45 This is what Jehovah has said to his anointed one, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have taken hold of, to subdue before him nations, so that I may ungird even the hips of kings; to open before him the two-leaved doors, so that even the gates will not be shut: 2 “Before you I myself shall go, and the swells of land I shall straighten out. The copper doors I shall break in pieces, and the iron bars I shall cut down. 3 And I will give you the treasures in the darkness and the hidden treasures in the concealment places, in order that you may know that I am Jehovah, the One calling [you] by your name, the God of Israel. 4 For the sake of my servant Jacob and of Israel my chosen one, I even proceeded to call you by your name; I proceeded to give you a name of honor, although you did not know me. 5 I am Jehovah, and there is no one else. With the exception of me there is no God. I shall closely gird you, although you have not known me, 6 in order that people may know from the rising of the sun and from its setting that there is none besides me. I am Jehovah, and there is no one else. 7 Forming light and creating darkness, making peace and creating calamity, I, Jehovah, am doing all these things.

8 “O YOU heavens, cause a dripping from above; and let the cloudy skies themselves trickle with righteousness. Let the earth open up, and let it be fruitful with salvation, and let it cause righteousness itself to spring up at the same time. I myself, Jehovah, have created it.”

9 Woe to the one that has contended with his Former, as an earthenware fragment with the other earthenware fragments of the ground! Should the clay say to its former: “What do you make?” And your achievement [say]: “He has no hands”? 10 Woe to the one saying to a father: “What do you become father to?” and to the wife: “What are you in birth pains with?”

11 This is what Jehovah has said, the Holy One of Israel and the Former of him: “Ask me even about the things that are coming concerning my sons; and concerning the activity of my hands YOU people should command me. 12 I myself have made the earth and have created even man upon it. I—my own hands have stretched out the heavens, and all the army of them I have commanded.”

13 “I myself have roused up someone in righteousness, and all his ways I shall straighten out. He is the one that will build my city, and those of mine in exile he will let go, not for a price nor for bribery,” Jehovah of armies has said.

14 This is what Jehovah has said: “The unpaid laborers of Egypt and the merchants of Ethiopia and the Sabeans, tall men, will themselves come over even to you, and yours they will become. Behind you they will walk; in fetters they will come over, and to you they will bow down. To you they will pray, [saying,] ‘Indeed God is in union with you, and there is no one else; there is no [other] God.’”

15 Truly you are a God keeping yourself concealed, the God of Israel, a Savior. 16 They will certainly be ashamed and even be humiliated, all of them. Together in humiliation the manufacturers of [idol] forms will have to walk. 17 As for Israel, he will certainly be saved in union with Jehovah with a salvation for times indefinite. YOU people will not be ashamed, nor will YOU be humiliated for the indefinite times of eternity.

18 For this is what Jehovah has said, the Creator of the heavens, He the [true] God, the Former of the earth and the Maker of it, He the One who firmly established it, who did not create it simply for nothing, who formed it even to be inhabited: “I am Jehovah, and there is no one else. 19 In a place of concealment I spoke not, in a dark place of the earth; nor said I to the seed of Jacob, ‘Seek me simply for nothing, YOU people.’ I am Jehovah, speaking what is righteous, telling what is upright.

20 “Collect yourselves and come. Bring yourselves up close together, YOU escapees from the nations. Those carrying the wood of their carved image have not come to any knowledge, neither have those praying to a god that cannot save. 21 Make YOUR report and YOUR presentation. Yes, let them consult together in unity. Who has caused this to be heard from a long time ago? [Who] has reported it from that very time? Is it not I, Jehovah, besides whom there is no other God; a righteous God and a Savior, there being none excepting me?

22 “Turn to me and be saved, all YOU [at the] ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no one else. 23 By my own self I have sworn—out of my own mouth in righteousness the word has gone forth, so that it will not return—that to me every knee will bend down, every tongue will swear, 24 saying, ‘Surely in Jehovah there are full righteousness and strength. All those getting heated up against him will come straight to him and be ashamed. 25 In Jehovah all the seed of Israel will prove to be right and will boast about themselves.’”

46 Bel has bent down, Nebo is stooping over; their idols have come to be for the wild beasts and for the domestic animals, their loads, pieces of luggage, a burden for the tired animals. 2 They must stoop over; they must each alike bend down; they are simply unable to furnish escape for the burden, but into captivity their own soul must go.

3 “Listen to me, O house of Jacob, and all YOU remaining ones of the house of Israel, YOU the ones conveyed [by me] from the belly, the ones carried from the womb. 4 Even to [one’s] old age I am the same One; and to [one’s] gray-headedness I myself shall keep bearing up. I myself shall certainly act, that I myself may carry and that I myself may bear up and furnish escape.

5 “To whom will YOU people liken me or make [me] equal or compare me that we may resemble each other? 6 There are those who are lavishing out the gold from the purse, and with the scale beam they weigh out the silver. They hire a metalworker, and he makes it into a god. They prostrate themselves, yes, they bow down. 7 They carry it upon the shoulder, they bear it and deposit it in its place that it may stand still. From its standing place it does not move away. One even cries out to it, but it does not answer; out of one’s distress it does not save one.

8 “Remember this, that YOU people may muster up courage. Lay it to heart, YOU transgressors. 9 Remember the first things of a long time ago, that I am the Divine One and there is no other God, nor anyone like me; 10 the One telling from the beginning the finale, and from long ago the things that have not been done; the One saying, ‘My own counsel will stand, and everything that is my delight I shall do’; 11 the One calling from the sunrising a bird of prey, from a distant land the man to execute my counsel. I have even spoken [it]; I shall also bring it in. I have formed [it], I shall also do it.

