45:14 This is what the Lord says:
“The profit 1 of Egypt and the revenue 2 of Ethiopia,
along with the Sabeans, those tall men,
will be brought to you 3 and become yours.
They will walk behind you, coming along in chains. 4
They will bow down to you
and pray to you: 5
‘Truly God is with 6 you; he has no peer; 7
there is no other God!’”
45:15 Yes, you are a God who keeps hidden,
O God of Israel, deliverer!
45:16 They will all be ashamed and embarrassed;
those who fashion idols will all be humiliated. 8
45:17 Israel will be delivered once and for all by the Lord; 9
you will never again be ashamed or humiliated. 10
45:18 For this is what the Lord says,
the one who created the sky –
he is the true God, 11
the one who formed the earth and made it;
he established it,
he did not create it without order, 12
he formed it to be inhabited –
“I am the Lord, I have no peer.
45:19 I have not spoken in secret,
in some hidden place. 13
I did not tell Jacob’s descendants,
‘Seek me in vain!’ 14
I am the Lord,
the one who speaks honestly,
who makes reliable announcements. 15
1 tn Heb “labor,” which stands metonymically for the fruits of labor, either “monetary profit,” or “products.”
2 tn Or perhaps, “merchandise” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “the gain of Ethiopia”; CEV “the treasures of Ethiopia.”
3 tn Heb “they will pass over to you”; NASB, NIV “will come over to you”; CEV “will belong to you.”
4 sn Restored Israel is depicted here in typical ancient Near Eastern fashion as an imperial power that receives riches and slaves as tribute.
5 sn Israel’s vassals are portrayed as so intimidated and awed that they treat Israel as an intermediary to God or sub-deity.
6 tn Or perhaps, “among.” Cf. KJV, ASV “Surely God is in thee.”
7 tn Heb “there is no other” (so NIV, NRSV). The same phrase occurs at the end of v. 18, in v. 21, and at the end of v. 22.
8 tn “together they will walk in humiliation, the makers of images.”
15 tn Heb “Israel will be delivered by the Lord [with] a permanent deliverance.”
16 tn Heb “you will not be ashamed and you will not be humiliated for ages of future time.”
22 tn Heb “he [is] the God.” The article here indicates uniqueness.
23 tn Or “unformed.” Gen 1:2 describes the world as “unformed” (תֹהוּ, tohu) prior to God’s creative work, but God then formed the world and made it fit for habitation.
29 tn Heb “in a place of a land of darkness” (ASV similar); NASB “in some dark land.”
30 tn “In vain” translates תֹהוּ (tohu), used here as an adverbial accusative: “for nothing.”
31 tn The translation above assumes that צֶדֶק (tsedeq) and מֵישָׁרִים (mesharim) are adverbial accusatives (see 33:15). If they are taken as direct objects, indicating the content of what is spoken, one might translate, “who proclaims deliverance, who announces justice.”