Isaiah 46–51

CHAPTER 46

Babylon’s Idols and the True God

^1aBel has bowed down, Nebo stoops over;

Their images are on the beasts and the cattle.

The things ¹that you carry are burdensome,

A load for the weary beast.

²They stooped over, they have bowed down together;

They could not rescue the load,

But ¹have themselves ^agone into captivity.

³“^aHear Me, O house of Jacob,

And all ^bthe remnant of the house of Israel,

You who have been ^cburdening Me from ¹birth

And have been carried from the womb;

⁴Even to your old age ^1aI will be the same,

And even to your ^2bgraying years I will bear you!

I have ³done it, and I will carry you;

And I will bear you, and I will rescue you.

⁵“^aTo whom would you liken Me

And make Me equal and compare Me,

That we would be alike?

⁶“Those who ^alavish gold from the purse

And weigh silver on the scale,

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

They ^bfall down, indeed they worship it.

⁷“They ^acarry it upon the shoulder and bear it;

They set it in its place, and it stands there.

^bIt does not move from its place.

Though one may cry to it, it ^ccannot answer;

It ^dcannot save him from his distress.

⁸“^aRemember this, and be ¹assured;

^bCause it to return to your heart, you ^ctransgressors.

⁹“Remember the ^aformer things long past,

For I am God, and there is ^bno other;

I am God, and there is ^cno one like Me,

¹⁰Declaring the end from the beginning,

And from ancient times things which have not been done,

Saying, ‘^aMy counsel will be established,

And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’,

¹¹Calling a ^abird of prey from the ^beast,

The man of ¹My counsel from a far country.

Truly I have ^cspoken; truly I will bring it to pass.

I have formed it, surely I will do it.

¹²“^aHear Me, you ^bstubborn of heart,

Who are ^cfar from righteousness.

¹³“I ^abring near My righteousness, it is not far off;

And My salvation will not delay.

And I will grant ^bsalvation in Zion,

And My ^cglory for Israel.

CHAPTER 47

Lament for Babylon

¹“^aCome down and sit in the dust,

O ^bvirgin ^cdaughter of Babylon;

Sit on the ground without a throne,

O daughter of the Chaldeans!

For you shall no longer be called ^dtender and delicate.

²“Take the ^amillstones and ^bgrind flour.

Uncover your ^cveil, ^dstrip off the skirt,

Uncover the leg, cross the rivers.

³“Your ^anakedness will be uncovered;

Your reproach also will be seen;

I will ^btake vengeance and will not ¹spare a man.”

⁴Our ^aRedeemer, Yahweh of hosts is His name,

The Holy One of Israel.

⁵“^aSit silently, and go into ^bdarkness,

O daughter of the Chaldeans,

For you will no longer be called

The ^cqueen of ^dkingdoms.

⁶“I was furious with My people;

I profaned My inheritance

And gave them into your hand.

You did not show compassion to them,

On the ^aaged you made your yoke very heavy.

⁷“Yet you said, ‘I will be a ^aqueen forever.’

These things you did not ^bput on your heart

Nor remember the ^coutcome of ¹them.

⁸“So now, hear this, you ^asensual one,

Who ^bsits securely,

Who says in ¹your heart,

‘^cI am, and there is no one besides me.

I will ^dnot sit as a widow,

Nor know loss of children.’

⁹“But these ^atwo things will come on you ^bsuddenly in one day:

Loss of children and widowhood.

They will come on you in full measure

In spite of your many ^csorceries,

In spite of the great might of your spells.

¹⁰“You felt ^asecure in your evil and said,

‘^bNo one sees me,’

Your ^cwisdom and your knowledge ¹have turned you astray;

So you have said in your heart,

‘^dI am, and there is no one besides me.’

¹¹“But ^aevil will come on you

Which you will not know how to charm away;

And disaster will fall on you

For which you cannot atone;

And ^bdestruction about which you do not know

Will come on you ^csuddenly.

¹²“Stand fast now in your ^aspells

And in your many sorceries

With which you have labored from your youth;

Perhaps you will be able to profit;

Perhaps you may cause trembling.

¹³“You are ^awearied with your many counsels;

Let now the ^bastrologers,

Those who behold visions by the stars,

Those who predict by the new moons,

Stand up and ^csave you from what will come upon you.

¹⁴“Behold, they have become ^alike stubble,

^bFire burns them;

They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame;

There will be ^cno coal to warm by

Nor a fire to sit before!

¹⁵“Thus they have become for you, those among whom you have labored,

Who have ^atraded with you from your youth;

Each has wandered in his own ¹way;

There is ^bnone to save you.

CHAPTER 48

My Glory I Will Not Give to Another

¹“^aHear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name Israel

And who came forth from the ^1bloins of Judah,

Who ^cswear by the name of Yahweh

And bring to remembrance the God of Israel,

But not in truth or in ^drighteousness.

²“For they call themselves after the ^aholy city

And ^bare supported by the God of Israel;

Yahweh of hosts is His name.

³“I ^adeclared the former things long ago,

And they went forth from My mouth, and I caused them to be heard.

^bSuddenly I acted, and they ^ccame to pass.

