to you ere they sprout up.
10Sing to the LORD a new song,
His praise from the ends of the earth—
e-You who sail the sea and you creatures in it,
You coastlands-e and their inhabitants!
11Let the desert and its towns cry aloud,
The villages where Kedar dwells;
Let Sela’s inhabitants shout,
Call out from the peaks of the mountains.
12Let them do honor to the LORD,
And tell His glory in the coastlands.
13The LORD goes forth like a warrior,
Like a fighter He whips up His rage.
He yells, He roars aloud,
He charges upon His enemies.
14“I have kept silent f-far too long,-f
Kept still and restrained Myself;
Now I will scream like a woman in labor,
I will pant and I will gasp.
15Hills and heights will I scorch,
Cause all their green to wither;
I will turn rivers into isles,g
And dry the marshes up.
16I will lead the blind
By a road they did not know,
And I will make them walk
By paths they never knew.
I will turn darkness before them to light,
Rough places into level ground.
These are the promises—
I will keep them without fail.
17Driven back and utterly shamed
Shall be those who trust in an image,
Those who say to idols,
‘You are our gods!’ ”
18Listen, you who are deaf;
You blind ones, look up and see!
19Who is so blind as My servant,
So deaf as the messenger I send?
Who is so blind as the chosenh one,
So blind as the servant of the LORD?
20Seeing many things, i-he gives-i no heed;
With ears open, he hears nothing.
21jThe LORD desires His [servant’s] vindication,
That he may magnify and glorify [His] Teaching.
22Yet it is a people plundered and despoiled:
All of them are trapped in holes,
Imprisoned in dungeons.
They are given over to plunder, with none to rescue them;
To despoilment, with none to say “Give back!”
23If only you would listen to this,
Attend and give heed from now on!
24Who was it gave Jacob over to despoilment
And Israel to plunderers?
Surely, the LORD against whom theyk sinned
In whose ways they would not walk
And whose Teaching they would not obey.
25So He poured out wrath upon them,
His anger and the fury of war.
It blazed upon them all about, but they heeded not;
It burned among them, but they gave it no thought.
43 But now thus said the LORD—
Who created you, O Jacob,
Who formed you, O Israel:
Fear not, for I will redeem you;
I have singled you out by name,
You are Mine.
2When you pass through water,
I will be with you;
Through streams,
They shall not overwhelm you.
When you walk through fire,
You shall not be scorched;
Through flame,
It shall not burn you.
3For I the LORD am your God,
The Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as a ransom for you,
Nubia and Saba in exchange for you.
4Because you are precious to Me,
And honored, and I love you,
I give men in exchange for you
And peoples in your stead.
5Fear not, for I am with you:
I will bring your folk from the East,
Will gather you out of the West;
6I will say to the North, “Give back!”
And to the South, “Do not withhold!
Bring My sons from afar,
And My daughters from the end of the earth—
7All who are linked to My name,
Whom I have created,
Formed, and made for My glory—
8Setting free that people,
Blind though it has eyes
And deaf though it has ears.”
9All the nations assemble as one,
The peoples gather.
Who among them declared this,
Foretold to us the things that have happened?
Let them produce their witnesses and be vindicated,
That men, hearing them, may say, “It is true!”a
10My witnesses are you
—declares the LORD—
My servant, whom I have chosen.
To the end that youb may take thought,
And believe in Me,
And understand that I am He:
Before Me no god was formed,
And after Me none shall exist—
11None but me, the LORD;
Beside Me, none can grant triumph.
12I alone foretold the triumph
And I brought it to pass;
I announced it,
And no strange god was among you.
So you are My witnesses
—declares the LORD—
And I am God.
13Ever since day was, I am He;
None can deliver from My hand.
When I act, who can reverse it?
14Thus said the LORD,
Your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
For your sake c-I send to Babylon;
I will bring down all [her] bars,
And the Chaldeans shall raise their voice in lamentation.-c
15I am your Holy One, the LORD,
Your King, the Creator of Israel.
16Thus said the LORD,
Who made a road through the sea
And a path through mighty waters,
17Who destroyedd chariots and horses,
And all the mighty host—
They lay down to rise no more,
They were extinguished, quenched like a wick:
18Do not recall what happened of old,
Or ponder what happened of yore!
19I am about to do something new;
Even now it shall come to pass,
Suddenly you shall perceive it:
I will make a road through the wilderness
And riverse in the desert.
20The wild beasts shall honor Me,
Jackals and ostriches,
For I provide water in the wilderness,
Rivers in the desert,
To give drink to My chosen people,
21The people I formed for Myself
That they might declare my praise.
22But you have not worshiped Me, O Jacob,
That you should be weary of Me, O Israel.
23You have not brought Me your sheep for burnt offerings,
Nor honored Me with your sacrifices.
I have not burdened you with meal offerings,
Nor wearied you about frankincense.
