Isaiah 43–44

God Promises to Rescue His People

43Israel, the Lord who created you says,

“Do not be afraid—I will save you.

I have called you by name—you are mine.

²When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you;

your troubles will not overwhelm you.

When you pass through fire, you will not be burnt;

the hard trials that come will not hurt you.

³For I am the Lord your God,

the holy God of Israel, who saves you.

I will give up Egypt to set you free;

I will give up Ethiopia^q and Seba.

⁴I will give up whole nations to save your life,

because you are precious to me

and because I love you and give you honour.

⁵Do not be afraid—I am with you!

“From the distant east and the farthest west,

I will bring your people home.

⁶I will tell the north to let them go

and the south not to hold them back.

Let my people return from distant lands,

from every part of the world.

⁷They are my own people, and I created them to bring me glory.”

Israel Is the ’s Witness

⁸God says,

“Summon my people to court.

They have eyes, but they are blind;

they have ears, but they are deaf!

⁹Summon the nations to come to the trial.

Which of their gods can predict the future?

Which of them foretold what is happening now?

Let these gods bring in their witnesses

to prove that they are right,

to testify to the truth of their words.

¹⁰“People of Israel, you are my witnesses;

I chose you to be my servant,

so that you would know me and believe in me

and understand that I am the only God.

Besides me there is no other god;

there never was and never will be.

¹¹“I alone am the Lord,

the only one who can save you.

¹²I predicted what would happen,

and then I came to your aid. No foreign god has ever done this;

you are my witnesses.

¹³I am God and always will be. No one can escape from my power;

no one can change what I do.”

Escape from Babylon

¹⁴Israel’s holy God, the Lord who saves you, says,

“To save you, I will send an army against Babylon;

I will break down the city gates,

and the shouts of her people will turn into crying.

¹⁵I am the Lord, your holy God.

I created you, Israel, and I am your king.”

¹⁶Long ago the Lord made a road through the sea,

a path through the swirling waters.

¹⁷He led a mighty army to destruction,

an army of chariots and horses.

Down they fell, never to rise,

snuffed out like the flame of a lamp!

¹⁸But the Lord says,

“Do not cling to events of the past

or dwell on what happened long ago.

¹⁹Watch for the new thing I am going to do.

It is happening already—you can see it now!

I will make a road through the wilderness

and give you streams of water there.

²⁰Even the wild animals will honour me;

jackals and ostriches will praise me

when I make rivers flow in the desert

to give water to my chosen people.

²¹They are the people I made for myself,

and they will sing my praises!”

Israel’s Sin

²²The Lord says,

“But you were tired of me, Israel;

you did not worship me.

²³You did not bring me your burnt offerings of sheep;

you did not honour me with your sacrifices.

I did not burden you by demanding offerings

or wear you out by asking for incense.

²⁴You didn’t buy incense for me

or satisfy me with the fat of your animals.

Instead you burdened me with your sins;

you wore me out with the wrongs you committed.

²⁵And yet, I am the God who forgives your sins,

and I do this because of who I am.

I will not hold your sins against you.

²⁶“Let us go to court; bring your accusation!

Present your case to prove you are in the right!

²⁷Your earliest ancestor^r sinned;

your leaders sinned against me,

²⁸and your rulers profaned^s my sanctuary.

So I brought destruction on Israel;

I let my own people be insulted.”

The is the Only God

44The Lord says,

“Listen now, Israel, my servant,

my chosen people, the descendants of Jacob.

²I am the Lord who created you;

from the time you were born, I have helped you.

Do not be afraid; you are my servant,

my chosen people whom I love.

³“I will give water to the thirsty land

and make streams flow on the dry ground.

I will pour out my spirit on your children

and my blessing on your descendants.

⁴They will thrive like well-watered grass,

like willows by streams of running water.

⁵“One by one, people will say, ‘I am the Lord’s.’

They will come to join the people of Israel.

They will each mark the name of the Lord on their arms

and call themselves members of God’s people.”

^6*The Lord, who rules and protects Israel,

the Lord Almighty, has this to say:

“I am the first, the last, the only God;

there is no other god but me.

⁷Could anyone else have done what I did?

Who could have predicted all that would happen

from the very beginning to the end of time?^t

⁸Do not be afraid, my people!

You know that from ancient times until now

I have predicted all that would happen,

and you are my witnesses.

Is there any other god?

Is there some powerful god I never heard of?”

Idolatry Is Ridiculed

⁹All those who make idols are worthless, and the gods they prize so highly are useless. Those who worship these gods are blind and ignorant—and they will be disgraced. ¹⁰It’s no good making a metal image to worship as a god! ¹¹Everyone who worships it will be humiliated. The people who make idols are human beings and nothing more. Let them come and stand trial—they will be terrified and will suffer disgrace.

¹²The metalworker takes a piece of metal and works with it over a fire. His strong arm swings a hammer to pound the metal into shape. As he works, he gets hungry, thirsty, and tired.

¹³The carpenter measures the wood. He outlines a figure with chalk, carves it out with his tools, and makes it in the form of a man, a handsome human figure, to be placed in his house. ¹⁴He might cut down cedars to use, or choose oak or cypress wood from the forest. Or he might plant a laurel-tree and wait for the rain to make it grow. ¹⁵A person uses part of a tree for fuel and part of it for making an idol. With one part he builds a fire to warm himself and bake bread; with the other part he makes a god and worships it. ¹⁶With some of the wood he makes a fire; he roasts meat, eats it, and is satisfied. He warms himself and says, “How nice and warm! What a beautiful fire!” ¹⁷The rest of the wood he makes into an idol, and then he bows down and worships it. He prays to it and says, “You are my god—save me!”

¹⁸Such people are too stupid to know what they are doing. They close their eyes and their minds to the truth. ¹⁹The maker of idols hasn’t the wit or the sense to say, “Some of the wood I burnt up. I baked some bread on the embers and I roasted meat and ate it. And the rest of the wood I made into an idol. Here I am bowing down to a block of wood!”

²⁰It makes as much sense^u as eating ashes. His foolish ideas have so misled him that he is beyond help. He won’t admit to himself that the idol he holds in his hand is not a god at all.

The , the Creator and Saviour

²¹The Lord says,

“Israel, remember this;

remember that you are my servant.

I created you to be my servant,

and I will never forget you.

²²I have swept your sins away like a cloud.

Come back to me; I am the one who saves you.”

²³Shout for joy, you heavens!

Shout, deep places of the earth!

Shout for joy, mountains, and every tree of the forest!

The Lord has shown his greatness

by saving his people Israel.

²⁴“I am the Lord, your saviour;

I am the one who created you.

I am the Lord, the Creator of all things.

I alone stretched out the heavens;

when I made the earth, no one helped me.

^25*I make fools of fortune tellers

and frustrate the predictions of astrologers.

The words of the wise I refute

and show that their wisdom is foolishness.

²⁶But when my servant makes a prediction,

when I send a messenger to reveal my plans,

I make those plans and predictions come true.

I tell Jerusalem that people will live there again,

and the cities of Judah that they will be rebuilt.

Those cities will rise from the ruins.

²⁷With a word of command I dry up the ocean.

^28*I say to Cyrus, ‘You are the one who will rule for me;

you will do what I want you to do:

you will order Jerusalem to be rebuilt

and the Temple foundations to be laid.’ ”