Isaiah 45 - 50 — Legacy Standard Bible

Cyrus, Yahweh’s Anointed

45Thus says Yahweh to ^aCyrus His anointed,Whom I have taken hold of by his right ^bhand,To ^csubdue nations before himAnd ¹to ^dloose the loins of kings,To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:²“I will go before you and ^amake the ¹rough places smooth;I will ^bshatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron ^cbars.³“I will give you the ¹^,^atreasures of darknessAnd hidden wealth of secret places,So that you may know that it is I,Yahweh, the God of Israel, who ^bcalls you by your name.⁴“For the sake of ^aJacob My servant,And Israel My chosen one,I have also ^bcalled you by your name;I have given you a title of honorThough you have ^cnot known Me.⁵“I am Yahweh, and ^athere is no other;^bBesides Me there is no God.I will ¹^,^cgird you, though you have not known Me,⁶That ^athey may know from the rising to the setting of the sunThat there is ^bno one besides Me.I am Yahweh, and there is no other,⁷The One ^aforming light and ^bcreating darkness,Producing peace and ^ccreating calamity;I am Yahweh who does all these.

Yahweh the Maker

⁸“^aDrip down, O heavens, from above,And let the skies pour down righteousness;Let the ^bearth open up and salvation bear fruit,^cAnd righteousness ¹spring up with it.I, Yahweh, have created it.⁹“Woe to the one who ^acontends with his ¹Maker—An earthenware vessel ²among the vessels of earth!Will the ^bclay say to the ³potter, ‘What are you doing?’Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’?¹⁰“Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’Or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor pains?’”

¹¹Thus says ^aYahweh, the Holy One of Israel, and his ¹^,^bMaker: “²^,^cAsk Me about the things that are to come ³concerning My ^dsons,And you shall ⁴commit to Me ^ethe work of My hands.

¹²“It is I who ^amade the earth and created man upon it.I ^bstretched out the heavens with My hands,And I commanded ^call their host.¹³“I have awakened him in ^arighteousness,And I will ^bmake all his ways smooth;He will ^cbuild My city and will ^dlet My exiles go,Without any payment or reward,” says Yahweh of hosts.

¹⁴Thus says Yahweh, “The fruit of the labor of ^aEgypt and the profit of ¹^,^bEthiopiaAnd the Sabeans, men of stature,Will ^ccome over to you and will be yours;They will walk behind you; they will come over in ^dchainsAnd will ^ebow down to you;They will make supplication to you:‘²Surely, ^fGod is ³with you, and there is none else,No other God.’”

¹⁵Truly, You are a God who ^ahides Himself,O God of Israel, ^bSavior!¹⁶They will be ^aput to shame and even dishonored, all of them;The ^bcraftsmen of idols will go away together in dishonor.¹⁷Israel has been saved by YahwehWith an ^aeverlasting salvation;You ^bwill not be put to shame or dishonoredTo all eternity.

¹⁸For thus says Yahweh, who ^acreated the heavens (He is the God who ^bformed the earth and made it; He established it and did not create it ¹a ^cformless place, but formed it to be ^dinhabited), “I am Yahweh, and ^ethere is none else.

¹⁹“^aI have not spoken in secret,In ¹some dark land;I did not say to the ^bseed of Jacob,‘^cSeek Me in ²a formless place’;I, Yahweh, ^dspeak righteousness,^eDeclaring things that are upright.²⁰“^aGather yourselves and come;Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations;^bThey do not know,Who ^ccarry about their graven image of woodAnd ^dpray to a god who cannot save.²¹“^aDeclare and draw near with your case;Indeed, let them consult together.^bWho has made this heard from of old?Who has long since declared it?Is it not I, Yahweh?And there is ^cno other God besides Me,A righteous God and a ^dSavior;There is none except Me.²²“^aTurn to Me and ^bbe saved, all the ends of the earth;For I am God, and there is no other.²³“^aI have sworn by Myself,The ^bword has gone forth from My mouth in righteousnessAnd will not turn back,That to Me ^cevery knee will bow, every tongue will ^dswear allegiance.²⁴“They will say of Me, ‘Only ^ain Yahweh are righteousness and strength.’Men will come to Him,And ^ball who were angry at Him will be put to shame.²⁵“In Yahweh all the seed of IsraelWill be ^ajustified and will ^bboast.”

