Yesha`yahu, starting at chapter 43
{43:1} But now thus says the LORD who created you, Ya`akov, and he
who formed you, Yisra'el: Don't be afraid, for I have redeemed you; I
have called you by your name, you are mine. {43:2} When you pass
through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they
shall not overflow you: when you walk through the fire, you shall not
be burned, neither shall the flame kindle on you. {43:3} For I am the
LORD your God, the Holy One of Yisra'el, your Savior; I have given
Mitzrayim as your ransom, Kush and Seva in your place. {43:4} Since
you have been precious in my sight, [and] honorable, and I have loved
you; therefore will I give men in your place, and peoples instead of
your life. {43:5} Don't be afraid; for I am with you: I will bring
your seed from the east, and gather you from the west; {43:6} I will
tell the north, Give up; and to the south, Don't keep back; bring my
sons from far, and my daughters from the end of the [1>]eretz[<1];
{43:7} everyone who is called by my name, and whom I have created for
my glory, whom I have formed, yes, whom I have made. {43:8} Bring
forth the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears.
{43:9} Let 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, It is truth. {43:10} You are my witnesses,
says the LORD, and 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 shall there be after me. {43:11} I, even I, am the
LORD; and besides me there is no savior. {43:12} I have declared, and
I have saved, and I have shown; and there was no strange [god] among
you: therefore you are my witnesses, says the LORD, and I am God.
{43:13} Yes, since the day was I am he; and there is none who can
deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who can hinder it? {43:14}
Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Yisra'el: For your
sake I have sent to Bavel, and I will bring down all of them as
fugitives, even the Kasdim, in the ships of their rejoicing. {43:15} I
am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Yisra'el, your King.
{43:16} Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea, and a path in
the mighty waters; {43:17} who brings forth the chariot and horse, the
army and the mighty man (they lie down together, they shall not rise;
they are extinct, they are quenched as a wick): {43:18} Don't remember
the former things, neither consider the things of old. {43:19} Behold,
I will do a new thing; now shall it spring forth; shall you not know
it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the
desert. {43:20} The animals of the field shall honor me, the jackals
and the ostriches; because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers
in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen, {43:21} the
people which I formed for myself, that they might set forth my praise.
{43:22} Yet you have not called on me, Ya`akov; but you have been
weary of me, Yisra'el. {43:23} You 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. {43:24} You have bought me no sweet cane with money,
neither 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. {43:25} I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions
for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins. {43:26} Put me in
remembrance; let us plead together: set you forth [your cause], that
you may be justified. {43:27} Your first father sinned, and your
teachers have transgressed against me. {43:28} Therefore I will
profane the princes of the sanctuary; and I will make Ya`akov a curse,
and Yisra'el a reviling.
{44:1} Yet now hear, Ya`akov my servant, and Yisra'el, who I have
chosen: {44:2} Thus says the LORD who made you, and formed you from
the womb, who will help you: Don't be afraid, Ya`akov my servant; and
you, Yeshurun, whom I have chosen. {44:3} For I will pour water on him
who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit
on your seed, and my blessing on your offspring: {44:4} and they shall
spring up among the grass, as willows by the watercourses. {44:5} One
shall say, I am the LORD's; and another shall call [himself] by the
name of Ya`akov; and another shall subscribe with his hand to the
LORD, and surname [himself] by the name of Yisra'el. {44:6} Thus says
the LORD, the King of Yisra'el, and his Redeemer, the LORD of Hosts: I
am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God.
{44:7} Who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in
order for me, since I established the ancient people? and the things
that are coming, and that shall happen, let them declare. {44:8} Don't
fear, neither be afraid: haven't I declared to you of old, and shown
it? You are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? Indeed, there is
not. I don't know any Rock. {44:9} Those who fashion an engraved image
are all of them vanity; and the things that they delight in shall not
profit; and their own witnesses don't see, nor know: that they may be
put to shame. {44:10} Who has fashioned a god, or molten an image that
is profitable for nothing? {44:11} Behold, all his fellows shall be
put to shame; and the workmen, they are of men: let them all be
gathered together, let them stand up; they shall fear, they shall be
put to shame together. {44:12} The smith [makes] an ax, and works in
the coals, and fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong
arm: yes, he is hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water,
and is faint. {44:13} The carpenter stretches out a line; he marks it
out with a pencil; he shapes it with planes, and he marks it out with
the compasses, and shapes it after the figure of a man, according to
the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. {44:14} He 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 fir tree, and
the rain nourishes it. {44:15} Then shall it be for a man to burn; and
he takes of it, and warms himself; yes, he kindles it, and bakes
bread: yes, he makes a god, and worships it; he makes it an engraved
image, and falls down to it. {44:16} He burns part of it in the fire;
with part of it he eats flesh; he roasts roast, and is satisfied; yes,
he warms himself, and says, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire.
{44:17} The residue of it he makes a god, even his engraved image; he
falls down to it and worships, and prays to it, and says, Deliver me;
for you are my god. {44:18} They 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. {44:19} None calls to mind, neither is
there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in
the fire; yes, also I have baked bread on the coals of it; I have
roasted flesh and eaten it: and shall I make the residue of it an
abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree? {44:20} He
feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can't
deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?
