27:1In that day, Yahweh with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the twisted serpent; and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea. 27:2In that day, sing to her, “A pleasant vineyard! 27:3I, Yahweh, am its keeper. I will water it every moment. Lest anyone damage it, I will keep it night and day. 27:4Wrath is not in me, but if I should find briers and thorns, I would do battle! I would march on them and I would burn them together. 27:5Or else let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me. Let him make peace with me.” 27:6In days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will blossom and bud. They will fill the surface of the world with fruit. 27:7Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or are they killed like those who killed them were killed? 27:8In measure, when you send them away, you contend with them. He has removed them with his rough blast in the day of the east wind. 27:9Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he makes all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten in pieces, so that the Asherah poles and the incense altars shall rise no more. 27:10For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness. The calf will feed there, and there he will lie down, and consume its branches. 27:11When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor. 27:12It will happen in that day, that Yahweh will thresh from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt; and you will be gathered one by one, children of Israel. 27:13It will happen in that day that a great trumpet will be blown; and those who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and those who were outcasts in the land of Egypt, shall come; and they will worship Yahweh in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
28:1Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley of those who are overcome with wine! 28:2Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one. Like a storm of hail, a destroying storm, and like a storm of mighty waters overflowing, he will cast them down to the earth with his hand. 28:3The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden under foot. 28:4The fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley, shall be like the first-ripe fig before the summer; which someone picks and eats as soon as he sees it. 28:5In that day, Yahweh of Armies will become a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the residue of his people; 28:6and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate. 28:7They also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment. 28:8For all tables are completely full of filthy vomit and filthiness. 28:9Whom will he teach knowledge? To whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts? 28:10For it is precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little. 28:11But he will speak to this nation with stammering lips and in another language; 28:12to whom he said, “This is the resting place. Give rest to weary”; and “This is the refreshing”; yet they would not hear. 28:13Therefore Yahweh’s word will be to them precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little; that they may go, fall backward, be broken, be snared, and be taken. 28:14Therefore hear Yahweh’s word, you scoffers, that rule this people in Jerusalem: 28:15“Because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol are we in agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won’t come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.’” 28:16Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily. 28:17I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place. 28:18Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it. 28:19As often as it passes through, it will seize you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be nothing but terror to understand the message.” 28:20For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket is too narrow to wrap oneself in. 28:21For Yahweh will rise up as on Mount Perazim. He will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his unusual work, and bring to pass his act, his extraordinary act. 28:22Now therefore don’t be scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, on the whole earth. 28:23Give ear, and hear my voice! Listen, and hear my speech! 28:24Does he who plows to sow plow continually? Does he keep turning the soil and breaking the clods? 28:25When he has leveled its surface, doesn’t he plant the dill, and scatter the cumin seed, and put in the wheat in rows, the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in its place? 28:26For his God instructs him in right judgment, and teaches him. 28:27For the dill are not threshed with a sharp instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned over the cumin; but the dill is beaten out with a stick, and the cumin with a rod. 28:28Bread flour must be ground; so he will not always be threshing it. Although he drives the wheel of his threshing cart over it, his horses don’t grind it. 28:29This also comes out from Yahweh of Armies, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in wisdom.
29:1Woe to Ariel! Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts come around; 29:2then I will distress Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation. She shall be to me as an altar hearth. 29:3I will encamp against you all around you, and will lay siege against you with posted troops. I will raise siege works against you. 29:4You will be brought down, and will speak out of the ground. Your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will be as of one who has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech will whisper out of the dust. 29:5But the multitude of your foes will be like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless ones like chaff that blows away. Yes, it will be in an instant, suddenly. 29:6She will be visited by Yahweh of Armies with thunder, with earthquake, with great noise, with whirlwind and storm, and with the flame of a devouring fire. 29:7The multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night. 29:8It will be like when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his hunger isn’t satisfied; or like when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and behold, he is faint, and he is still thirsty. The multitude of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion will be like that. 29:9Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. 29:10For Yahweh has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and he has covered your heads, the seers. 29:11All vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is educated, saying, “Read this, please”; and he says, “I can’t, for it is sealed:” 29:12and the book is delivered to one who is not educated, saying, “Read this, please”; and he says, “I can’t read.” 29:13The Lord said, “Because this people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught; 29:14therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hidden.” 29:15Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from Yahweh, and whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us?” and “Who knows us?” 29:16You turn things upside down! Should the potter be thought to be like clay; that the thing made should say about him who made it, “He didn’t make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding?” 29:17Isn’t it yet a very little while, and Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be regarded as a forest? 29:18In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness. 29:19The humble also will increase their joy in Yahweh, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. 29:20For the ruthless is brought to nothing, and the scoffer ceases, and all those who are alert to do evil are cut off— 29:21who cause a person to be indicted by a word, and lay a snare for the arbiter in the gate, and who deprive the innocent of justice with false testimony. 29:22Therefore Yahweh, who redeemed Abraham, says concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall no longer be ashamed, neither shall his face grow pale. 29:23But when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in the middle of him, they will sanctify my name. Yes, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel. 29:24They also who err in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will receive instruction.”