Babylon’s Idols and the True God

46^aBel has bowed down, Nebo stoops over;Their images are on the beasts and the cattle.The things ¹that you carry are burdensome,A load for the weary beast.²They stooped over, they have bowed down together;They could not rescue the load,But ¹have themselves ^agone into captivity.³“^aHear Me, O house of Jacob,And all ^bthe remnant of the house of Israel,You who have been ^cburdening Me from ¹birthAnd have been carried from the womb;⁴Even to your old age ¹^,^aI will be the same,And even to your ²^,^bgraying years I will bear you!I have ³done it, and I will carry you;And I will bear you, and I will rescue you.⁵“^aTo whom would you liken MeAnd make Me equal and compare Me,That we would be alike?⁶“Those who ^alavish gold from the purseAnd weigh silver on the scale,They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god;They ^bfall down, indeed they worship it.⁷“They ^acarry it upon the shoulder and bear it;They set it in its place, and it stands there.^bIt does not move from its place.Though one may cry to it, it ^ccannot answer;It ^dcannot save him from his distress.⁸“^aRemember this, and be ¹assured;^bCause it to return to your heart, you ^ctransgressors.⁹“Remember the ^aformer things long past,For I am God, and there is ^bno other;I am God, and there is ^cno one like Me,¹⁰Declaring the end from the beginning,And from ancient times things which have not been done,Saying, ‘^aMy counsel will be established,And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’,¹¹Calling a ^abird of prey from the ^beast,The man of ¹My counsel from a far country.Truly I have ^cspoken; truly I will bring it to pass.I have formed it, surely I will do it.¹²“^aHear Me, you ^bstubborn of heart,Who are ^cfar from righteousness.¹³“I ^abring near My righteousness, it is not far off;And My salvation will not delay.And I will grant ^bsalvation in Zion,And My ^cglory for Israel.

Lament for Babylon

47“^aCome down and sit in the dust,O ^bvirgin ^cdaughter of Babylon;Sit on the ground without a throne,O daughter of the Chaldeans!For you shall no longer be called ^dtender and delicate.²“Take the ^amillstones and ^bgrind flour.Uncover your ^cveil, ^dstrip off the skirt,Uncover the leg, cross the rivers.³“Your ^anakedness will be uncovered;Your reproach also will be seen;I will ^btake vengeance and will not ¹spare a man.”⁴Our ^aRedeemer, Yahweh of hosts is His name,The Holy One of Israel.⁵“^aSit silently, and go into ^bdarkness,O daughter of the Chaldeans,For you will no longer be calledThe ^cqueen of ^dkingdoms.⁶“I was furious with My people;I profaned My inheritanceAnd gave them into your hand.You did not show compassion to them,On the ^aaged you made your yoke very heavy.⁷“Yet you said, ‘I will be a ^aqueen forever.’These things you did not ^bput on your heartNor remember the ^coutcome of ¹them.⁸“So now, hear this, you ^asensual one,Who ^bsits securely,Who says in ¹your heart,‘^cI am, and there is no one besides me.I will ^dnot sit as a widow,Nor know loss of children.’⁹“But these ^atwo things will come on you ^bsuddenly in one day:Loss of children and widowhood.They will come on you in full measureIn spite of your many ^csorceries,In spite of the great might of your spells.¹⁰“You felt ^asecure in your evil and said,‘^bNo one sees me,’Your ^cwisdom and your knowledge ¹have turned you astray;So you have said in your heart,‘^dI am, and there is no one besides me.’¹¹“But ^aevil will come on youWhich you will not know how to charm away;And disaster will fall on youFor which you cannot atone;And ^bdestruction about which you do not knowWill come on you ^csuddenly.¹²“Stand fast now in your ^aspellsAnd in your many sorceriesWith which you have labored from your youth;Perhaps you will be able to profit;Perhaps you may cause trembling.¹³“You are ^awearied with your many counsels;Let now the ^bastrologers,Those who behold visions by the stars,Those who predict by the new moons,Stand up and ^csave you from what will come upon you.¹⁴“Behold, they have become ^alike stubble,^bFire burns them;They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame;There will be ^cno coal to warm byNor a fire to sit before!¹⁵“Thus they have become for you, those among whom you have labored,Who have ^atraded with you from your youth;Each has wandered in his own ¹way;There is ^bnone to save you.

