Isaiah, starting at chapter 46
{46:1} Bel bows down, Nebo stoops; their idols are on the animals, and
on the livestock: the things that you carried about are made a
load, a burden to the weary [animal]. {46:2} They stoop, they
bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but
themselves are gone into captivity. {46:3} Listen to me, house
of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, that have
been borne [by me] from their birth, that have been carried
from the womb; {46:4} and even to old age I am he, and even to
gray hairs will I carry you. I have made, and I will bear; yes,
I will carry, and will deliver. {46:5} To whom will you liken
me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?
{46:6} Some 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. {46:7} They bear it on the
shoulder, they carry it, and set it in its place, and it
stands, from its place it shall not move: yes, one may cry to
it, yet it can not answer, nor save him out of his trouble.
{46:8} Remember this, and show yourselves men; bring it again
to mind, you transgressors. {46:9} Remember the former things
of old: for I am God, and there is none else; [I am] God, and
there is none like me; {46:10} declaring the end from the
beginning, and from ancient times things that are not [yet]
done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my
pleasure; {46:11} calling 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 purposed, I will also do it.
{46:12} Listen to me, you stout-hearted, who are far from
righteousness: {46:13} I bring near my righteousness, it shall
not be far off, and my salvation shall not wait; and I will
place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.
{47:1} Come down, and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon; sit
on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans: for
you shall no more be called tender and delicate. {47:2} Take
the millstones, and grind meal; remove your veil, strip off the
train, uncover the leg, pass through the rivers. {47:3} Your
nakedness shall be uncovered, yes, your shame shall be seen: I
will take vengeance, and will spare no man. {47:4} Our
Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies is his name, the Holy One of Israel.
{47:5} Sit you silent, and get you into darkness, daughter of
the Chaldeans; for you shall no more be called The mistress of
kingdoms. {47:6} I was angry with my people, I profaned my
inheritance, and gave them into your hand: you did show them no
mercy; on the aged have you very heavily laid your yoke. {47:7}
You said, I shall be mistress forever; so that you did not lay
these things to your heart, neither did remember the latter end
of it. {47:8} Now therefore hear this, you who are given to
pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, I am, and
there is none else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow,
neither shall I know the loss of children: {47:9} but these two
things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of
children, and widowhood; in their full measure shall they come
on you, in the multitude of your sorceries, and the great
abundance of your enchantments. {47:10} For you have trusted in
your wickedness; you have said, None sees me; your wisdom and
your knowledge, it has perverted you, and you have said in your
heart, I am, and there is none else besides me. {47:11}
Therefore evil will come on you; you won't know when it dawns:
and mischief wil fall on you; you will not be able to put it
away: and desolation shall come on you suddenly, which you
don't know. {47:12} Stand now with your enchantments, and with
the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from
your youth; if so be you shall be able to profit, if so be you
may prevail. {47:13} You are wearied in the multitude of your
counsels: let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly
prognosticators, stand up, and save you from the things that
shall come on you. {47:14} Behold, they shall be as stubble;
the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves
from the power of the flame: it shall not be a coal to warm at,
nor a fire to sit before. {47:15} Thus shall the things be to
you in which you have labored: those who have trafficked with
you from your youth shall wander everyone to his quarter; there
shall be none to save you.
{48:1} Hear you this, house of Jacob, who are called by the name of
Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah; who
swear by the name of Yahweh, and make mention of the God of
Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness {48:2} (for they
call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves on the
God of Israel; Yahweh of Armies is his name): {48:3} I have
declared the former things from of old; yes, they went forth
out of my mouth, and I showed them: suddenly I did them, and
they happened. {48:4} Because I knew that you are obstinate,
and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow brass; {48:5}
therefore I have declared it to you from of old; before it came
to pass I showed it to you; lest you should say, My idol has
done them, and my engraved image, and my molten image, has
commanded them. {48:6} You have heard it; see all this; and
you, will you not declare it? I have shown you new things from
this time, even hidden things, which you have not known. {48:7}
They are created now, and not from of old; and before this day
you didn't hear them; lest you should say, Behold, I knew them.
{48:8} Yes, you didn't hear; yes, you didn't know; yes, from of
old your ear was not opened: for I knew that you did deal very
treacherously, and was called a transgressor from the womb.
{48:9} For my name's sake will I defer my anger, and for my
praise will I refrain for you, that I not cut you off. {48:10}
Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen
you in the furnace of affliction. {48:11} For my own sake, for
my own sake, will I do it; for how should [my name] be
profaned? and my glory I will not give to another. {48:12}
Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel my called: I am he; I am the
first, I also am the last. {48:13} Yes, my hand has laid the
foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spread out the
heavens: when I call to them, they stand up together. {48:14}
Assemble yourselves, all you, and hear; who among them has
declared these things? He whom Yahweh loves shall perform his
pleasure on Babylon, and his arm [shall be on] the Chaldeans.
{48:15} I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him; I have
brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous. {48:16} Come
you near to me, hear you this; from the beginning I have not
spoken in secret; from the time that it was, there am I: and
now the Lord Yahweh has sent me, and his Spirit. {48:17} Thus
says Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am Yahweh
your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way
that you should go. {48:18} Oh that you had listened to my
commandments! then had your peace been as a river, and your
righteousness as the waves of the sea: {48:19} your seed also
had been as the sand, and the offspring of your body like its
grains: his name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before
me. {48:20} Go you forth from Babylon, flee you from the
Chaldeans; with a voice of singing declare you, tell this,
utter it even to the end of the earth: say you, Yahweh has
redeemed his servant Jacob. {48:21} They didn't thirst when he
led them through the deserts; he caused the waters to flow out
of the rock for them; he split the rock also, and the waters
gushed out. {48:22} There is no peace, says Yahweh, to the
wicked.
___
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