Isaiah 46–51

The Lord Carries His People

^46:1Bel¹ kneels down,

Nebo² bends low.

Their images weigh down animals and beasts.³

Your heavy images are burdensome to tired animals.⁴

^46:2Together they bend low and kneel down;

they are unable to rescue the images;⁵

they themselves⁶ head off into captivity.⁷

^46:3“Listen to me, O family of Jacob,⁸

all you who are left from the family of Israel,⁹

you who have been carried from birth,¹⁰

you who have been supported from the time you left the womb.¹¹

^46:4Even when you are old, I will take care of you,¹²

even when you have gray hair, I will carry you.

I made you and I will support you;

I will carry you and rescue you.¹³

^46:5To whom can you compare and liken me?

Tell me whom you think I resemble, so we can be compared!

^46:6Those who empty out gold from a purse

and weigh out silver on the scale¹⁴

hire a metalsmith, who makes it into a god.

They then bow down and worship it.

^46:7They put it on their shoulder and carry it;

they put it in its place and it just stands there;

it does not¹⁵ move from its place.

Even when someone cries out to it, it does not reply;

it does not deliver him from his distress.

^46:8Remember this, so you can be brave!¹⁶

Think about it, you rebels!¹⁷

^46:9Remember what I accomplished in antiquity!¹⁸

Truly I am God, I have no peer;¹⁹

I am God, and there is none like me,

^46:10who announces the end from the beginning

and reveals beforehand²⁰ what has not yet occurred,

who says, ‘My plan will be realized,

I will accomplish what I desire,’

^46:11who summons an eagle²¹ from the east,

from a distant land, one who carries out my plan.

Yes, I have decreed,²²

yes, I will bring it to pass;

I have formulated a plan,

yes, I will carry it out.

^46:12Listen to me, you stubborn people,²³

you who distance yourself from doing what is right.²⁴

^46:13I am bringing my deliverance near, it is not far away;

I am bringing my salvation near,²⁵ it does not wait.

I will save Zion;²⁶

I will adorn Israel with my splendor.”²⁷

Babylon Will Fall

^47:1“Fall down! Sit in the dirt,

O virgin¹ daughter Babylon!

Sit on the ground, not on a throne,

O daughter of the Babylonians!

Indeed,² you will no longer be called delicate and pampered.

^47:2Pick up millstones and grind flour!

Remove your veil,

strip off your skirt,

expose your legs,

cross the streams!

^47:3Let your private parts be exposed!

Your genitals will be on display!³

I will get revenge;

I will not have pity on anyone,”⁴

^47:4says our protector—

the Lord who commands armies is his name,

the Holy One of Israel.⁵

^47:5“Sit silently! Go to a hiding place,⁶

O daughter of the Babylonians!

Indeed,⁷ you will no longer be called ‘Queen of kingdoms.’

^47:6I was angry at my people;

I defiled my special possession

and handed them over to you.

You showed them no mercy;⁸

you even placed a very heavy burden on old people.⁹

^47:7You said,

‘I will rule forever as permanent queen!’¹⁰

You did not think about these things;¹¹

you did not consider how it would turn out.¹²

^47:8So now, listen to this,

O one who lives so lavishly,¹³

who lives securely,

who says to herself,¹⁴

‘I am unique! No one can compare to me!¹⁵

I will never have to live as a widow;

I will never lose my children.’¹⁶

^47:9Both of these will come upon you

suddenly, in one day!

You will lose your children and be widowed.¹⁷

You will be overwhelmed by these tragedies,¹⁸

despite¹⁹ your many incantations

and your numerous amulets.²⁰

^47:10You were complacent in your evil deeds;²¹

you thought,²² ‘No one sees me.’

Your self-professed²³ wisdom and knowledge lead you astray,

when you say, ‘I am unique! No one can compare to me!’²⁴

^47:11Disaster will overtake you;

you will not know how to charm it away.²⁵

Destruction will fall on you;

you will not be able to appease it.

Calamity will strike you suddenly,

before you recognize it.²⁶

^47:12Persist²⁷ in trusting²⁸ your amulets

and your many incantations,

which you have faithfully recited²⁹ since your youth!

Maybe you will be successful³⁰—

maybe you will scare away disaster.³¹

^47:13You are tired out from listening to so much advice.³²

Let them take their stand—

the ones who see omens in the sky,

who gaze at the stars,

who make monthly predictions—

let them rescue you from the disaster that is about to overtake you!³³

^47:14Look, they are like straw,

which the fire burns up;

they cannot rescue themselves

from the heat³⁴ of the flames.

There are no coals to warm them,

no firelight to enjoy.³⁵

^47:15They will disappoint you,³⁶

those you have so faithfully dealt with since your youth.³⁷

Each strays off in his own direction,³⁸

leaving no one to rescue you.”

The Lord Appeals to the Exiles

^48:1Listen to this, O family of Jacob,¹

you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’

and are descended from Judah,²

who take oaths in the name of the Lord,

and invoke³ the God of Israel—

but not in an honest and just manner.⁴

^48:2Indeed, they live in the holy city;⁵

they trust in⁶ the God of Israel,

whose name is the Lord who commands armies.

