46:1 Bel
Nebo
Their images weigh down animals and beasts.
Your heavy images are burdensome to tired animals.
46:2 Together they bend low and kneel down;
they are unable to rescue the images;
they themselves
46:3 “Listen to me, O family of Jacob,
all you who are left from the family of Israel,
you who have been carried from birth,
you who have been supported from the time you left the womb.
46:4 Even when you are old, I will take care of you,
even when you have gray hair, I will carry you.
I made you and I will support you;
I will carry you and rescue you.
46:5 To whom can you compare and liken me?
Tell me whom you think I resemble, so we can be compared!
46:6 Those who empty out gold from a purse
and weigh out silver on the scale
hire a metalsmith, who makes it into a god.
They then bow down and worship it.
46:7 They put it on their shoulder and carry it;
they put it in its place and it just stands there;
it does not
Even when someone cries out to it, it does not reply;
it does not deliver him from his distress.
46:8 Remember this, so you can be brave!
Think about it, you rebels!
46:9 Remember what I accomplished in antiquity!
Truly I am God, I have no peer;
I am God, and there is none like me,
46:10 who announces the end from the beginning
and reveals beforehand
who says, ‘My plan will be realized,
I will accomplish what I desire,’
46:11 who summons an eagle
from a distant land, one who carries out my plan.
Yes, I have decreed,
yes, I will bring it to pass;
I have formulated a plan,
yes, I will carry it out.
46:12 Listen to me, you stubborn people,
you who distance yourself from doing what is right.
46:13 I am bringing my deliverance near, it is not far away;
I am bringing my salvation near,
I will save Zion;
I will adorn Israel with my splendor.”
47:1 “Fall down! Sit in the dirt,
O virgin
Sit on the ground, not on a throne,
O daughter of the Babylonians!
Indeed,
47:2 Pick up millstones and grind flour!
Remove your veil,
strip off your skirt,
expose your legs,
cross the streams!
47:3 Let your private parts be exposed!
Your genitals will be on display!
I will get revenge;
I will not have pity on anyone,”
47:4 says our protector –
the Lord who commands armies is his name,
the Holy One of Israel.
47:5 “Sit silently! Go to a hiding place,
O daughter of the Babylonians!
Indeed,
47:6 I was angry at my people;
I defiled my special possession
and handed them over to you.
You showed them no mercy;
you even placed a very heavy burden on old people.
47:7 You said,
‘I will rule forever as permanent queen!’
You did not think about these things;
you did not consider how it would turn out.
47:8 So now, listen to this,
O one who lives so lavishly,
who lives securely,
who says to herself,
‘I am unique! No one can compare to me!
I will never have to live as a widow;
I will never lose my children.’
47:9 Both of these will come upon you
suddenly, in one day!
You will lose your children and be widowed.
You will be overwhelmed by these tragedies,
despite
and your numerous amulets.
47:10 You were complacent in your evil deeds;
you thought,
Your self-professed
when you say, ‘I am unique! No one can compare to me!’
47:11 Disaster will overtake you;
you will not know how to charm it away.
Destruction will fall on you;
you will not be able to appease it.
Calamity will strike you suddenly,
before you recognize it.
47:12 Persist
and your many incantations,
which you have faithfully recited
Maybe you will be successful
maybe you will scare away disaster.
47:13 You are tired out from listening to so much advice.
Let them take their stand –
the ones who see omens in the sky,
who gaze at the stars,
who make monthly predictions –
let them rescue you from the disaster that is about to overtake you!
47:14 Look, they are like straw,
which the fire burns up;
they cannot rescue themselves
from the heat
There are no coals to warm them,
no firelight to enjoy.
47:15 They will disappoint you,
those you have so faithfully dealt with since your youth.
Each strays off in his own direction,
leaving no one to rescue you.”
48:1 Listen to this, O family of Jacob,
you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’
and are descended from Judah,
who take oaths in the name of the Lord,
and invoke
but not in an honest and just manner.
48:2 Indeed, they live in the holy city;
they trust in
whose name is the Lord who commands armies.
48:3 “I announced events beforehand,
I issued the decrees and made the predictions;
suddenly I acted and they came to pass.
48:4 I did this
Your neck muscles are like iron
and your forehead like bronze.
48:5 I announced them to you beforehand;
before they happened, I predicted them for you,
so you could never say,
‘My image did these things,
my idol, my cast image, decreed them.’
48:6 You have heard; now look at all the evidence!
Will you not admit that what I say is true?
From this point on I am announcing to you new events
that are previously unrevealed and you do not know about.
48:7 Now they come into being,
before today you did not hear about them,
so you could not say,
‘Yes,
48:8 You did not hear,
you do not know,
you were not told beforehand.
For I know that you are very deceitful;
you were labeled
48:9 For the sake of my reputation
for the sake of my prestige
48:10 Look, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have purified you
48:11 For my sake alone
for how can I allow my name to be defiled?
