Destruction will come upon you suddenly,
    something you won’t foresee.

¹² Continue with your enchantments,
    and with your many spells,
    which you have practiced since childhood.
Maybe you will be able to succeed.
    Maybe you will inspire terror.
¹³ You are weary from all your consultations;
    let the astrologers stand up and save you,
    those who gaze at the stars,
    and predict what will happen to you at each new moon.
¹⁴ They are just like stubble;
    the fire burns them.
They won’t save themselves from the powerful flames.
    This is no warming ember or fire to sit beside.
¹⁵ Those with whom you have wearied yourself are like this,
    those with whom you were in business from your youth:
    each has wandered off on their own way;
    none will save you.

²     They are known as residents of the holy city,
        those who depend upon the God of Israel—
        the Lord of heavenly forces is his name.
³ Past things I announced long ago;
    from my mouth I proclaimed them.
    I acted suddenly, and they came about.
⁴ Because I know that you are stubborn,
    your neck is made of iron,
    and your forehead is bronze.
⁵ I informed you long ago;
    before they came about I proclaimed them to you
    so you wouldn’t say, “My idol did them;
    my wood statue and metal god commanded them.”
⁶ You’ve heard and seen all this—
    won’t you admit it?
From now on I’ll tell you new things,
    guarded secrets that you don’t know.
⁷ They are created now, not long ago;
    before today you hadn’t heard of them,
    so you won’t say, “I already knew them.”
⁸ You haven’t heard, nor have you known;
    as in ages past your ears are closed,
    because I knew what a traitor you were;
    you were known as a rebel from birth.
⁹ For the sake of my reputation I control my anger;
    for your sake I restrain my powerful radiance
    so as to not destroy you.
¹⁰ See, I have refined you, but not like silver;
    I have tested you^[c] in the furnace of misery.
¹¹ For the sake of my reputation, for my own sake, I will act,
    for why will my name be made impure?
    I won’t give my glory to another.

¹² Listen to me, Jacob;
    Israel, whom I called:
        I am the one;
        I am the first and I am the last.
¹³ My hand founded the earth;
    my strong hand spread out the heavens.
    When I call to them, they all stand up.
¹⁴ Gather yourselves, all of you, and listen.
    Who among you announced these things?
        “The Lord loves him.
        He will do what God wants with Babylon
        and with the descendants^[d] of Chaldea.”
¹⁵ I, I have spoken and told him
    the things that will happen to him;
    I will make him succeed.
¹⁶ Come close to me; listen to this:
    Since the very beginning I haven’t spoken in secret.
    Whenever anything happens, I am there.
    (And now the Lord God has sent me with his spirit.)

¹⁷ The Lord your redeemer,
    the holy one of Israel, proclaims:
    I am the Lord your God
        who teaches you for your own good,
        who leads you in the way you should go.
¹⁸ If you would pay attention to my commands,
    your well-being would be like a river,
    and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
¹⁹ Your offspring would be like the sand,
    and your descendants like its grains.
    Their name would never be eliminated,
        never wiped out from before me.

²⁰ Go out from Babylon;
    flee from the Chaldeans!
Report this with a loud shout, proclaim it;
    broadcast it out to the end of the earth.
    Say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
²¹ They weren’t thirsty when he led them through the deserts.
    God made water flow from the rock for them;
    split the rock, and water flowed out.
²² There is no well-being, says the Lord, for the wicked.

