Isaiah 46–51

Chapter 46

Babylon’s Idols and the True God

^1aBel has bowed down, Nebo stoops over;

Their images are consigned to 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 burden,

But ¹have themselves ^agone into captivity.

³“^aListen to Me, O house of Jacob,

And all ^bthe remnant of the house of Israel,

You who have been ^cborne by Me from ¹birth

And have been carried from the womb;

⁴Even to your old age ^aI ¹will 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 deliver 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

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

They ^bbow down, indeed they worship it.

⁷“They ^alift it upon the shoulder and carry 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 deliver him from his distress.

⁸“^aRemember this, and be ¹assured;

^bRecall it to ²mind, 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 purpose will be established,

And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;

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

The man of ¹My purpose from a far country.

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

I have planned it, surely I will do it.

¹²“^aListen to Me, you ^bstubborn-minded,

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 meal.

Remove your ^cveil, ^dstrip off the skirt,

Uncover the leg, cross the rivers.

³“Your ^anakedness will be uncovered,

Your shame also will be exposed;

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

⁴Our ^aRedeemer, the Lord 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 angry with My people,

I profaned My heritage

And gave them into your hand.

You did not show mercy 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 ^bconsider

Nor remember the ^coutcome of ¹them.

⁸“Now, then, hear this, you ^asensual one,

Who ^bdwells 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 power of your spells.

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

‘^bNo one sees me,’

Your ^cwisdom and your knowledge, ¹they have deluded you;

For 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 prophesy 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“So have those become to you with whom you have labored,

Who have ^atrafficked with you from your youth;

Each has wandered in his own ¹way;

There is ^bnone to save you.

Chapter 48

Israel’s Obstinacy

¹“^aHear this, O house of Jacob, who are named Israel

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

Who ^cswear by the name of the Lord

And invoke the God of Israel,

But not in truth nor in ^drighteousness.

²“For they call themselves after the ^aholy city

And ^blean on the God of Israel;

The Lord of hosts is His name.

³“I ^adeclared the former things long ago

And they went forth from My mouth, and I proclaimed them.

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

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

And your ^bneck is an iron sinew

And your ^cforehead bronze,

⁵Therefore I declared them to you long ago,

Before ¹they took place I proclaimed them to you,

So that you would not 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 proclaim to you ^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,

So that you will not say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’

⁸“You have not ^aheard, you have not known.

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 ^1brebel from ²birth.

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

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.

Deliverance Promised

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

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

¹³“Surely 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 listen!

^bWho among them has declared these things?

The Lord 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“^aCome near to Me, listen to this:

From the first I have ^bnot spoken in secret,

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

And now ^dthe Lord ¹God has sent Me, and His Spirit.”

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

“I am the Lord 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 ^1bwell-being would have been like a river,

And your ^crighteousness like the waves of the sea.

¹⁹“Your ^1adescendants would have been like the sand,

And ²your offspring 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, proclaim this,

^cSend it out to the end of the earth;

Say, “^dThe Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob.”

²¹They did not ^athirst when He led them through the deserts.

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 the Lord.

Chapter 49

Salvation Reaches to the End of the Earth

¹Listen to Me, O ^aislands,

And pay attention, you peoples from afar.

^bThe Lord called Me from the womb;

From the ¹body of My mother He named Me.

²He has made My ^amouth like a sharp sword,

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

And He has also made Me a ¹select ^carrow,

He has hidden Me in His quiver.

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

^bIn Whom I will ¹show My glory.”

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

I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity;

Yet surely the justice due to Me is with the Lord,

And My ^breward with My God.”

⁵And now says ^athe Lord, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,

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

(For I am ^chonored in the sight of the Lord,

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 restore the ^apreserved ones of Israel;

I will also make You a ^blight ²of the nations

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

⁷Thus says the Lord, 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 the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You.”

⁸Thus says the Lord,

“In a ^afavorable time I have answered You,

And in a day of salvation I have helped You;

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

To ^1drestore the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages;

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

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

Along the roads they will feed,

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 ^dlead them

And will guide them to ^esprings of water.

¹¹“I will make all ^aMy mountains a road,

And My ^bhighways will be raised up.

¹²“Behold, these will come ^afrom afar;

And lo, 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 the ^bLord has comforted His people

And will ^chave compassion on His afflicted.

Promise to Zion

¹⁴But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,

And the…