⁴“Because I know that you are ^1astiff,

And your ^bneck is an iron sinew

And your ^cforehead bronze,

⁵Therefore I declared them to you long ago,

Before ¹they happened I caused them to be heard by you,

Lest you say, ‘My ^aidol has done them,

And my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.’

⁶“You have heard; look at all this.

And you, will you not declare it?

I caused you to hear ^anew things from this time,

Even hidden things which you have not known.

⁷“They are created now and not long ago;

And before today you have not heard them,

Lest you say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’

⁸“Indeed, you have not ^aheard; indeed, you have not known.

Indeed, even from long ago your ear has not been open

Because I knew that you would deal very treacherously;

And you have been called a ^1btransgressor from the ²womb.

⁹“^aFor the sake of My name I ^bdelay My anger,

And for My praise I restrain it for you,

In order not to cut you off.

¹⁰“Behold, I have refined you, but ^anot as silver;

I have tested you in the ^bfurnace of affliction.

¹¹“^aFor My own sake, for My own sake, I will act;

For how can My name be profaned?

And My ^bglory I will not give to another.

Yahweh Redeems Jacob

¹²“Hear Me, O Jacob, even Israel ¹whom I called;

^aI am He, ^bI am the first, I am also the last.

¹³“Also, My hand ^afounded the earth,

And My right hand spread out the heavens;

When I ^bcall to them, they stand together.

¹⁴“^aAssemble, all of you, and hear!

^bWho among them has declared these things?

Yahweh loves him; he will ^ccarry out His good pleasure on ^dBabylon,

And His arm will be against the Chaldeans.

¹⁵“I, even I, have spoken; indeed I have ^acalled him,

I have brought him, and He will make his ways successful.

¹⁶“^aDraw near to Me, hear this:

From the first I have ^bnot spoken in secret,

^cFrom the time it took place, I was there.

So now ^dLord Yahweh has sent Me, and His Spirit.”

¹⁷Thus says Yahweh, your ^aRedeemer, the Holy One of Israel,

“I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit,

Who ^bleads you in the way you should go.

¹⁸“If only you had ^apaid attention to My commandments!

Then your ^bpeace would have been like a river,

And your ^crighteousness like the waves of the sea.

¹⁹“Your ^aseed would have been like the sand,

And the offspring from your loins like its grains;

^bTheir name would never be cut off or destroyed from My presence.”

^20aGo forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans!

Declare with the sound of ^bjoyful shouting, cause this to be heard,

^cBring it forth to the end of the earth;

Say, “^dYahweh has redeemed His servant Jacob.”

²¹And they did not ^athirst when He led them through the waste places.

He ^bmade the water flow out of the rock for them;

He split the rock, and ^cthe water gushed forth.

²²“^aThere is no peace for the wicked,” says Yahweh.

CHAPTER 49

I Will Give You as a Light of the Nations

¹Listen to Me, O ^acoastlands,

And pay attention, you peoples from afar.

^bYahweh called Me from the womb;

From the ¹body of My mother He made My name to be remembered.

²He has set My ^amouth like a sharp sword;

In the ^bshadow of His hand He has concealed Me;

And He has also set Me as a ¹select ^carrow;

He has hidden Me in His quiver.

³He said to Me, “^aYou are My Servant, Israel,

^bIn Whom I will ¹show forth My beautiful glory.”

⁴But I said, “I have ^atoiled in vain;

I have spent My might for ¹nothing and vanity;

Yet surely the justice due to Me is with Yahweh,

And My ^breward with My God.”

⁵So now says ^aYahweh, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,

To return Jacob back to Him, so that ^bIsrael might be gathered to Him

(For I am ^cglorified in the sight of Yahweh,

And My God is My ^dstrength),

⁶He says, “It is too ¹small a thing that You should be My Servant

To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to cause the ^apreserved ones of Israel to return;

I will also give You as a ^blight ²of the nations

So that My salvation may ³reach to the ^cend of the earth.”

⁷Thus says Yahweh, the ^aRedeemer of Israel and its Holy One,

To the ^bdespised One,

To the One abhorred by the nation,

To the Servant of rulers,

“^cKings will see and arise,

Princes will also ^dbow down,

Because of Yahweh who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You.”

⁸Thus says Yahweh,

“In an ^aacceptable time I have answered You,

And in a day of salvation I have helped You;

And I will ^bguard You and ^cgive You for a covenant of the people,

To ^destablish the land, to make them inherit the desolate ¹inheritance;

⁹Saying to those who are ^abound, ‘Go forth,’

To those who are in darkness, ‘¹Show yourselves.’

Along the roads they will ²feed,

And their pasture will be on all ^bbare heights.

¹⁰“They will ^anot hunger or thirst,

Nor will the scorching ^bheat or sun strike them down;

For ^cHe who has compassion on them will ^dguide them

And will lead them to ^esprings of water.

¹¹“I will set all ^aMy mountains as a road,

And My ^bhighways will be raised up.

¹²“Behold, these will come ^afrom afar;

And behold, these will come from the ^bnorth and from the west,

And these from the land of Sinim.”

^13aShout for joy, O heavens! And rejoice, O earth!

Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains!

For ^bYahweh has…