{44:21} Remember these things, Ya`akov, and Yisra'el; for you are my
servant: I have formed you; you are my servant: Yisra'el, you shall
not be forgotten by me. {44:22} I have blotted out, as a thick cloud,
your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins: return to me; for I
have redeemed you. {44:23} Sing, you heavens, for the LORD has done
it; shout, you lower parts of the [1>]eretz[<1]; break forth into
singing, you mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD
has redeemed Ya`akov, and will glorify himself in Yisra'el. {44:24}
Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the
womb: I am the LORD, who makes all things; who stretches forth the
heavens alone; who spreads abroad the [2>]eretz[<2] (who is with me?);
{44:25} who frustrates the signs of the liars, and makes diviners mad;
who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolish;
{44:26} who confirms the word of his servant, and performs the counsel
of his messengers; who says of Yerushalayim, She shall be inhabited;
and of the cities of Yehudah, They shall be built, and I will raise up
the waste places of it; {44:27} who says to the deep, Be dry, and I
will dry up your rivers; {44:28} Who says of Koresh, [He is] my
shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying of
Yerushalayim, She shall be built; and of the temple, Your foundation
shall be laid.
{45:1} Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Koresh, whose right
hand I have held, to subdue nations before him, and I will loose the
loins of kings; 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 in pieces the doors of brass, and cut in sunder
the bars of iron; {45:3} and I will give you the treasures of
darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that
it is I, the LORD, who call you by your name, even the God of
Yisra'el. {45:4} For Ya`akov my servant's sake, and Yisra'el my
chosen, I have called you by your name: I have surnamed you, though
you have not known me. {45:5} I am the LORD, and there is none else;
besides me there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known
me; {45:6} that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the
west, that there is none besides me: I am the LORD, and there is no
one else. {45:7} I form the light, and create darkness; I make shalom,
and create evil. I am the LORD, who does all these things. {45:8}
Distil, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down
righteousness: let the [1>]eretz[<1] open, that it may bring forth
[2>]yeshu`ah[<2], and let it cause righteousness to spring up
together; I, the LORD, have created it. {45:9} Woe to him who strives
with his Maker -- a potsherd among the potsherds of the [3>]eretz[<3]!
Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, "What are you making?" or your
work, "He has no hands?" {45:10} Woe to him who says to a father,
"What have you become the father of?" or to a woman, "With what do you
travail?" {45:11} Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Yisra'el, and
his Maker: Ask me of the things that are to come; concerning my sons,
and concerning the work of my hands, command you me. {45:12} I have
made the [4>]eretz[<4], and created man on it: I, even my hands, have
stretched out the heavens; and all their host have I commanded.
{45:13} I 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 the LORD of Hosts.
{45:14} Thus says the LORD: "The labor of Mitzrayim, and the
merchandise of Kush, and the Seva'im, men of stature, shall come over
to you, and they shall be yours. They shall go after you. In chains
they shall come over; and they shall fall down to you. They shall make
supplication to you: 'Surely God is in you; and there is none else,
there is no other god. {45:15} Most assuredly you are a God who hid
yourself, God of Yisra'el, the Savior.'
{45:16} They shall be put to shame, yes, confounded, all of them;
they shall go into confusion together who are makers of idols. {45:17}
[But] Yisra'el shall be saved by the LORD with an everlasting
salvation: you shall not be put to shame nor confounded world without
end. {45:18} For thus says the LORD who created the heavens, the God
who formed the [5>]eretz[<5] and made it, who established it and
didn't create it a waste, who formed it to be inhabited: I am the
LORD; and there is no one else. {45:19} I have not spoken in secret,
in a place of the land of darkness; I didn't say to the seed of
Ya`akov, Seek you me in vain: I, the LORD, speak righteousness, I
declare things that are right. {45:20} Assemble yourselves and come;
draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations: they have
no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image, and pray to a
god that can't save. {45:21} Declare you, and bring [it] forth; yes,
let them take counsel together: who has shown this from ancient time?
who has declared it of old? Haven't I, the LORD? and there is no God
else besides me, a just God and a Savior; there is no one besides me.
{45:22} Look to me, and be you saved, all the ends of the
[6>]eretz[<6]; for I am God, and there is none else. {45:23} By myself
have I sworn, the word is gone forth from my mouth [in] righteousness,
and shall not return, that to me every knee shall bow, every tongue
shall swear. {45:24} Only in the LORD, it is said of me, is
righteousness and strength; even to him shall men come; and all those
who were incensed against him shall be put to shame. {45:25} In the
LORD shall all the seed of Yisra'el be justified, and shall glory.
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Footnotes:
[1] {43:6} earth
[1] {44:23} earth
[2] {44:24} earth
[1] {45:8} earth
[2] {45:8} salvation
[3] {45:9} earth
[4] {45:12} earth
[5] {45:18} earth
[6] {45:22} earth
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