I will not share my glory with anyone else!
48:12 Listen to me, O Jacob,
Israel, whom I summoned!
I am the one;
I am present at the very beginning
and at the very end.
48:13 Yes, my hand founded the earth;
my right hand spread out the sky.
I summon them;
they stand together.
48:14 All of you, gather together and listen!
Who among them
The Lord’s ally
he will exert his power against the Babylonians.
48:15 I, I have spoken –
yes, I have summoned him;
I lead him and he will succeed.
48:16 Approach me! Listen to this!
From the very first I have not spoken in secret;
when it happens,
So now, the sovereign Lord has sent me, accompanied by his spirit.
48:17 This is what the Lord, your protector,
the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you how to succeed,
who leads you in the way you should go.
48:18 If only you had obeyed my
prosperity would have flowed to you like a river,
deliverance would have come to you like the waves of the sea.
48:19 Your descendants would have been as numerous as sand,
and your children
Their name would not have been cut off
and eliminated from my presence.
48:20 Leave Babylon!
Flee from the Babylonians!
Announce it with a shout of joy!
Make this known!
Proclaim it throughout the earth!
Say, ‘The Lord protects
48:21 They do not thirst as he leads them through dry regions;
he makes water flow out of a rock for them;
he splits open a rock and water flows out.’
48:22 There will be no prosperity for the wicked,” says the Lord.
49:1 Listen to me, you coastlands!
Pay attention, you people who live far away!
The Lord summoned me from birth;
he commissioned me when my mother brought me into the world.
49:2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword,
he hid me in the hollow of his hand;
he made me like a sharpened
he hid me in his quiver.
49:3 He said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, through whom I will reveal my splendor.”
49:4 But I thought,
I have expended my energy for absolutely nothing.”
But the Lord will vindicate me;
my God will reward me.
49:5 So now the Lord says,
the one who formed me from birth
he did this
so that Israel might be gathered to him;
and I will be honored
for my God is my source of strength
49:6 he says, “Is it too insignificant a task for you to be my servant,
to reestablish the tribes of Jacob,
and restore the remnant
I will make you a light to the nations,
so you can bring
49:7 This is what the Lord,
the protector
to the one who is despised
a servant of rulers:
“Kings will see and rise in respect,
princes will bow down,
because of the faithful Lord,
the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”
49:8 This is what the Lord says:
“At the time I decide to show my favor, I will respond to you;
in the day of deliverance I will help you;
I will protect you
to rebuild
and to reassign the desolate property.
49:9 You will say
and to those who are in dark dungeons,
They will graze beside the roads;
on all the slopes they will find pasture.
49:10 They will not be hungry or thirsty;
the sun’s oppressive heat will not beat down on them,
for one who has compassion on them will guide them;
he will lead them to springs of water.
49:11 I will make all my mountains into a road;
I will construct my roadways.”
49:12 Look, they come from far away!
Look, some come from the north and west,
and others from the land of Sinim!
49:13 Shout for joy, O sky!
Rejoice, O earth!
Let the mountains give a joyful shout!
For the Lord consoles his people
and shows compassion to the
49:14 “Zion said, ‘The Lord has abandoned me,
the sovereign master
49:15 Can a woman forget her baby who nurses at her breast?
Can she withhold compassion from the child she has borne?
Even if mothers
I could never forget you!
49:16 Look, I have inscribed your name
your walls are constantly before me.
49:17 Your children hurry back,
while those who destroyed and devastated you depart.
49:18 Look all around you!
All of them gather to you.
As surely as I live,” says the Lord,
“you will certainly wear all of them like jewelry;
you will put them on as if you were a bride.
49:19 Yes, your land lies in ruins;
it is desolate and devastated.
But now you will be too small to hold your residents,
and those who devoured you will be far away.
49:20 Yet the children born during your time of bereavement
will say within your hearing,
‘This place is too cramped for us,
make room for us so we can live here.’
49:21 Then you will think to yourself,
‘Who bore these children for me?
I was bereaved and barren,
dismissed and divorced.
Who raised these children?
Look, I was left all alone;
where did these children come from?’”
49:22 This is what the sovereign Lord says:
“Look I will raise my hand to the nations;
I will raise my signal flag to the peoples.
They will bring your sons in their arms
and carry your daughters on their shoulders.
49:23 Kings will be your children’s
their princesses will nurse your children.
With their faces to the ground they will bow down to you
and they will lick the dirt on
Then you will recognize that I am the Lord;
those who wait patiently for me are not put to shame.
49:24 Can spoils be taken from a warrior,
or captives be rescued from a conqueror?
49:25 Indeed,” says the Lord,
“captives will be taken from a warrior;
spoils will be rescued from a conqueror.
I will oppose your adversary
and I will rescue your children.
49:26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh;
they will get drunk on their own blood, as if it were wine.
Then all humankind
I am the Lord, your deliverer,
your protector,