30:1“Woe to the rebellious children”, says Yahweh, “who take counsel, but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin, 30:2who set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked my advice; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt! 30:3Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. 30:4For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors have come to Hanes. 30:5They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can’t profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.” 30:6The burden of the animals of the South. Through the land of trouble and anguish, of the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to an unprofitable people. 30:7For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose; therefore I have called her Rahab who sits still. 30:8Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever. 30:9For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear Yahweh’s law; 30:10who tell the seers, “Don’t see!” and to the prophets, “Don’t prophesy to us right things. Tell us pleasant things. Prophesy deceits. 30:11Get out of the way. Turn away from the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.” 30:12Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on it; 30:13therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant. 30:14He will break it as a potter’s vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing, so that there won’t be found among the broken pieces a piece good enough to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.” 30:15For thus said the Lord Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, “You will be saved in returning and rest. Your strength will be in quietness and in confidence.” You refused, 30:16but you said, “No, for we will flee on horses”; therefore you will flee; and, “We will ride on the swift”; therefore those who pursue you will be swift. 30:17One thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you will flee until you are left like a beacon on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill. 30:18Therefore Yahweh will wait, that he may be gracious to you; and therefore he will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you, for Yahweh is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him. 30:19For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you. 30:20Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers won’t be hidden any more, but your eyes will see your teachers; 30:21and when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.” 30:22You shall defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the plating of your molten images of gold. You shall cast them away as an unclean thing. You shall tell it, “Go away!” 30:23He will give the rain for your seed, with which you will sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground will be rich and plentiful. In that day, your livestock will feed in large pastures. 30:24The oxen likewise and the young donkeys that till the ground will eat savory feed, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork. 30:25There shall be brooks and streams of water on every lofty mountain and on every high hill in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 30:26Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, in the day that Yahweh binds up the fracture of his people, and heals the wound they were struck with. 30:27Behold, Yahweh’s name comes from far away, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is as a devouring fire. 30:28His breath is as an overflowing stream that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction; and a bridle that leads to ruin will be in the jaws of the peoples. 30:29You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a flute to come to Yahweh’s mountain, to Israel’s Rock. 30:30Yahweh will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the descent of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, storm, and hailstones. 30:31For through Yahweh’s voice the Assyrian will be dismayed. He will strike him with his rod. 30:32Every stroke of the rod of punishment, which Yahweh will lay on him, will be with the sound of tambourines and harps. He will fight with them in battles, brandishing weapons. 30:33For his burning place has long been ready. Yes, for the king it is prepared. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood. Yahweh’s breath, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.
31:1Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they don’t look to the Holy One of Israel, and they don’t seek Yahweh! 31:2Yet he also is wise, and will bring disaster, and will not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of those who work iniquity. 31:3Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When Yahweh stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together. 31:4For Yahweh says to me, “As the lion and the young lion growling over his prey, if a multitude of shepherds is called together against him, will not be dismayed at their voice, nor abase himself for their noise, so Yahweh of Armies will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its heights. 31:5As birds hovering, so Yahweh of Armies will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it. He will pass over and preserve it.” 31:6Return to him from whom you have deeply revolted, children of Israel. 31:7For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold—sin which your own hands have made for you. 31:8“The Assyrian will fall by the sword, not of man; and the sword, not of mankind, shall devour him. He will flee from the sword, and his young men will become subject to forced labor. 31:9His rock will pass away by reason of terror, and his princes will be afraid of the banner,” says Yahweh, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.
