who commissions ¹  Cyrus, the one I appointed as shepherd ²  to carry out all my wishes ³  and to decree concerning Jerusalem, ‘She will be rebuilt,’ and concerning the temple, ‘It will be reconstructed.’” ⁴ 

For the sake of my servant Jacob, Israel, my chosen one, I call you by name and give you a title of respect, even though you do not recognize ¹  me.

I do this ¹  so people ²  will recognize from east to west that there is no God but me; I am the Lord, I have no peer.

It is me – I stir him up and commission him; ¹  I will make all his ways level. He will rebuild my city; he will send my exiled people home, but not for a price or a bribe,” says the Lord who commands armies.

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!’”

Yes, you are a God who keeps hidden, O God of Israel, deliverer!

Israel will be delivered once and for all by the Lord; ¹  you will never again be ashamed or humiliated. ² 

For this is what the Lord says, the one who created the sky – he is the true God, ¹  the one who formed the earth and made it; he established it, he did not create it without order, ²  he formed it to be inhabited – “I am the Lord, I have no peer.

I have not spoken in secret, in some hidden place. ¹  I did not tell Jacob’s descendants, ‘Seek me in vain!’ ²  I am the Lord, the one who speaks honestly, who makes reliable announcements. ³ 

Tell me! Present the evidence! ¹  Let them consult with one another! Who predicted this in the past? Who announced it beforehand? Was it not I, the Lord? I have no peer, there is no God but me, a God who vindicates and delivers; ²  there is none but me.

Turn to me so you can be delivered, ¹  all you who live in the earth’s remote regions! For I am God, and I have no peer.

I solemnly make this oath ¹  – what I say is true and reliable: ²  ‘Surely every knee will bow to me, every tongue will solemnly affirm; ³ 

“Sit silently! Go to a hiding place, ¹  O daughter of the Babylonians! Indeed, ²  you will no longer be called ‘Queen of kingdoms.’

You said, ‘I will rule forever as permanent queen!’ ¹  You did not think about these things; ²  you did not consider how it would turn out. ³ 

So now, listen to this, O one who lives so lavishly, ¹  who lives securely, who says to herself, ²  ‘I am unique! No one can compare to me! ³  I will never have to live as a widow; I will never lose my children.’ ⁴ 

Persist ¹  in trusting ²  your amulets and your many incantations, which you have faithfully recited ³  since your youth! Maybe you will be successful ⁴  – maybe you will scare away disaster. ⁵ 

You are tired out from listening to so much advice. ¹  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! ² 

“I announced events beforehand, ¹  I issued the decrees and made the predictions; ²  suddenly I acted and they came to pass.

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.’

Now they come into being, ¹  not in the past; before today you did not hear about them, so you could not say, ‘Yes, ²  I know about them.’