12 “Listen to me, YOU the ones powerful at heart, YOU the ones far away from righteousness. 13 I have brought near my righteousness. It is not far away, and my own salvation will not be late. And I will give in Zion salvation, to Israel my beauty.”


47 Come down and sit down in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit down on the earth where there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans. For you will not experience again that people call you delicate and dainty. 2 Take a hand mill and grind out flour. Uncover your veil. Strip off the flowing skirt. Uncover the leg. Cross over the rivers. 3 You ought to uncover your nakedness. Also, your reproach ought to be seen. Vengeance is what I shall take, and I shall not meet any man [kindly].

4 “There is One repurchasing us. Jehovah of armies is his name, the Holy One of Israel.”

5 Sit down silently and come into the darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for you will not experience again that people call you Mistress of Kingdoms. 6 I grew indignant at my people. I profaned my inheritance, and I proceeded to give them into your hand. You showed them no mercies. Upon the old man you made your yoke very heavy. 7 And you kept saying: “To time indefinite I shall prove to be Mistress, forever.” You did not take these things to your heart; you did not remember the finale of the matter.

8 And now hear this, you pleasure-given [woman], the one sitting in security, the one saying in her heart: “I am, and there is nobody else. I shall not sit as a widow, and I shall not know the loss of children.” 9 But to you these two things will come suddenly, in one day: loss of children and widowhood. In their complete measure they must come upon you, for the abundance of your sorceries, for the full might of your spells—exceedingly. 10 And you kept trusting in your badness. You have said: “There is no one seeing me.” Your wisdom and your knowledge—this is what has led you away; and you keep saying in your heart: “I am, and there is nobody else.” 11 And upon you calamity must come; you will know no charming against it. And upon you adversity will fall; you will not be able to avert it. And upon you there will suddenly come a ruin that you are not accustomed to know.

12 Stand still, now, with your spells and with the abundance of your sorceries, in which you have toiled from your youth; that perhaps you might be able to benefit, that perhaps you might strike people with awe. 13 You have grown weary with the multitude of your counselors. Let them stand up, now, and save you, the worshipers of the heavens, the lookers at the stars, those giving out knowledge at the new moons concerning the things that will come upon you. 14 Look! They have become like stubble. A fire itself will certainly burn them up. They will not deliver their soul from the power of the flame. There will be no glow of charcoals for people to warm themselves, no firelight in front of which to sit down. 15 Thus they will certainly become to you, with whom you have toiled as your charmers from your youth. They will actually wander, each one to his own region. There will be no one to save you.

48 Hear this, O house of Jacob, YOU who are calling yourselves by the name of Israel and who have come forth from the very waters of Judah, YOU who are swearing by the name of Jehovah and who make mention even of the God of Israel, not in truth and not in righteousness. 2 For they have called themselves as being from the holy city, and upon the God of Israel they have supported themselves, Jehovah of armies being his name.

3 “The first things I have told even from that time, and out of my own mouth they went forth, and I kept making them heard. Suddenly I acted, and the things proceeded to come in. 4 Due to my knowing that you are hard and that your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead is copper, 5 I also kept telling you from that time. Before it could come in, I caused you to hear [it], that you might not say, ‘My own idol has done them, and my own carved image and my own molten image have commanded them.’ 6 You have heard. Behold it all. As for YOU people, will YOU not tell [it]? I have made you hear new things from the present time, even things kept in reserve, that you have not known. 7 At the present time they must be created, and not from that time, even things that before today you have not heard, that you may not say, ‘Look! I have already known them.’

8 “Moreover, you have not heard, neither have you known, nor from that time on has your ear been opened. For I well know that without fail you kept dealing treacherously, and a ‘transgressor from the belly’ you have been called. 9 For the sake of my name I shall check my anger, and for my praise I shall restrain myself toward you that there may be no cutting you off. 10 Look! I have refined you, but not in [the form of] silver. I have made choice of you in the smelting furnace of affliction. 11 For my own sake, for my own sake I shall act, for how could one let oneself be profaned? And to no one else shall I give my own glory.

12 “Listen to me, O Jacob, and you Israel my called one. I am the same One. I am the first. Moreover, I am the last. 13 Moreover, my own hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my own right hand extended out the heavens. I am calling to them, that they may keep standing together.

14 “Be collected together, all YOU people, and hear. Who among them has told these things? Jehovah himself has loved him. He will do what is his delight upon Babylon, and his own arm will be upon the Chaldeans. 15 I—I myself have spoken. Moreover, I have called him. I have brought him in, and there will be a making of his way successful.

16 “Come near to me, YOU people. Hear this. From the start I have spoken in no place of concealment at all. From the time of its occurring I have been there.”

And now the Sovereign Lord Jehovah himself has sent me, even his spirit. 17 This is what Jehovah has said, your Repurchaser, the Holy One of Israel: “I, Jehovah, am your God, the One teaching you to benefit [yourself], the One causing you to tread in the way in which you should walk. 18 O if only you would actually pay attention to my commandments! Then your peace would become just like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. 19 And your offspring would become just like the sand, and the descendants from your inward parts like the grains of it. One’s name would not be cut off or be annihilated from before me.”

20 Go forth, YOU people, out of Babylon! Run away from the Chaldeans. Tell forth even with the sound of a joyful cry, cause this to be heard. Make it to go forth to the extremity of the earth. Say: “Jehovah has repurchased his servant Jacob. 21 And they did not get thirsty when he was making them walk even through devastated places. Water out of the rock he caused to flow forth for them, and he proceeded to split a rock that the water might stream forth.”

22 “There is no peace,” Jehovah has said, “for the wicked ones.”