My Glory I Will Not Give to Another

48“^aHear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name IsraelAnd who came forth from the ¹^,^bloins of Judah,Who ^cswear by the name of YahwehAnd bring to remembrance the God of Israel,But not in truth or in ^drighteousness.²“For they call themselves after the ^aholy cityAnd ^bare supported by the God of Israel;Yahweh of hosts is His name.³“I ^adeclared the former things long ago,And they went forth from My mouth, and I caused them to be heard.^bSuddenly I acted, and they ^ccame to pass.⁴“Because I know that you are ¹^,^astiff,And your ^bneck is an iron sinewAnd your ^cforehead bronze,⁵Therefore I declared them to you long ago,Before ¹they happened I caused them to be heard by you,Lest you say, ‘My ^aidol has done them,And my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.’⁶“You have heard; look at all this.And you, will you not declare it?I caused you to hear ^anew things from this time,Even hidden things which you have not known.⁷“They are created now and not long ago;And before today you have not heard them,Lest you say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’⁸“Indeed, you have not ^aheard; indeed, you have not known.Indeed, even from long ago your ear has not been openBecause I knew that you would deal very treacherously;And you have been called a ¹^,^btransgressor from the ²womb.⁹“^aFor the sake of My name I ^bdelay My anger,And for My praise I restrain it for you,In order not to cut you off.¹⁰“Behold, I have refined you, but ^anot as silver;I have tested you in the ^bfurnace of affliction.¹¹“^aFor My own sake, for My own sake, I will act;For how can My name be profaned?And My ^bglory I will not give to another.

Yahweh Redeems Jacob

¹²“Hear Me, O Jacob, even Israel ¹whom I called;^aI am He, ^bI am the first, I am also the last.¹³“Also, My hand ^afounded the earth,And My right hand spread out the heavens;When I ^bcall to them, they stand together.¹⁴“^aAssemble, all of you, and hear!^bWho among them has declared these things?Yahweh loves him; he will ^ccarry out His good pleasure on ^dBabylon,And His arm will be against the Chaldeans.¹⁵“I, even I, have spoken; indeed I have ^acalled him,I have brought him, and He will make his ways successful.¹⁶“^aDraw near to Me, hear this:From the first I have ^bnot spoken in secret,^cFrom the time it took place, I was there.So now ^dLord Yahweh has sent Me, and His Spirit.”

¹⁷Thus says Yahweh, your ^aRedeemer, the Holy One of Israel, “I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit,Who ^bleads you in the way you should go.

¹⁸“If only you had ^apaid attention to My commandments!Then your ^bpeace would have been like a river,And your ^crighteousness like the waves of the sea.¹⁹“Your ^aseed would have been like the sand,And the offspring from your loins like its grains;^bTheir name would never be cut off or destroyed from My presence.”²⁰^aGo forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans!Declare with the sound of ^bjoyful shouting, cause this to be heard,^cBring it forth to the end of the earth;Say, “^dYahweh has redeemed His servant Jacob.”²¹And they did not ^athirst when He led them through the waste places.He ^bmade the water flow out of the rock for them;He split the rock, and ^cthe water gushed forth.²²“^aThere is no peace for the wicked,” says Yahweh.

I Will Give You as a Light of the Nations

49Listen to Me, O ^acoastlands,And pay attention, you peoples from afar.^bYahweh called Me from the womb;From the ¹body of My mother He made My name to be remembered.²He has set My ^amouth like a sharp sword;In the ^bshadow of His hand He has concealed Me;And He has also set Me as a ¹select ^carrow;He has hidden Me in His quiver.³He said to Me, “^aYou are My Servant, Israel,^bIn Whom I will ¹show forth My beautiful glory.”⁴But I said, “I have ^atoiled in vain;I have spent My might for ¹nothing and vanity;Yet surely the justice due to Me is with Yahweh,And My ^breward with My God.”⁵So now says ^aYahweh, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,To return Jacob back to Him, so that ^bIsrael might be gathered to Him(For I am ^cglorified in the sight of Yahweh,And My God is My ^dstrength),⁶He says, “It is too ¹small a thing that You should be My ServantTo raise up the tribes of Jacob and to cause the ^apreserved ones of Israel to return;I will also give You as a ^blight ²of the nationsSo that My salvation may ³reach to the ^cend of the earth.”⁷Thus says Yahweh, the ^aRedeemer of Israel and its Holy One,To the ^bdespised One,To the One abhorred by the nation,To the Servant of rulers,“^cKings will see and arise,Princes will also ^dbow down,Because of Yahweh who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You.”

