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.

2They stoop and they bow down together.

They could not deliver the burden,

but they have gone into captivity.

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.

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.

5“To whom will you compare me, and consider my equal,

and compare me, as if we were the same?

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.

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.

8“Remember this, and show yourselves men.

Bring it to mind again, you transgressors.

9Remember the former things of old;

for I am God, and there is no other.

I am God, and there is none like me.

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.

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.

12Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted,

who are far from righteousness!

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.

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 will no longer be called tender and delicate.

2Take the millstones and grind flour.

Remove your veil, lift up your skirt, uncover your legs,

and wade through the rivers.

3Your nakedness will be uncovered.

Yes, your shame will be seen.

I will take vengeance,

and will spare no one.”

4Our Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies is his name,

is the Holy One of Israel.

5“Sit in silence, and go into darkness,

daughter of the Chaldeans.

For you shall no longer be called

the mistress of kingdoms.

6I was angry with my people.

I profaned my inheritance

and gave them into your hand.

You showed them no mercy.

You laid a very heavy yoke on the aged.

7You said, ‘I will be a princess forever,’

so that you didn’t lay these things to your heart,

nor did you remember the results.

8“Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures,

who sit securely,

who say in your heart,

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

I won’t sit as a widow,

neither will I know the loss of children.’

9But these two things will come to you in a moment in one day:

the loss of children and widowhood.

They will come on you in their full measure,

in the multitude of your sorceries,

and the great abundance of your enchantments.

10For you have trusted in your wickedness.

You have said, ‘No one sees me.’

Your wisdom and your knowledge has perverted you.

You have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’

11Therefore disaster will come on you.

You won’t know when it dawns.

Mischief will fall on you.

You won’t be able to put it away.

Desolation will come on you suddenly,

which you don’t understand.

12“Stand now with your enchantments

and with the multitude of your sorceries,

in which you have labored from your youth,

as if you might profit,

as if you might prevail.

13You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels.

Now let the astrologers, the stargazers, and the monthly prognosticators stand up and save you from the things that will happen to you.

14Behold, they are like stubble.

The fire will burn them.

They won’t deliver themselves from the power of the flame.

It won’t be a coal to warm at

or a fire to sit by.

15The things that you labored in will be like this:

those who have trafficked with you from your youth will each wander in his own way.

There will be no one to save you.

48

1“Hear this, house of Jacob,

you who are called by the name of Israel,

and have come out of the waters of Judah.

You swear by Yahweh’s name,

and make mention of the God of Israel,

but not in truth, nor in righteousness—

2for they call themselves citizens of the holy city,

and rely on the God of Israel;

Yahweh of Armies is his name.

3I have declared the former things from of old.

Yes, they went out of my mouth, and I revealed them.

I did them suddenly, and they happened.

4Because I knew that you are obstinate,

and your neck is an iron sinew,

and your brow bronze;

5therefore 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.

My engraved image and my molten image has commanded them.’

6You have heard it.

Now see all this.

And you, won’t you declare it?

“I have shown you new things from this time,

even hidden things, which you have not known.

7They are created now, and not from of old.

Before today, you didn’t hear them,

lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’

8Yes, you didn’t hear.

Yes, you didn’t know.

Yes, from of old your ear was not opened,

for I knew that you dealt very treacherously,

and were called a transgressor from the womb.

9For my name’s sake, I will defer my anger,

and for my praise, I hold it back for you

so that I don’t cut you off.

10Behold, I have refined you,

but not as silver.

I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.

11For my own sake,

for my own sake, I will do it;

for how would my name be profaned?

I will not give my glory to another.

12“Listen to me, O Jacob,

and Israel my called:

I am he.

I am the first.

I am also the last.

13Yes, 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.

14“Assemble yourselves, all of you, and hear!

Who among them has declared these things?

He whom Yahweh loves will do what he likes to Babylon,

and his arm will be against the Chaldeans.

15I, even I, have spoken.

Yes, I have called him.

I have brought him

and he shall make his way prosperous.