24You have not bought Me fragrant reed with money,
Nor sated Me with the fat of your sacrifices.
Instead, you have burdened Me with your sins,
You have wearied Me with your iniquities.
25It is I, I who—for My own sakef—
Wipe your transgressions away
And remember your sins no more.
26Help me remember!
Let us join in argument,
Tell your version,
That you may be vindicated.
27Your earliest ancestor sinned,
And your spokesmen transgressed against Me.
28So I profaned g-the holy princes;-g
I abandoned Jacob to proscriptionh
And Israel to mockery.
44 But hear, now, O Jacob My servant,
Israel whom I have chosen!
2Thus said the LORD, your Maker,
Your Creator who has helped you since birth:
Fear not, My servant Jacob,
Jeshuruna whom I have chosen,
3Even as I pour water on thirsty soil,
And rain upon dry ground,
So will I pour My spirit on your offspring,
My blessing upon your posterity.
4And they shall sprout likeb grass,
Like willows by watercourses.
5One shall say, “I am the LORD’s,”
Another shall use the name of “Jacob,”
Another shall mark his arm “of the LORD”c
And adopt the name of “Israel.”
6Thus said the LORD, the King of Israel,
Their Redeemer, the LORD of Hosts:
I am the first and I am the last,
And there is no god but Me.
7dWho like Me can announce,
Can foretell it—and match Me thereby?
Even as I told the future to an ancient people,
So let him foretell coming events to them.
8Do not be frightened, do not be shaken!
Have I not from of old predicted to you?
I foretold, and you are My witnesses.
Is there any god, then, but Me?
“There is no other rock; I know none!”
9The makers of idols
All work to no purpose;
And the things they treasure
Can do no good,
As they themselves can testify.
They neither look nor think,
And so they shall be shamed.
10Who would fashion a god
Or cast a statue
That can do no good?
11Lo, all its adherents shall be shamed;
They are craftsmen, are merely human.
Let them all assemble and stand up!
They shall be cowed, and they shall be shamed.
12eThe craftsman in iron, with his tools,
Works itf over charcoal
And fashions it by hammering,
Working with the strength of his arm.
Should he go hungry, his strength would ebb;
Should he drink no water, he would grow faint.
13The craftsman in wood measures with a line
And marks out a shape with a stylus;
He forms it with scraping tools,
Marking it out with a compass.
He gives it a human form,
The beauty of a man, to dwell in a shrine.
14For his use he cuts down cedars;
He chooses plane trees and oaks.
He sets aside trees of the forest;
Or plants firs, and the rain makes them grow.
15All this serves man for fuel:
He takes some to warm himself,
And he builds a fire and bakes bread.
He also makes a god of it and worships it,
Fashions an idol and bows down to it!
16Part of it he burns in a fire:
On that part he roastsg meat,
He eatsg the roast and is sated;
He also warms himself and cries, “Ah,
I am warm! I can feelh the heat!”
17Of the rest he makes a god—his own carving!
He bows down to it, worships it;
He prays to it and cries,
“Save me, for you are my god!”
18They have no wit or judgment:
Their eyes are besmeared, and they see not;
Their minds, and they cannot think.
19They do not give thought,
They lack the wit and judgment to say:
“Part of it I burned in a fire;
I also baked bread on the coals,
I roasted meat and ate it—
Should I make the rest an abhorrence?
Should I bow to a block of wood?”
20He pursues ashes!i
A deluded mind has led him astray,
And he cannot save himself;
He never says to himself,
“The thing in my hand is a fraud!”
21Remember these things, O Jacob
For you, O Israel, are My servant:
I fashioned you, you are My servant—
O Israel, never forget Me.j
22I wipe away your sins like a cloud,
Your transgressions like mist—
Come back to Me, for I redeem you.
23Shout, O heavens, for the LORD has acted;
Shout aloud, O depths of the earth!
Shout for joy, O mountains,
O forests with all your trees!
For the LORD has redeemed Jacob,
Has glorified Himself through Israel.
24Thus said the LORD, your Redeemer,
Who formed you in the womb:
It is I, the LORD, who made everything,
Who alone stretched out the heavens
And unaidedk spread out the earth;
25Who annul the omens of diviners,
And make fools of the augurs;
Who turn sages back
And make nonsense of their knowledge;
26But confirm the word of Myl servant
And fulfill the prediction of Myl messengers.
It is I who say of Jerusalem, “It shall be inhabited,”
And of the towns of Judah, “They shall be rebuilt;
And I will restore their ruined places.”
27[I,] who said to the deep, “Be dry;
I will dry up your floods,”
28Am the same who says of Cyrus, “He is My shepherd;m
He shall fulfill all My purposes!
He shall say of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be rebuilt,’
And to the Temple: ‘You shall be founded again.’ ”
45 Thus said the LORD to Cyrus, His anointed