⁸Thus says Yahweh, “In an ^aacceptable time I have answered You,And in a day of salvation I have helped You;And I will ^bguard You and ^cgive You for a covenant of the people,To ^destablish the land, to make them inherit the desolate ¹inheritance;

⁹Saying to those who are ^abound, ‘Go forth,’To those who are in darkness, ‘¹Show yourselves.’Along the roads they will ²feed,And their pasture will be on all ^bbare heights.¹⁰“They will ^anot hunger or thirst,Nor will the scorching ^bheat or sun strike them down;For ^cHe who has compassion on them will ^dguide themAnd will lead them to ^esprings of water.¹¹“I will set all ^aMy mountains as a road,And My ^bhighways will be raised up.¹²“Behold, these will come ^afrom afar;And behold, these will come from the ^bnorth and from the west,And these from the land of Sinim.”¹³^aShout for joy, O heavens! And rejoice, O earth!Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains!For ^bYahweh has comforted His peopleAnd will ^chave compassion on His afflicted.

Promise to Zion

¹⁴But Zion said, “Yahweh has forsaken me,And the Lord has forgotten me.”¹⁵“Can a woman forget her infantAnd have no compassion on the son of her womb?Even these may forget, but ^aI will not forget you.¹⁶“Behold, I have ^ainscribed you on the palms of My hands;Your ^bwalls are continually before Me.¹⁷“Your ¹builders hurry;Your ^adestroyers and devastatorsWill depart from you.¹⁸“^aLift up your eyes and look around;^bAll of them gather together; ^cthey come to you.^dAs I live,” declares Yahweh,“You will surely ^eput on all of them as ¹jewels and bind them on as a bride.¹⁹“For ^ayour ¹devastated and desolate places and your destroyed land—Surely now you will be ^btoo cramped for the inhabitants,And those who ^cswallowed you will be far away.²⁰“The ^achildren of ¹whom you were bereaved will yet say in your ears,‘The place is too cramped for me;Make room for me that I may live here.’²¹“Then you will ^asay in your heart,‘Who has borne these for me?Indeed, I have been bereaved of my childrenAnd am ^bbarren, an ^cexile and a wanderer.And who has reared these?Behold, I ^dremained alone;¹^,^eFrom where did these come?’”

²²Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nationsAnd make high My ^astandard to the peoples;And they will ^bbring your sons in their bosom,And your daughters will be lifted up on their shoulders.

²³“^aKings will be your guardians,And their princesses your nurses.They will ^bbow down to you with their ¹faces to the earthAnd ^click the dust of your feet;And you will ^dknow that I am Yahweh;Those who ^ehope in Me will ^fnot be put to shame.²⁴“^aCan the prey be taken from the mighty man,Or the captives of the ¹righteous be granted escape?”

²⁵Surely, thus says Yahweh, “Even the ^acaptives of the mighty man will be taken away,And the prey of the tyrant will be granted escape;For I will contend with the one who contends with you,And I will ^bsave your sons.

²⁶“I will feed ^athose who mistreat you with their ^bown flesh,And they will become drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine;And ^call flesh will know that I, Yahweh, am your ^dSaviorAnd your ^eRedeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Yahweh Helps His Servant

50Thus says Yahweh, “Where is the ^acertificate of divorceBy which I have ^bsent your mother away?Or to which of My creditors did I ^csell you?Behold, you were sold for your ^diniquities,And for your ^etransgressions your mother ^fwas sent away.

²“Why was there ^ano man when I came?When I called, why was there none to answer?Is My ^bhand so short that it cannot ransom?Or have I no power to deliver?Behold, I ^cdry up the sea with My rebuke;I ^dmake the rivers a wilderness;Their fish stink for lack of waterAnd die of thirst.³“I ^aclothe the heavens with blacknessAnd make sackcloth their covering.”⁴Lord Yahweh has given Me the tongue of ^adisciples,That I may know how to ^bsustain the weary one with a word.He awakens Me ^cmorning by morning;He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.⁵Lord Yahweh has ^aopened My ear;And I did ^bnot rebelNor did I turn back.⁶I ^agave My back to those who strike Me,And My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard;I did not hide My face from dishonor and spitting.⁷Even now Lord Yahweh ^ahelps Me,Therefore, I am ^bnot dishonored;Therefore, I have set My face like ^cflint,And I know that I will not be ashamed.⁸He who ¹^,^avindicates Me is near;Who will contend with Me?Let us ^bstand up to each other;Who has a judgment against Me?Let him approach Me.⁹Behold, ^aLord Yahweh helps Me;^bWho is he who condemns Me?Behold, ^cthey will all wear out like a garment;The moth will eat them.¹⁰Who is among you that fears Yahweh,That listens to the voice of His ^aServant,That ^bwalks in darkness and has no light?Let him ^ctrust in the name of Yahweh and rely on his God.¹¹Behold, all you who ^akindle a fire,Who gird yourselves with firebrands,Walk in the light of your fireAnd among the brands you have set ablaze.This you will have from My hand:You will ^blie down in torment.