Isaiah 46–48

Dead Idols and the Living God

46Bel ^abows down, Nebo stoops;

Their idols were on the beasts and on the cattle.

Your carriages were heavily loaded,

^bA burden to the weary beast.

²They stoop, they bow down together;

They could not deliver the burden,

^cBut have themselves gone into captivity.

³“Listen to Me, O house of Jacob,

And all the remnant of the house of Israel,

^dWho have been upheld by Me from ¹birth,

Who have been carried from the womb:

⁴Even to your old age, ^eI am He,

And even to gray hairs ^fI will carry you!

I have made, and I will bear;

Even I will carry, and will deliver you.

⁵“To ^gwhom will you liken Me, and make Me equal

And compare Me, that we should be alike?

^6hThey lavish gold out of the bag,

And weigh silver on the scales;

They hire a ⁱgoldsmith, and he makes it a god;

They prostrate themselves, yes, they worship.

^7jThey bear it on the shoulder, they carry it

And set it in its place, and it stands;

From its place it shall not move.

Though ^kone cries out to it, yet it cannot answer

Nor save him out of his trouble.

⁸“Remember this, and ²show yourselves men;

^lRecall to mind, O you transgressors.

^9mRemember the former things of old,

For I am God, and ⁿthere is no other;

I am God, and there is none like Me,

^10oDeclaring the end from the beginning,

And from ancient times things that are not yet done,

Saying, ^p‘My counsel shall stand,

And I will do all My pleasure,’

¹¹Calling a bird of prey ^qfrom the east,

The man ^rwho executes My counsel, from a far country.

Indeed ^sI have spoken it;

I will also bring it to pass.

I have purposed it;

I will also do it.

¹²“Listen to Me, you ^tstubborn-hearted,

^uWho are far from righteousness:

^13vI bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far off;

My salvation ^wshall not ³linger.

And I will place ^xsalvation in Zion,

For Israel My glory.

The Humiliation of Babylon

47“Come ^adown and ^bsit in the dust,

O virgin daughter of ^cBabylon;

Sit on the ground without a throne,

O daughter of the Chaldeans!

For you shall no more be called

Tender and ¹delicate.

^2dTake the millstones and grind meal.

Remove your veil,

Take off the skirt,

Uncover the thigh,

Pass through the rivers.

^3eYour nakedness shall be uncovered,

Yes, your shame will be seen;

^fI will take vengeance,

And I will not arbitrate with a man.”

⁴As for ^gour Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is His name,

The Holy One of Israel.

⁵“Sit in ^hsilence, and go into darkness,

O daughter of the Chaldeans;

ⁱFor you shall no longer be called

The Lady of Kingdoms.

^6jI was angry with My people;

^kI have profaned My inheritance,

And given them into your hand.

You showed them no mercy;

^lOn the elderly you laid your yoke very heavily.

⁷And you said, ‘I shall be ^ma lady forever,’

So that you did not ⁿtake these things to heart,

^oNor remember the latter end of them.

⁸“Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures,

Who dwell securely,

Who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me;

I shall not sit as a widow,

Nor shall I know the loss of children’;

⁹But these two things shall come to you

^pIn a moment, in one day:

The loss of children, and widowhood.

They shall come upon you in their fullness

Because of the multitude of your sorceries,

For the great abundance of your enchantments.

¹⁰“For you have trusted in your wickedness;

You have said, ‘No one ^qsees me’;

Your wisdom and your knowledge have ²warped you;

And you have said in your heart,

‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’

¹¹Therefore evil shall come upon you;

You shall not know from where it arises.

And trouble shall fall upon you;

You will not be able ³to put it off.

And ^rdesolation shall come upon you ^ssuddenly,

Which you shall not know.

¹²“Stand now with your enchantments

And the multitude of your sorceries,

In which you have labored from your youth—

Perhaps you will be able to profit,

Perhaps you will prevail.

^13tYou are wearied in the multitude of your counsels;

Let now ^uthe ⁴astrologers, the stargazers,

And ⁵the monthly prognosticators

Stand up and save you

From what shall come upon you.

¹⁴Behold, they shall be ^vas stubble,

The fire shall ^wburn them;

They shall not deliver themselves

From the power of the flame;

It shall not be a coal to be warmed by,

Nor a fire to sit before!

¹⁵Thus shall they be to you

With whom you have labored,

^xYour merchants from your youth;

They shall wander each one to his ⁶quarter.

No one shall save you.

Israel Refined for God’s Glory

48“Hear this, O house of Jacob,

Who are called by the name of Israel,

And have come forth from the wellsprings of Judah;

Who swear by the name of the Lord,

And make mention of the God of Israel,

But ^anot in truth or in righteousness;

²For they call themselves ^bafter the holy city,

And ^clean on the God of Israel;

The Lord of hosts is His name:

³“I have ^ddeclared the former things from the beginning;

They went forth from My mouth, and I caused them to hear it.

Suddenly I did them, ^eand they came to pass.

⁴Because I knew that you were ¹obstinate,

And ^fyour neck was an iron sinew,

And your brow bronze,

⁵Even from the beginning I have declared it to you;

Before it came to pass I proclaimed it to you,

Lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them,

And my carved image and my molded image

Have commanded them.’

⁶“You have heard;

See all this.

And will you not declare it?

I have made you hear new things from this time,

Even hidden things, and you did not know them.

⁷They are created now and not from the beginning;

And before this day you have not heard them,

Lest you should say, ‘Of course I knew them.’

⁸Surely you did not hear,

Surely you did not know;

Surely from long ago your ear was not opened.

For I knew that you would deal very treacherously,

And were called ^ga transgressor from the womb.

⁹“For ^hMy name’s sake ⁱI will ²defer My anger,

And for My praise I will restrain it from you,

So that I do not cut you off.

¹⁰Behold, ^jI have refined you, but not as silver;

I have tested you in the ^kfurnace of affliction.

¹¹For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it;

For ^lhow should My name be profaned?

And ^mI will not give My glory to another.

God’s Ancient Plan to Redeem Israel

¹²“Listen to Me, O Jacob,

And Israel, My called:

I am He, ⁿI am the ^oFirst,

I am also the Last.

¹³Indeed ^pMy hand has laid the foundation of the earth,

And My right hand has stretched out the heavens;

When ^qI call to them,

They stand up together.

¹⁴“All of you, assemble yourselves, and hear!

Who among them has declared these things?

^rThe Lord loves him;

^sHe shall do His pleasure on Babylon,

And His arm shall be against the Chaldeans.

¹⁵I, even I, have spoken;

Yes, ^tI have called him,

I have brought him, and his way will prosper.

¹⁶“Come near to Me, hear this:

^uI have not spoken in secret from the beginning;

From the time that it was, I was there.

And now ^vthe Lord God and His Spirit

³Have sent Me.”

¹⁷Thus says ^wthe Lord, your Redeemer,

The Holy One of Israel:

“I am the Lord your God,

Who teaches you to profit,

^xWho leads you by the way you should go.

^18yOh, that you had heeded My commandments!

^zThen your peace would have been like a river,

And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

^19aYour descendants also would have been like the sand,

And the offspring of your body like the grains of sand;

His name would not have been cut off

Nor destroyed from before Me.”

^20bGo forth from Babylon!

Flee from the Chaldeans!

With a voice of singing,

Declare, proclaim this,

Utter it to the end of the earth;

Say, “The Lord has ^credeemed

His servant Jacob!”

²¹And they ^ddid not thirst

When He led them through the deserts;

He ^ecaused the waters to flow from the rock for them;

He also split the rock, and the waters gushed out.

²²“There ^fis no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”