16“Come near to me and hear this:

“From the beginning I have not spoken in secret;

from the time that it happened, I was there.”

Now the Lord Yahweh has sent me

with his Spirit.

17Yahweh,

your Redeemer,

the Holy One of Israel, says:

“I am Yahweh your God,

who teaches you to profit,

who leads you by the way that you should go.

18Oh that you had listened to my commandments!

Then your peace would have been like a river

and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

19Your offspring also would have been as the sand

and the descendants of your body like its grains.

His name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.”

20Leave Babylon!

Flee from the Chaldeans!

With a voice of singing announce this,

tell it even to the end of the earth;

say, “Yahweh has redeemed his servant Jacob!”

21They didn’t thirst when he led them through the deserts.

He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them.

He also split the rock and the waters gushed out.

22“There is no peace”, says Yahweh, “for the wicked.”

49

1Listen, islands, to me.

Listen, you peoples, from afar:

Yahweh has called me from the womb;

from the inside of my mother, he has mentioned my name.

2He has made my mouth like a sharp sword.

He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand.

He has made me a polished shaft.

He has kept me close in his quiver.

3He said to me, “You are my servant,

Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”

4But I said, “I have labored in vain.

I have spent my strength in vain for nothing;

yet surely the justice due to me is with Yahweh,

and my reward with my God.”

5Now Yahweh, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,

says to bring Jacob again to him,

and to gather Israel to him,

for I am honorable in Yahweh’s eyes,

and my God has become my strength.

6Indeed, he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob,

and to restore the preserved of Israel.

I will also give you as a light to the nations,

that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.”

7Yahweh, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One,

says to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers:

“Kings shall see and rise up,

princes, and they shall worship,

because of Yahweh who is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

8Yahweh says, “I have answered you in an acceptable time.

I have helped you in a day of salvation.

I will preserve you and give you for a covenant of the people,

to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritage,

9saying to those who are bound, ‘Come out!’;

to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves!’

“They shall feed along the paths,

and their pasture shall be on all treeless heights.

10They shall not hunger nor thirst;

neither shall the heat nor sun strike them,

for he who has mercy on them will lead them.

He will guide them by springs of water.

11I will make all my mountains a road,

and my highways shall be exalted.

12Behold, these shall come from afar,

and behold, these from the north and from the west,

and these from the land of Sinim.”

13Sing, heavens, and be joyful, earth!

Break out into singing, mountains!

For Yahweh has comforted his people,

and will have compassion on his afflicted.

14But Zion said, “Yahweh has forsaken me,

and the Lord has forgotten me.”

15“Can a woman forget her nursing child,

that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?

Yes, these may forget,

yet I will not forget you!

16Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.

Your walls are continually before me.

17Your children hurry.

Your destroyers and those who devastated you will leave you.

18Lift up your eyes all around, and see:

all these gather themselves together, and come to you.

As I live,” says Yahweh, “you shall surely clothe yourself with them all as with an ornament,

and dress yourself with them, like a bride.

19“For, as for your waste and your desolate places,

and your land that has been destroyed,

surely now that land will be too small for the inhabitants,

and those who swallowed you up will be far away.

20The children of your bereavement will say in your ears,

‘This place is too small for me.

Give me a place to live in.’

21Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has conceived these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children

and am alone, an exile, and wandering back and forth?

Who has brought these up?

Behold, I was left alone. Where were these?’”

22The Lord Yahweh says, “Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations,

and lift up my banner to the peoples.

They shall bring your sons in their bosom,

and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.

23Kings shall be your foster fathers,

and their queens your nursing mothers.

They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth,

and lick the dust of your feet.

Then you will know that I am Yahweh;

and those who wait for me won’t be disappointed.”

24Shall the plunder be taken from the mighty,

or the lawful captives be delivered?

25But Yahweh says, “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away,

and the plunder retrieved from the fierce,

for I will contend with him who contends with you

and I will save your children.

26I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh;

and they will be drunk on their own blood, as with sweet wine.

Then all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior

and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”