32:1Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in justice. 32:2A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the storm, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a large rock in a weary land. 32:3The eyes of those who see will not be dim, and the ears of those who hear will listen. 32:4The heart of the rash will understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly. 32:5The fool will no longer be called noble, nor the scoundrel be highly respected. 32:6For the fool will speak folly, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice profanity, and to utter error against Yahweh, To make empty the soul of the hungry, and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. 32:7The ways of the scoundrel are evil. He devises wicked plans to destroy the humble with lying words, even when the needy speaks right. 32:8But the noble devises noble things; and he will continue in noble things. 32:9Rise up, you women who are at ease! Hear my voice! You careless daughters, give ear to my speech! 32:10For days beyond a year you will be troubled, you careless women; for the vintage shall fail. The harvest won’t come. 32:11Tremble, you women who are at ease! Be troubled, you careless ones! Strip yourselves, make yourselves naked, and put sackcloth on your waist. 32:12Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. 32:13Thorns and briers will come up on my people’s land; yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city. 32:14For the palace will be forsaken. The populous city will be deserted. The hill and the watchtower will be for dens forever, a delight for wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks; 32:15Until the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is considered a forest. 32:16Then justice will dwell in the wilderness; and righteousness will remain in the fruitful field. 32:17The work of righteousness will be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever. 32:18My people will live in a peaceful habitation, in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting places. 32:19Though hail flattens the forest, and the city is leveled completely. 32:20Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send out the feet of the ox and the donkey.
33:1Woe to you who destroy, but you weren’t destroyed; and who betray, but nobody betrayed you! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed; and when you have finished betrayal, you will be betrayed. 33:2Yahweh, be gracious to us. We have waited for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble. 33:3At the noise of the thunder, the peoples have fled. When you lift yourself up, the nations are scattered. 33:4Your plunder will be gathered as the caterpillar gathers. Men will leap on it as locusts leap. 33:5Yahweh is exalted, for he dwells on high. He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness. 33:6There will be stability in your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of Yahweh is your treasure. 33:7Behold, their valiant ones cry outside; the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly. 33:8The highways are desolate. The traveling man ceases. The covenant is broken. He has despised the cities. He doesn’t respect man. 33:9The land mourns and languishes. Lebanon is confounded and withers away. Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare. 33:10“Now I will arise,” says Yahweh; “Now I will lift myself up. Now I will be exalted. 33:11You will conceive chaff. You will give birth to stubble. Your breath is a fire that will devour you. 33:12The peoples will be like the burning of lime, like thorns that are cut down and burned in the fire. 33:13Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and, you who are near, acknowledge my might.” 33:14The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless ones. Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning? 33:15He who walks righteously, and speaks blamelessly; He who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil— 33:16he will dwell on high. His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks. His bread will be supplied. His waters will be sure. 33:17Your eyes will see the king in his beauty. They will see a distant land. 33:18Your heart will meditate on the terror. Where is he who counted? Where is he who weighed? Where is he who counted the towers? 33:19You will no longer see the fierce people, a people of a deep speech that you can’t comprehend, with a strange language that you can’t understand. 33:20Look at Zion, the city of our appointed festivals. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, a tent that won’t be removed. Its stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken. 33:21But there Yahweh will be with us in majesty, a place of wide rivers and streams, in which no galley with oars will go, neither will any gallant ship pass by there. 33:22For Yahweh is our judge. Yahweh is our lawgiver. Yahweh is our king. He will save us. 33:23Your rigging is untied. They couldn’t strengthen the foot of their mast. They couldn’t spread the sail. Then the prey of a great plunder was divided. The lame took the prey. 33:24The inhabitant won’t say, “I am sick.” The people who dwell therein will be forgiven their iniquity.
