Isaiah 45:20–46:7

20  b“Assemble yourselves and come;

draw near together,

you survivors of the nations!

cThey have no knowledge

who dcarry about their wooden idols,

eand keep on praying to a god

that cannot save.

21  fDeclare and present your case;

let them take counsel together!

Who told this long ago?

Who declared it of old?

Was it not I, the Lord?

And there is no other god besides me,

a righteous God gand a Savior;

there is none besides me.

22  “Turn to me and be saved,

hall the ends of the earth!

For I am God, and there is no other.

23  iBy myself I have sworn;

from my mouth has gone out in jrighteousness

a word that shall not return:

k‘To me every knee shall bow,

every tongue shall swear allegiance.’4

24  l“Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me,

are righteousness and mstrength;

to him shall come and be ashamed

nall who were incensed against him.

25  In the Lord all the offspring of Israel

shall be justified and shall glory.”

The Idols of Babylon and the One True God

46 oBel bows down; Nebo stoops;

their idols are on beasts and livestock;

these things you carry are borne

as burdens on weary beasts.

2  They stoop; they bow down together;

they cannot save the burden,

but pthemselves go into captivity.

3  “Listen to me, O house of Jacob,

all the remnant of the house of Israel,

qwho have been borne by me from before your birth,

carried from the womb;

4  reven to your old age I am he,

and to gray hairs I will carry you.

I have made, and I will bear;

I will carry and will save.

5  s“To whom will you liken me and make me equal,

and compare me, that we may be alike?

6  tThose who lavish gold from the purse,

and weigh out silver in the scales,

hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god;

uthen they fall down and worship!

7  vThey lift it to their shoulders, they carry it,

they set it in its place, and it stands there;

wit cannot move from its place.

If one cries to it, it does not answer

or save him from his trouble.