Isaiah 47-49

American Standard Version

47 Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate. ² Take the millstones, and grind meal; remove thy veil, strip off the train, uncover the leg, pass through the rivers. ³ Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and will spare no man. ⁴ Our Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel. ⁵ Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for thou shalt no more be called The mistress of kingdoms. ⁶ I was wroth with my people, I profaned mine inheritance, and gave them into thy hand: thou didst show them no mercy; upon the aged hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke. ⁷ And thou saidst, I shall be mistress for ever; so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end thereof.

⁸ Now therefore hear this, thou that art given to pleasures, that ^[a]sittest securely, that sayest in thy heart, I am, and there is none else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children: ⁹ but these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood; in their full measure shall they come upon thee, in the multitude of thy sorceries, and the great abundance of thine enchantments. ¹⁰ For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness; thou hast said, None seeth me; thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee, and thou hast said in thy heart, I am, and there is none else besides me. ¹¹ Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know ^[b]the dawning thereof: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it away: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou knowest not.

¹² Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast labored from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest ^[c]prevail. ¹³ Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels: let now the ^[d]astrologers, the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from the things that shall come upon thee. ¹⁴ Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: it shall not be a coal to warm at, nor a fire to sit before. ¹⁵ Thus shall the things be unto thee wherein thou hast labored: they that have trafficked with thee from thy youth shall wander every one to ^[e]his quarter; there shall be none to save thee.

48 Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah; who swear by the name of Jehovah, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness ² (for they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; Jehovah of hosts is his name): ³ I have declared the former things from of old; yea, they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them: suddenly I did them, and they came to pass. ⁴ Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass; ⁵ therefore I have declared it to thee from of old; before it came to pass I showed it thee; lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them. ⁶ Thou hast heard it; behold all this; and ye, will ye not declare it? ^[f]I have showed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, which thou hast not known. ⁷ They are created now, and not from of old; and before this day thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them. ⁸ Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from of old thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou didst deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb. ⁹ For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. ¹⁰ Behold, I have refined thee, but not as silver; I have ^[g]chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. ¹¹ For mine own sake, for mine own sake, will I do it; for how should my name be profaned? and my glory will I not give to another.

¹² Hearken unto me, O Jacob, and Israel my called: I am he; I am the first, I also am the last. ¹³ Yea, my hand hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spread out the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together. ¹⁴ Assemble yourselves, all ye, and hear; who among them hath declared these things? ^[h]He whom Jehovah loveth shall perform his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans. ¹⁵ I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him; I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous. ¹⁶ Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; from the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord Jehovah hath sent me, and his Spirit.

¹⁷ Thus saith Jehovah, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am Jehovah thy God, who teacheth thee to profit, who leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. ^18 [i]Oh that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea: ¹⁹ thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like ^[j]the grains thereof: his name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.

²⁰ Go ye forth from Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans; with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth: say ye, Jehovah hath redeemed his servant Jacob. ²¹ And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts; he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them; he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out. ²² There is no peace, saith Jehovah, to the wicked.

49 Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye peoples, from far: Jehovah hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name: ² and he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me: and he hath made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he kept me close: ³ and he said unto me, Thou art my servant; Israel, in whom I will be glorified. ⁴ But I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and vanity; yet surely the justice due to me is with Jehovah, and my recompense with my God.

⁵ And now saith Jehovah that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, ^[k]and that Israel be gathered unto him (for I am honorable in the eyes of Jehovah, and my God is become my strength); ⁶ yea, he saith, It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, ^[l]that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth. ⁷ Thus saith Jehovah, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers: Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall worship; because of Jehovah that is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who hath chosen thee.

⁸ Thus saith Jehovah, In an acceptable time have I answered thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee; and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to ^[m]raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages; ⁹ saying to them that are bound, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and on all bare heights shall be their pasture. ¹⁰ They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the ^[n]heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them will lead them, even by springs of water will he guide them. ¹¹ And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted. ¹² Lo, these shall come from far; and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim. ¹³ Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for Jehovah hath comforted his people, and will have compassion upon his afflicted.

¹⁴ But Zion said, Jehovah hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me. ¹⁵ Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, these may forget, yet will not I forget thee. ¹⁶ Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. ¹⁷ Thy children make haste; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth from thee. ¹⁸ Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith Jehovah, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all as with an ornament, and gird thyself with them, like a bride. ¹⁹ For, as for thy waste and thy desolate places, and thy land that hath been destroyed, surely now shalt thou be too strait for the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. ²⁰ The children of thy bereavement shall yet say in thine ears, The place is too strait for me; give place to me that I may dwell. ²¹ Then shalt thou say in thy heart, Who hath ^[o]begotten me these, seeing I have been bereaved of my children, and am ^[p]solitary, an exile, and wandering to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where were they?

²² Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and set up my ensign to the peoples; and they shall bring thy sons in their bosom, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. ²³ And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah; and they that wait for me shall not be put to shame.

²⁴ Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or ^[q]the lawful captives be delivered? ²⁵ But thus saith Jehovah, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. ²⁶ And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I, Jehovah, am thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.