34:1Come near, you nations, to hear! Listen, you peoples. Let the earth and all it contains hear; the world, and everything that comes from it. 34:2For Yahweh is enraged against all the nations, and angry with all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them. He has given them over for slaughter. 34:3Their slain will also be cast out, and the stench of their dead bodies will come up; and the mountains will melt in their blood. 34:4All of the army of the sky will be dissolved. The sky will be rolled up like a scroll, and all its armies will fade away, as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree. 34:5For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky. Behold, it will come down on Edom, and on the people of my curse, for judgment. 34:6Yahweh’s sword is filled with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 34:7The wild oxen will come down with them, and the young bulls with the mighty bulls; and their land will be drunken with blood, and their dust made greasy with fat. 34:8For Yahweh has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. 34:9Its streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur, And its land will become burning pitch. 34:10It won’t be quenched night nor day. Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation, it will lie waste. No one will pass through it forever and ever. 34:11But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it. The owl and the raven will dwell in it. He will stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness. 34:12They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, but none shall be there; and all its princes shall be nothing. 34:13Thorns will come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses; and it will be a habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches. 34:14The wild animals of the desert will meet with the wolves, and the wild goat will cry to his fellow. Yes, the night creature shall settle there, and shall find herself a place of rest. 34:15The arrow snake will make her nest there, and lay, hatch, and gather under her shade. Yes, the kites will be gathered there, every one with her mate. 34:16Search in the book of Yahweh, and read: not one of these will be missing. None will lack her mate. For my mouth has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them. 34:17He has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it to them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever. From generation to generation they will dwell in it.
35:1The wilderness and the dry land will be glad. The desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose. 35:2It will blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. Lebanon’s glory will be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They will see Yahweh’s glory, the excellence of our God. 35:3Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. 35:4Tell those who have a fearful heart, “Be strong. Don’t be afraid. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God’s retribution. He will come and save you. 35:5Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. 35:6Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. 35:7The burning sand will become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water. Grass with reeds and rushes will be in the habitation of jackals, where they lay. 35:8A highway will be there, a road, and it will be called The Holy Way. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it will be for those who walk in the Way. Wicked fools will not go there. 35:9No lion will be there, nor will any ravenous animal go up on it. They will not be found there; but the redeemed will walk there. 35:10The Yahweh’s ransomed ones will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”
36:1Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all of the fortified cities of Judah, and captured them. 36:2The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to king Hezekiah with a large army. He stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool in the fuller’s field highway. 36:3Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder came out to him. 36:4Rabshakeh said to them, “Now tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What confidence is this in which you trust? 36:5I say that your counsel and strength for the war are only vain words. Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? 36:6Behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt, which if a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 36:7But if you tell me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God,’ isn’t that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar?’” 36:8Now therefore, please make a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. 36:9How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 36:10Have I come up now without Yahweh against this land to destroy it? Yahweh said to me, “Go up against this land, and destroy it.”’” 36:11Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and don’t speak to us in the Jews’ language in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 36:12But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you, to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?” 36:13Then Rabshakeh stood, and called out with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 36:14Thus says the king, ‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you. 36:15Don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, “Yahweh will surely deliver us. This city won’t be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”’ 36:16Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, ‘Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and each of you eat from his vine, and each one from his fig tree, and each one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; 36:17until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 36:18Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, “Yahweh will deliver us.” Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? 36:19Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? 36:20Who are they among all the gods of these countries that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’” 36:21But they remained silent, and said nothing in reply, for the king’s commandment was, “Don’t answer him.” 36:22Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
37:1When king Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahweh’s house. 37:2He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. 37:3They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘Today is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to give birth. 37:4It may be Yahweh your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’” 37:5So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 37:6Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘Yahweh says, “Don’t be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 37:7Behold, I will put a spirit in him and he will hear news, and will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”’” 37:8So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish. 37:9He heard news concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “He has come out to fight against you.” When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 37:10“Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem won’t be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” 37:11Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Shall you be delivered? 37:12Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar? 37:13Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?’” 37:14Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to Yahweh’s house, and spread it before Yahweh. 37:15Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh, saying, 37:16“Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, who is enthroned among the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 37:17Turn your ear, Yahweh, and hear. Open your eyes, Yahweh, and behold. Hear all of the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to defy the living God. 37:18Truly, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the countries and their land, 37:19and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them. 37:20Now therefore, Yahweh our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are Yahweh, even you only.” 37:21Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Yahweh, the God of Israel says, ‘Because you have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, 37:22this is the word which Yahweh has spoken concerning him. The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you. 37:23Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel. 37:24By your servants, have you defied the Lord, and have said, “With the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon. I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypress trees. I will enter into its farthest height, the forest of its fruitful field. 37:25I have dug and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt.” 37:26“‘Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to destroy fortified cities, turning them into ruinous heaps. 37:27Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field, and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops, and like a field before its crop has grown. 37:28But I know your sitting down, your going out, your coming in, and your raging against me. 37:29Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore will I put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came. 37:30“‘This shall be the sign to you. You will eat this year that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs from the same; and in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. 37:31The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. 37:32For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go out, and survivors will escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this.’ 37:33“Therefore Yahweh says concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither will he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it. 37:34By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come to this city,’ says Yahweh. 37:35‘For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.’” 37:36Then Yahweh’s angel went out and struck one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 37:37So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, went away, returned to Nineveh, and stayed there. 37:38As he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place.
