Isaiah 46–51

Chapter 46

Babylon’s False Gods

¹Bel and Nebo, the gods of Babylon,

bow as they are lowered to the ground.

They are being hauled away on ox carts.

The poor beasts stagger under the weight.

²Both the idols and their owners are bowed down.

The gods cannot protect the people,

and the people cannot protect the gods.

They go off into captivity together.

³“Listen to me, descendants of Jacob,

all you who remain in Israel.

I have cared for you since you were born.

Yes, I carried you before you were born.

⁴I will be your God throughout your lifetime—

until your hair is white with age.

I made you, and I will care for you.

I will carry you along and save you.

⁵“To whom will you compare me?

Who is my equal?

⁶Some people pour out their silver and gold

and hire a craftsman to make a god from it.

Then they bow down and worship it!

⁷They carry it around on their shoulders,

and when they set it down, it stays there.

It can’t even move!

And when someone prays to it, there is no answer.

It can’t rescue anyone from trouble.

⁸“Do not forget this! Keep it in mind!

Remember this, you guilty ones.

⁹Remember the things I have done in the past.

For I alone am God!

I am God, and there is none like me.

¹⁰Only I can tell you the future

before it even happens.

Everything I plan will come to pass,

for I do whatever I wish.

¹¹I will call a swift bird of prey from the east—

a leader from a distant land to come and do my bidding.

I have said what I would do,

and I will do it.

¹²“Listen to me, you stubborn people

who are so far from doing right.

¹³For I am ready to set things right,

not in the distant future, but right now!

I am ready to save Jerusalem

and show my glory to Israel.

Chapter 47

Prediction of Babylon’s Fall

¹“Come down, virgin daughter of Babylon, and sit in the dust.

For your days of sitting on a throne have ended.

O daughter of Babylonia, never again will you be

the lovely princess, tender and delicate.

²Take heavy millstones and grind flour.

Remove your veil, and strip off your robe.

Expose yourself to public view.

³You will be naked and burdened with shame.

I will take vengeance against you without pity.”

⁴Our Redeemer, whose name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,

is the Holy One of Israel.

⁵“O beautiful Babylon, sit now in darkness and silence.

Never again will you be known as the queen of kingdoms.

⁶For I was angry with my chosen people

and punished them by letting them fall into your hands.

But you, Babylon, showed them no mercy.

You oppressed even the elderly.

⁷You said, ‘I will reign forever as queen of the world!’

You did not reflect on your actions

or think about their consequences.

⁸“Listen to this, you pleasure-loving kingdom,

living at ease and feeling secure.

You say, ‘I am the only one, and there is no other.

I will never be a widow or lose my children.’

⁹Well, both these things will come upon you in a moment:

widowhood and the loss of your children.

Yes, these calamities will come upon you,

despite all your witchcraft and magic.

¹⁰“You felt secure in your wickedness.

‘No one sees me,’ you said.

But your ‘wisdom’ and ‘knowledge’ have led you astray,

and you said, ‘I am the only one, and there is no other.’

¹¹So disaster will overtake you,

and you won’t be able to charm it away.

Calamity will fall upon you,

and you won’t be able to buy your way out.

A catastrophe will strike you suddenly,

one for which you are not prepared.

¹²“Now use your magical charms!

Use the spells you have worked at all these years!

Maybe they will do you some good.

Maybe they can make someone afraid of you.

¹³All the advice you receive has made you tired.

Where are all your astrologers,

those stargazers who make predictions each month?

Let them stand up and save you from what the future holds.

¹⁴But they are like straw burning in a fire;

they cannot save themselves from the flame.

You will get no help from them at all;

their hearth is no place to sit for warmth.

¹⁵And all your friends,

those with whom you’ve done business since childhood,

will go their own ways,

turning a deaf ear to your cries.

Chapter 48

God’s Stubborn People

¹“Listen to me, O family of Jacob,

you who are called by the name of Israel

and born into the family of Judah.

Listen, you who take oaths in the name of the Lord

and call on the God of Israel.

You don’t keep your promises,

²even though you call yourself the holy city

and talk about depending on the God of Israel,

whose name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

³Long ago I told you what was going to happen.

Then suddenly I took action,

and all my predictions came true.

⁴For I know how stubborn and obstinate you are.

Your necks are as unbending as iron.

Your heads are as hard as bronze.

⁵That is why I told you what would happen;

I told you beforehand what I was going to do.

Then you could never say, ‘My idols did it.