⁷ The Lord, redeemer of Israel and its holy one,
    says to one despised,
    rejected by nations,
    to the slave of rulers:
    Kings will see and stand up;
    commanders will bow down
    on account of the Lord, who is faithful,
    the holy one of Israel,
    who has chosen you.
⁸ The Lord said:
At the right time, I answered you;
    on a day of salvation, I helped you.
    I have guarded you,
    and given you as a covenant to the people, to restore the land,
    and to reassign deserted properties,
⁹     saying to the prisoners, “Come out,”
    and to those in darkness, “Show yourselves.”
Along the roads animals^[e] will graze;
    their pasture will be on every treeless hilltop.
¹⁰ They won’t hunger or thirst;
    the burning heat and sun won’t strike them,
    because one who has compassion for them will lead them
    and will guide them by springs of water.
¹¹ I will turn all my mountains into roads;
    my highways will be built up.
¹² Look! These will come from far away.
    Look! These from the north and west,
    and these from the southland.^[f]

¹³ Sing, heavens! Rejoice, earth!
    Break out, mountains, with a song.
The Lord has comforted his people,
    and taken pity on those who suffer.

¹⁹ As for your ruins and desolate places
    and destroyed land—
    you will soon be crowded with settlers,
    and those who swallowed you will be far away.
²⁰ You will again hear the children who were born bereaved say,
    “The place is too crowded for me;
    make room for me to settle.”
²¹ And you will think to yourself,
    Who bore me these?
    I was bereaved and desolate, exiled and sent off.
So who raised these?
    I was left behind, I was alone;
    where were these?

²² The Lord God says:
Look, I will raise my hand to the nations,
    and to the peoples I will lift up my signal.
They will bring your sons in their arms,
    and will carry your daughters on their shoulders.
²³ Kings will be your attendants,
    and their queens your nursemaids.
With faces to the ground they will bow down to you;
    they will lick the dust from your feet.
You will know that I am the Lord;
    the one who hopes in me won’t be ashamed.
²⁴ Can loot be taken from warriors?
    Can a tyrant’s captives escape?
²⁵ The Lord says:
Even the captives of warriors will be taken,
    and the tyrant’s loot will escape.
I myself will oppose those who oppose you,
    and I myself will save your children.
²⁶ I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh;
    and as with wine, with their own blood they will be drunk,
    so that all flesh will know that I, the Lord, am your savior,
    and the mighty one of Jacob is your redeemer.

50 The Lord says:
Where’s your mother’s divorce decree,
    with which I sent her away?
Or to which lender did I sell you?
    On account of your sins you were sold;
    on account of your transgressions
    your mother was sent away.
² Why did I come and find no one?
    Why did I call when no one answered?
Is my hand too small to redeem you?^[h]
    Don’t I have enough power to save?
With my rebuke I dry up the sea
    and make the rivers into wilderness.
Their fish stink from lack of water;
    they die of thirst.
³ I clothe the heavens with darkness
    and cover them with funeral clothing.

¹⁰ Who among you fears the Lord?
    Who listens to the voice of his servant,
    who walks in darkness
    and has no light?
They will trust in the Lord’s name,
    and rely upon their God.
¹¹ Look! All of you are kindling fire,
    igniting torches.
    Walk by the light of your fire,
    by the torches you have ignited.
    This is what will happen to you by my hand:
    you will lie down in grief.

¹² I, I am the one who comforts you.
Why should you fear humans who will die,
    mortals who are treated like grass?
¹³ You forgot the Lord your maker,
    the one who stretched out the heavens
    and founded the earth.
    You were continually afraid, all day long,
    on account of the oppressor’s wrath—
    a fear by which they intend to destroy you.
    Where now is the oppressor’s wrath?
¹⁴ The imprisoned ones will soon be released;
    they won’t die in the pit
    or even lack bread.
¹⁵ I am the Lord your God,
    who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
    the Lord of heavenly forces is his name.
¹⁶ I put my words in your mouth
    and hid you in the shadow of my hand,
    stretching out^[k] the heavens, founding the earth,
    and saying to Zion, “You are my people.”

²¹ Therefore, hear this, suffering one,
    who is drunk, but not from wine.
²² The Lord, your Lord and your God,
    who contends for his people, says:
    Look, I have taken the cup of reeling,
    the goblet of my wrath, from your hand.
    You will no longer drink from it.
²³ I will put it in the hand of your tormentors,
    who said to you,
    “Lie down so that we can walk on you.
    Make your back like the ground,
    like a street for those walking on it.”