38:1In those days was Hezekiah sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Set your house in order, for you will die, and not live.’” 38:2Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh, 38:3and said, “Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” Hezekiah wept bitterly. 38:4Then Yahweh’s word came to Isaiah, saying, 38:5“Go, and tell Hezekiah, ‘Yahweh, the God of David your father, says, “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. 38:6I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. 38:7This shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing that he has spoken. 38:8Behold, I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps. So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down.”’” 38:9The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness. 38:10I said, “In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the residue of my years.” 38:11I said, “I won’t see Yah, Yah in the land of the living. I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world. 38:12My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end of me. 38:13I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me. 38:14I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security.” 38:15What will I say? He has both spoken to me, and himself has done it. I will walk carefully all my years because of the anguish of my soul. 38:16Lord, men live by these things; and my spirit finds life in all of them: you restore me, and cause me to live. 38:17Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back. 38:18For Sheol can’t praise you. Death can’t celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can’t hope for your truth. 38:19The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do today. The father shall make known your truth to the children. 38:20Yahweh will save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in Yahweh’s house. 38:21Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover.” 38:22Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I will go up to Yahweh’s house?”
39:1At that time, Merodach Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he heard that he had been sick, and had recovered. 39:2Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah didn’t show them. 39:3Then Isaiah the prophet came to king Hezekiah, and asked him, “What did these men say? Where did they come from to you?” Hezekiah said, “They have come from a country far from me, even from Babylon.” 39:4Then he asked, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.” 39:5Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of Yahweh of Armies: 39:6‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up until today, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left,’ says Yahweh. 39:7‘They will take away your sons who will issue from you, whom you shall father, and they will be eunuchs in the king of Babylon’s palace.’” 39:8Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “Yahweh’s word which you have spoken is good.” He said moreover, “For there will be peace and truth in my days.”
40:1“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. 40:2“Speak comfortably to Jerusalem; and call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of Yahweh’s hand double for all her sins.” 40:3The voice of one who calls out, “Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God. 40:4Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain. 40:5Yahweh’s glory shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.” 40:6The voice of one saying, “Cry!” One said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field. 40:7The grass withers, the flower fades, because Yahweh’s breath blows on it. Surely the people are like grass. 40:8The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever.” 40:9You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength. Lift it up. Don’t be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold, your God!” 40:10Behold, the Lord Yahweh will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 40:11He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who have their young. 40:12Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the sky with his span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measuring basket, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? 40:13Who has directed Yahweh’s Spirit, or has taught him as his counselor? 40:14Who did he take counsel with, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? 40:15Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing. 40:16Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its animals sufficient for a burnt offering. 40:17All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity. 40:18To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him? 40:19A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it. 40:20He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks a skillful workman to set up a carved image for him that will not be moved. 40:21Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? Haven’t you been told from the beginning? Haven’t you understood from the foundations of the earth? 40:22It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in; 40:23who brings princes to nothing; who makes the judges of the earth like meaningless. 40:24They are planted scarcely. They are sown scarcely. Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble. 40:25“To whom then will you liken me? Who is my equal?” says the Holy One. 40:26Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name. by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, Not one is lacking. 40:27Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, “My way is hidden from Yahweh, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?” 40:28Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? The everlasting God, Yahweh, The Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint. He isn’t weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 40:29He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might. 40:30Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall; 40:31But those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.