My wooden image and metal god commanded it to happen!’

⁶You have heard my predictions and seen them fulfilled,

but you refuse to admit it.

Now I will tell you new things,

secrets you have not yet heard.

⁷They are brand new, not things from the past.

So you cannot say, ‘We knew that all the time!’

⁸“Yes, I will tell you of things that are entirely new,

things you never heard of before.

For I know so well what traitors you are.

You have been rebels from birth.

⁹Yet for my own sake and for the honor of my name,

I will hold back my anger and not wipe you out.

¹⁰I have refined you, but not as silver is refined.

Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering.

¹¹I will rescue you for my sake—

yes, for my own sake!

I will not let my reputation be tarnished,

and I will not share my glory with idols!

Freedom from Babylon

¹²“Listen to me, O family of Jacob,

Israel my chosen one!

I alone am God,

the First and the Last.

¹³It was my hand that laid the foundations of the earth,

my right hand that spread out the heavens above.

When I call out the stars,

they all appear in order.”

¹⁴Have any of your idols ever told you this?

Come, all of you, and listen:

The Lord has chosen Cyrus as his ally.

He will use him to put an end to the empire of Babylon

and to destroy the Babylonian armies.

¹⁵“I have said it: I am calling Cyrus!

I will send him on this errand and will help him succeed.

¹⁶Come closer, and listen to this.

From the beginning I have told you plainly what would happen.”

And now the Sovereign Lord and his Spirit

have sent me with this message.

¹⁷This is what the Lord says—

your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

“I am the Lord your God,

who teaches you what is good for you

and leads you along the paths you should follow.

¹⁸Oh, that you had listened to my commands!

Then you would have had peace flowing like a gentle river

and righteousness rolling over you like waves in the sea.

¹⁹Your descendants would have been like the sands along the seashore—

too many to count!

There would have been no need for your destruction,

or for cutting off your family name.”

²⁰Yet even now, be free from your captivity!

Leave Babylon and the Babylonians.

Sing out this message!

Shout it to the ends of the earth!

The Lord has redeemed his servants,

the people of Israel.

²¹They were not thirsty

when he led them through the desert.

He divided the rock,

and water gushed out for them to drink.

²²“But there is no peace for the wicked,”

says the Lord.

Chapter 49

The Lord’s Servant Commissioned

¹Listen to me, all you in distant lands!

Pay attention, you who are far away!

The Lord called me before my birth;

from within the womb he called me by name.

²He made my words of judgment as sharp as a sword.

He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand.

I am like a sharp arrow in his quiver.

³He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel,

and you will bring me glory.”

⁴I replied, “But my work seems so useless!

I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose.

Yet I leave it all in the Lord’s hand;

I will trust God for my reward.”

⁵And now the Lord speaks—

the one who formed me in my mother’s womb to be his servant,

who commissioned me to bring Israel back to him.

The Lord has honored me,

and my God has given me strength.

⁶He says, “You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me.

I will make you a light to the Gentiles,

and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

⁷The Lord, the Redeemer

and Holy One of Israel,

says to the one who is despised and rejected by the nations,

to the one who is the servant of rulers:

“Kings will stand at attention when you pass by.

Princes will also bow low

because of the Lord, the faithful one,

the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

Promises of Israel’s Restoration

⁸This is what the Lord says:

“At just the right time, I will respond to you.

On the day of salvation I will help you.

I will protect you and give you to the people

as my covenant with them.

Through you I will reestablish the land of Israel

and assign it to its own people again.

⁹I will say to the prisoners, ‘Come out in freedom,’

and to those in darkness, ‘Come into the light.’

They will be my sheep, grazing in green pastures

and on hills that were previously bare.

¹⁰They will neither hunger nor thirst.

The searing sun will not reach them anymore.

For the Lord in his mercy will lead them;

he will lead them beside cool waters.

¹¹And I will make my mountains into level paths for them.

The highways will be raised above the valleys.

¹²See, my people will return from far away,

from lands to the north and west,

and from as far south as Egypt.”

¹³Sing for joy, O heavens!

Rejoice, O earth!

Burst into song, O mountains!

For the Lord has comforted his people

and will have compassion on them in their suffering.

¹⁴Yet Jerusalem says, “The Lord has deserted us;

the Lord has forgotten us.”

¹⁵“Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child?

Can she feel no love for the child she has borne?

But even if that were possible,

I would not forget you!

¹⁶See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands.

Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem’s walls in ruins.

¹⁷Soon your descendants will come back,

…