You will thresh the mountains,
and beat them small,
and will make the hills like chaff.
16 You will winnow them,
and the wind will carry them away,
and the whirlwind will scatter them.
You will rejoice in the LORD.
You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.
17 The poor and needy seek water, and there is none.
Their tongue fails for thirst.
I, the LORD, will answer them.
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
18 I will open rivers on the bare heights,
and springs in the middle of the valleys.
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
and the dry land springs of water.
19 I will put cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oil trees in the wilderness.
I will set cypress trees, pine, and box trees together in the desert;
20 that they may see, know, consider, and understand together,
that the LORD’s hand has done this,
and the Holy One of Israel has created it.
21 Produce your cause,” says the LORD.
“Bring out your strong reasons!” says the King of Jacob.
22 “Let them announce and declare to us what will happen!
Declare the former things, what they are,
that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them;
or show us things to come.
23 Declare the things that are to come hereafter,
that we may know that you are gods.
Yes, do good, or do evil,
that we may be dismayed,
and see it together.
24 Behold, you are nothing,
and your work is nothing.
He who chooses you is an abomination.
25 “I have raised up one from the north, and he has come,
from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name,
and he shall come on rulers as on mortar,
and as the potter treads clay.
26 Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know?
and before, that we may say, ‘He is right’?
Surely, there is no one who declares.
Surely, there is no one who shows.
Surely, there is no one who hears your words.
27 I am the first to say to Zion, ‘Behold, look at them;’
and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem.
28 When I look, there is no man,
even amongst them there is no counsellor who, when I ask, can answer a word.
29 Behold, all of their deeds are vanity and nothing.
Their molten images are wind and confusion.
42
1 “Behold, my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights:
I have put my Spirit on him.
He will bring justice to the nations.
2 He will not shout,
nor raise his voice,
nor cause it to be heard in the street.
3 He won’t break a bruised reed.
He won’t quench a dimly burning wick.
He will faithfully bring justice.
4 He will not fail nor be discouraged,
until he has set justice in the earth,
and the islands wait for his law.”
5 God the LORD,
he who created the heavens and stretched them out,
he who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it,
he who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it, says:
6 “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness.
I will hold your hand.
I will keep you,
and make you a covenant for the people,
as a light for the nations,
7 to open the blind eyes,
to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon,
and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.
8 “I am the LORD.
That is my name.
I will not give my glory to another,
nor my praise to engraved images.
9 Behold, the former things have happened
and I declare new things.
I tell you about them before they come up.”
10 Sing to the LORD a new song,
and his praise from the end of the earth,
you who go down to the sea,
and all that is therein,
the islands and their inhabitants.
11 Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices,
with the villages that Kedar inhabits.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing.
Let them shout from the top of the mountains!
12 Let them give glory to the LORD,
and declare his praise in the islands.
13 The LORD will go out like a mighty man.
He will stir up zeal like a man of war.
He will raise a war cry.
Yes, he will shout aloud.
He will triumph over his enemies.
14 “I have been silent a long time.
I have been quiet and restrained myself.
Now I will cry out like a travailing woman. I will both gasp and pant.
15 I will destroy mountains and hills,
and dry up all their herbs.
I will make the rivers islands,
and will dry up the pools.
16 I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know.
I will lead them in paths that they don’t know.
I will make darkness light before them,
and crooked places straight.
I will do these things,
and I will not forsake them.
17 “Those who trust in engraved images,
who tell molten images,
‘You are our gods,’
will be turned back.
They will be utterly disappointed.
18 “Hear, you deaf,
and look, you blind,
that you may see.
19 Who is blind, but my servant?
Or who is as deaf as my messenger whom I send?
Who is as blind as he who is at peace,
and as blind as the LORD’s servant?
20 You see many things, but don’t observe.
His ears are open, but he doesn’t listen.
21 It pleased the LORD, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify the law
and make it honourable.
22 But this is a robbed and plundered people.
All of them are snared in holes,
and they are hidden in prisons.
They have become captives, and no one delivers,
and a plunder, and no one says, ‘Restore them!’
23 Who is there amongst you who will give ear to this?
Who will listen and hear for the time to come?
24 Who gave Jacob as plunder,
and Israel to the robbers?
Didn’t the LORD, he against whom we have sinned?
For they would not walk in his ways,
and they disobeyed his law.
25 Therefore he poured the fierceness of his anger on him,
and the strength of battle.
It set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know.
It burnt him, but he didn’t take it to heart.”
43
1 But now the LORD who created you, Jacob,
and he who formed you, Israel, says:
“Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you.
I have called you by your name.
You are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you,
and through the rivers, they will not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burnt,
and flame will not scorch you.
3 For I am the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
your Saviour.
I have given Egypt as your ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba in your place.
4 Since you have been precious and honoured in my sight,
and I have loved you,
therefore I will give people in your place,
and nations instead of your life.
5 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and gather you from the west.
6 I will tell the north, ‘Give them up!’
and tell the south, ‘Don’t hold them back!
Bring my sons from far away,
and my daughters from the ends of the earth—
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.’ ”
8 Bring out the blind people who have eyes,
and the deaf who have ears.
9 Let all the nations be gathered together,
and let the peoples be assembled.
Who amongst 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, “That is true.”
10 “You are my witnesses,” says the LORD,
“With 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 will there be after me.
11 I myself am the LORD.
Besides me, there is no saviour.
12 I have declared, I have saved, and I have shown,
and there was no strange god amongst you.
Therefore you are my witnesses”,
says the LORD, “and I am God.
13 Yes, since the day was, I am he.
There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.
I will work, and who can hinder it?”
14 The LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: “For your sake, I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring all of them down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing. 15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.”
16 The LORD, who makes a way in the sea,
and a path in the mighty waters,
17 who brings out the chariot and horse,
the army and the mighty man
(they lie down together, they shall not rise;
they are extinct, they are quenched like a wick) says:
18 “Don’t remember the former things,
and don’t consider the things of old.
19 Behold, I will do a new thing.
It springs out now.
Don’t you know it?
I will even make a way in the wilderness,
and rivers in the desert.
20 The animals of the field, the jackals and the ostriches, shall honour me,
because I give water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my people, my chosen,
21 the people which I formed for myself,
that they might declare my praise.
22 Yet you have not called on me, Jacob;
but you have been weary of me, Israel.
23 You have not brought me any of your sheep for burnt offerings,
neither have you honoured me with your sacrifices.
I have not burdened you with offerings,
nor wearied you with frankincense.
24 You have bought me no sweet cane with money,
nor 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.
25 I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake;
and I will not remember your sins.
26 Put me in remembrance.
Let us plead together.
Declare your case,
that you may be justified.
27 Your first father sinned,
and your teachers have transgressed against me.
28 Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary;
and I will make Jacob a curse,
and Israel an insult.”
44
1 Yet