41:1“Keep silent before me, islands, and let the peoples renew their strength. Let them come near, then let them speak. Let’s meet together for judgment. 41:2Who has raised up one from the east? Who called him to his foot in righteousness? He hands over nations to him, and makes him rule over kings. He gives them like the dust to his sword, like the driven stubble to his bow. 41:3He pursues them, and passes by safely, Even by a way that he had not gone with his feet. 41:4Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Yahweh, the first, and with the last, I am he.” 41:5The islands have seen, and fear. The ends of the earth tremble. They approach, and come. 41:6Everyone helps his neighbor. They say to their brothers, “Be strong!” 41:7So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith. He who smoothes with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, “It is good”; and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter. 41:8“But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham my friend, 41:9You whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and called from its corners, and said to you, ‘You are my servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away.’ 41:10Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness. 41:11Behold, all those who are incensed against you will be disappointed and confounded. Those who strive with you will be like nothing, and shall perish. 41:12You will seek them, and won’t find them, even those who contend with you. Those who war against you will be as nothing, as a non-existent thing. 41:13For I, Yahweh your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, ‘Don’t be afraid. I will help you.’ 41:14Don’t be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel. I will help you,” says Yahweh, “and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. 41:15Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth. You will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and will make the hills like chaff. 41:16You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the whirlwind will scatter them. You will rejoice in Yahweh. You will glory in the Holy One of Israel. 41:17The poor and needy seek water, and there is none. Their tongue fails for thirst. I, Yahweh, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. 41:18I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the middle of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. 41:19I will put cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oil trees in the wilderness. I will set cypress trees, pine, and box trees together in the desert; 41:20that they may see, know, consider, and understand together, that Yahweh’s hand has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it. 41:21Produce your cause,” says Yahweh. “Bring out your strong reasons,” says the King of Jacob. 41:22“Let them announce, and declare to us what shall happen. Declare the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come. 41:23Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and see it together. 41:24Behold, you are of nothing, and your work is of nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination. 41:25“I have raised up one from the north, and he has come; from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name; and he shall come on rulers as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay. 41:26Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know? And before, that we may say, ‘He is right?’ Surely, there is no one who declares. Surely, there is no one who shows. Surely, there is no one who hears your words. 41:27I am the first to say to Zion, ‘Behold, look at them;’ and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem. 41:28When I look, there is no man; even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask of them, can answer a word. 41:29Behold, all of them, their deeds are vanity and nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion.
42:1“Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen, in whom my soul delights— I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations. 42:2He will not shout, nor raise his voice, nor cause it to be heard in the street. 42:3He won’t break a bruised reed. He won’t quench a dimly burning wick. He will faithfully bring justice. 42:4He will not fail nor be discouraged, until he has set justice in the earth, and the islands will wait for his law.” 42:5Thus says God Yahweh, he who created the heavens and stretched them out, he who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it, he who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it. 42:6“I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will keep you, and make you a covenant for the people, as a light for the nations; 42:7to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison. 42:8“I am Yahweh. That is my name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to engraved images. 42:9Behold, the former things have happened, and I declare new things. I tell you about them before they come up.” 42:10Sing to Yahweh a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the islands and their inhabitants. 42:11Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices, with the villages that Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing. Let them shout from the top of the mountains! 42:12Let them give glory to Yahweh, and declare his praise in the islands. 42:13Yahweh will go out like a mighty man. He will stir up zeal like a man of war. He will raise a war cry. Yes, he will shout aloud. He will triumph over his enemies. 42:14“I have been silent a long time. I have been quiet and restrained myself. Now I will cry out like a travailing woman. I will both gasp and pant. 42:15I will destroy mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs. I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools. 42:16I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know. I will lead them in paths that they don’t know. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. I will do these things, and I will not forsake them. 42:17“Those who trust in engraved images, who tell molten images, ‘You are our gods’ will be turned back. They will be utterly disappointed. 42:18“Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see. 42:19Who is blind, but my servant? Or who is as deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is as blind as he who is at peace, and as blind as Yahweh’s servant? 42:20You see many things, but don’t observe. His ears are open, but he doesn’t listen. 42:21It pleased Yahweh, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify the law, and make it honorable. 42:22But this is a robbed and plundered people. All of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prisons. They have become captives, and no one delivers; and a plunder, and no one says, ‘Restore them!’ 42:23Who is there among you who will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come? 42:24Who gave Jacob as plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Didn’t Yahweh, he against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, and they disobeyed his law. 42:25Therefore he poured the fierceness of his anger on him, and the strength of battle; and it set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know; and it burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart.”