^48:3“I announced events beforehand,⁷

I issued the decrees and made the predictions;⁸

suddenly I acted and they came to pass.

^48:4I did this⁹ because I know how stubborn you are.

Your neck muscles are like iron

and your forehead like bronze.¹⁰

^48:5I announced them to you beforehand;

before they happened, I predicted them for you,

so you could never say,

‘My image did these things,

my idol, my cast image, decreed them.’

^48:6You have heard; now look at all the evidence!¹¹

Will you not admit that what I say is true?¹²

From this point on I am announcing to you new events

that are previously unrevealed and you do not know about.¹³

^48:7Now they come into being,¹⁴ not in the past;

before today you did not hear about them,

so you could not say,

‘Yes,¹⁵ I know about them.’

^48:8You did not hear,

you do not know,

you were not told beforehand.¹⁶

For I know that you are very deceitful;¹⁷

you were labeled¹⁸ a rebel from birth.

^48:9For the sake of my reputation¹⁹ I hold back my anger;

for the sake of my prestige²⁰ I restrain myself from destroying you.²¹

^48:10Look, I have refined you, but not as silver;

I have purified you²² in the furnace of misery.

^48:11For my sake alone²³ I will act,

for how can I allow my name to be defiled?²⁴

I will not share my glory with anyone else!²⁵

^48:12Listen to me, O Jacob,

Israel, whom I summoned!

I am the one;

I am present at the very beginning

and at the very end.²⁶

^48:13Yes, my hand founded the earth;

my right hand spread out the sky.

I summon them;

they stand together.

^48:14All of you, gather together and listen!

Who among them²⁷ announced these things?

The Lord’s ally²⁸ will carry out his desire against Babylon;

he will exert his power against the Babylonians.²⁹

^48:15I, I have spoken—

yes, I have summoned him;

I lead him and he will succeed.³⁰

^48:16Approach me! Listen to this!

From the very first I have not spoken in secret;

when it happens,³¹ I am there.”

So now, the sovereign Lord has sent me, accompanied by his spirit.³²

^48:17This is what the Lord, your protector,³³ says,

the Holy One of Israel:³⁴

“I am the Lord your God,

who teaches you how to succeed,

who leads you in the way you should go.

^48:18If only you had obeyed my³⁵ commandments,

prosperity would have flowed to you like a river,³⁶

deliverance would have come to you like the waves of the sea.³⁷

^48:19Your descendants would have been as numerous as sand,³⁸

and your children³⁹ like its granules.

Their name would not have been cut off

and eliminated from my presence.⁴⁰

^48:20Leave Babylon!

Flee from the Babylonians!

Announce it with a shout of joy!

Make this known!

Proclaim it throughout the earth!⁴¹

Say, ‘The Lord protects⁴² his servant Jacob.

^48:21They do not thirst as he leads them through dry regions;

he makes water flow out of a rock for them;

he splits open a rock and water flows out.’⁴³

^48:22There will be no prosperity for the wicked,” says the Lord.

Ideal Israel Delivers the Exiles

^49:1Listen to me, you coastlands!¹

Pay attention, you people who live far away!

The Lord summoned me from birth;²

he commissioned me when my mother brought me into the world.³

^49:2He made my mouth like a sharp sword,

he hid me in the hollow of his hand;

he made me like a sharpened⁴ arrow,

he hid me in his quiver.⁵

^49:3He said to me, “You are my servant,

Israel, through whom I will reveal my splendor.”⁶

^49:4But I thought,⁷ “I have worked in vain;

I have expended my energy for absolutely nothing.”⁸

But the Lord will vindicate me;

my God will reward me.⁹

^49:5So now the Lord says,

the one who formed me from birth¹⁰ to be his servant—

he did this¹¹ to restore Jacob to himself,

so that Israel might be gathered to him;

and I will be honored¹² in the Lord’s sight,

for my God is my source of strength¹³—

^49:6he says, “Is it too insignificant a task for you to be my servant,

to reestablish the tribes of Jacob,

and restore the remnant¹⁴ of Israel?¹⁵

I will make you a light to the nations,¹⁶

so you can bring¹⁷ my deliverance to the remote regions of the earth.”

^49:7This is what the Lord,

the protector¹⁸ of Israel, their Holy One,¹⁹ says

to the one who is despised²⁰ and rejected²¹ by nations,²²

a servant of rulers:

“Kings will see and rise in respect,²³

princes will bow down,

because of the faithful Lord,

the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”

^49:8This is what the Lord says:

“At the time I decide to show my favor, I will respond to you;

in the day of deliverance I will help you;

I will protect you²⁴ and make you a covenant mediator for people,²⁵

to rebuild²⁶ the land²⁷

and to reassign the desolate property.

^49:9You will say²⁸ to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’

and to those who are in dark dungeons,²⁹ ‘Emerge.’³⁰

They will graze beside the roads;

on all the slopes they will find pasture.

^49:10They will not be hungry or thirsty;

the sun’s oppressive heat will not beat down on them,³¹

for one who has compassion on them will guide them;

he will lead them to springs of water.

^49:11I will make all my mountains into a road;

I will construct my roadways.”

^49:12Look, they…