43:1But now Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel says: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine. 43:2When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, and flame will not scorch you. 43:3For I am Yahweh your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I have given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place. 43:4Since you have been precious and honored in my sight, and I have loved you; therefore I will give people in your place, and nations instead of your life. 43:5Don’t be afraid; for I am with you. I will bring your offspring from the east, and gather you from the west. 43:6I will tell the north, ‘Give them up!’ and tell the south, ‘Don’t hold them back! Bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth— 43:7everyone who is called by my name, and whom I have created for my glory, whom I have formed, yes, whom I have made.’” 43:8Bring out the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears. 43:9Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the peoples be assembled. Who among them can declare this, and show us former things? Let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified; or let them hear, and say, “That is true.” 43:10“You are my witnesses,” says Yahweh, “With my servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither will there be after me. 43:11I myself am Yahweh; and besides me there is no savior. 43:12I have declared, I have saved, and I have shown; and there was no strange god among you. Therefore you are my witnesses”, says Yahweh, “and I am God. 43:13Yes, since the day was, I am he; and there is no one who can deliver out of my hand. I will work, and who can hinder it?” 43:14Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: “For your sake, I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring all of them down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing. 43:15I am Yahweh, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.” 43:16Yahweh, who makes a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters says: 43:17who brings out the chariot and horse, the army and the mighty man (they lie down together, they shall not rise; they are extinct, they are quenched like a wick): 43:18“Don’t remember the former things, and don’t consider the things of old. 43:19Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs out now. Don’t you know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. 43:20The animals of the field shall honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; because I give water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen, 43:21the people which I formed for myself, that they might declare my praise. 43:22Yet you have not called on me, Jacob; but you have been weary of me, Israel. 43:23You have not brought me of your sheep for burnt offerings; neither have you honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, nor wearied you with frankincense. 43:24You have bought me no sweet cane with money, nor have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices; but you have burdened me with your sins. You have wearied me with your iniquities. 43:25I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins. 43:26Put me in remembrance. Let us plead together. Declare your case, that you may be justified. 43:27Your first father sinned, and your teachers have transgressed against me. 43:28Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary; and I will make Jacob a curse, and Israel an insult.”
44:1Yet listen now, Jacob my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen. 44:2This is what Yahweh who made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you says: “Don’t be afraid, Jacob my servant; and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. 44:3For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your offspring: 44:4and they will spring up among the grass, as willows by the watercourses. 44:5One will say, ‘I am Yahweh’s;’ and another will be called by the name of Jacob; and another will write with his hand ‘to Yahweh,’ and honor the name of Israel.” 44:6This is what Yahweh, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies, says: “I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God. 44:7Who is like me? Who will call, and will declare it, and set it in order for me, since I established the ancient people? Let them declare the things that are coming, and that will happen. 44:8Don’t fear, neither be afraid. Haven’t I declared it to you long ago, and shown it? You are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? Indeed, there is not. I don’t know any other Rock.” 44:9Everyone who makes a carved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that they may be disappointed. 44:10Who has fashioned a god, or molds an image that is profitable for nothing? 44:11Behold, all his fellows will be disappointed; and the workmen are mere men. Let them all be gathered together. Let them stand up. They will fear. They will be put to shame together. 44:12The blacksmith takes an ax, works in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm. He is hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water, and is faint. 44:13The carpenter stretches out a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes. He marks it out with compasses, and shapes it like the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to reside in a house. 44:14He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak, and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest. He plants a cypress tree, and the rain nourishes it. 44:15Then it will be for a man to burn; and he takes some of it, and warms himself. Yes, he burns it, and bakes bread. Yes, he makes a god, and worships it; he makes it a carved image, and falls down to it. 44:16He burns part of it in the fire. With part of it, he eats meat. He roasts a roast, and is satisfied. Yes, he warms himself, and says, “Aha! I am warm. I have seen the fire.” 44:17The rest of it he makes into a god, even his engraved image. He bows down to it and worships, and prays to it, and says, “Deliver me; for you are my god!” 44:18They don’t know, neither do they consider: for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see; and their hearts, that they can’t understand. 44:19No one thinks, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, “I have burned part of it in the fire. Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it. Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?” 44:20He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?” 44:21Remember these things, Jacob and Israel; for you are my servant. I have formed you. You are my servant. Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. 44:22I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you. 44:23Sing, you heavens, for Yahweh has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth! Break out into singing, you mountains, O forest, all of your trees, for Yahweh has redeemed Jacob, and will glorify himself in Israel. 44:24Yahweh, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb says: “I am Yahweh, who makes all things; who alone stretches out the heavens; who spreads out the earth by myself; 44:25who frustrates the signs of the liars, and makes diviners mad; who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolish; 44:26who confirms the word of his servant, and performs the counsel of his messengers; who says of Jerusalem, ‘She will be inhabited;’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They will be built,’ and ‘I will raise up its waste places;’ 44:27who says to the deep, ‘Be dry,’ and ‘I will dry up your rivers;’ 44:28Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure,’ even saying of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built;’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’”
45:1Yahweh says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him, and strip kings of their armor; to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut: 45:2“I will go before you, and make the rough places smooth. I will break the doors of brass in pieces, and cut apart the bars of iron. 45:3I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that it is I, Yahweh, who call you by your name, even the God of Israel. 45:4For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel my chosen, I have called you by your name. I have given you a title, though you have not known me. 45:5I am Yahweh, and there is no one else. Besides me, there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not known me; 45:6that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is no one besides me. I am Yahweh, and there is no one else. 45:7I form the light, and create darkness. I make peace, and create calamity. I am Yahweh, who does all these things. 45:8Rain, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, that it may produce salvation, and let it cause righteousness to spring up with it. I, Yahweh, have created it. 45:9Woe to him who strives with his Maker— a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands?’ 45:10Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What have you become the father of?’ or to a mother, ‘To what have you given birth?’” 45:11Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker says: “You ask me about the things that are to come, concerning my sons, and you command me concerning the work of my hands! 45:12I have made the earth, and created man on it. I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens; and I have commanded all their army. 45:13I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will make straight all his ways. He shall build my city, and he shall let my exiles go free, not for price nor reward,” says Yahweh of Armies. 45:14Yahweh says: “The labor of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you, and they shall be yours. They will go after you. They shall come over in chains; and they will bow down to you. They will make supplication to you: ‘Surely God is in you; and there is no one else. There is no other god. 45:15Most certainly you are a God who has hidden yourself, God of Israel, the Savior.’” 45:16They will be disappointed, yes, confounded, all of them. Those who are makers of idols will go into confusion together. 45:17Israel will be saved by Yahweh with an everlasting salvation. You will not be disappointed nor confounded to ages everlasting. 45:18For Yahweh who created the heavens, the God who formed the earth and made it, who established it and didn’t create it a waste, who formed it to be inhabited says: “I am Yahweh; and there is no other. 45:19I have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness. I didn’t say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, Yahweh, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right. 45:20“Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. Those have no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image, and pray to a god that can’t save. 45:21Declare and present it. Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has shown this from ancient time? Who has declared it of old? Haven’t I, Yahweh? There is no other God besides me, a just God and a Savior; There is no one besides me. 45:22“Look to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. 45:23I have sworn by myself. The word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and will not be revoked, that to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath. 45:24They will say of me, ‘There is righteousness and strength only in Yahweh.’” Even to him shall men come; and all those who raged against him shall be disappointed. 45:25All the offspring of Israel will be justified in Yahweh, and will rejoice!
46:1Bel bows down. Nebo stoops. Their idols are carried by animals, and on the livestock. The things that you carried around are heavy loads, a burden for the weary. 46:2They stoop and they bow down together. They could not deliver the burden, but they have gone into captivity. 46:3“Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, that have been carried from their birth, that have been carried from the womb. 46:4Even to old age I am he, and even to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear. Yes, I will carry, and will deliver. 46:5“To whom will you compare me, and consider my equal, and compare me, as if we were the same? 46:6Some pour out gold from the bag, and weigh silver in the balance. They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god. They fall down— yes, they worship. 46:7They bear it on their shoulder. They carry it, and set it in its place, and it stands there. It cannot move from its place. Yes, one may cry to it, yet it can not answer. It cannot save him out of his trouble. 46:8“Remember this, and show yourselves men. Bring it to mind again, you transgressors. 46:9Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me. 46:10I declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done. I say: My counsel will stand, and I will do all that I please. 46:11I call a ravenous bird from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. Yes, I have spoken. I will also bring it to pass. I have planned. I will also do it. 46:12Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness! 46:13I bring my righteousness near. It is not far off, and my salvation will not wait. I will grant salvation to Zion, my glory to Israel.