Look, I create the craftsman, who fans the coals into a fire and forges a weapon. ¹  I create the destroyer so he might devastate.

I am ¹  the one who forms light and creates darkness; ²  the one who brings about peace and creates calamity. ³  I am the Lord, who accomplishes all these things.

But be happy and rejoice forevermore over what I am about to create! For look, I am ready to create Jerusalem ¹  to be a source of joy, ²  and her people to be a source of happiness. ³ 

everyone who belongs to me, ¹  whom I created for my glory, whom I formed – yes, whom I made!

For look, I am ready to create new heavens and a new earth! ¹  The former ones ²  will not be remembered; no one will think about them anymore. ³ 

I am the Lord, your Holy One, ¹  the one who created Israel, your king.”

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 made the earth, I created the people who live ¹  on it. It was me – my hands ²  stretched out the sky, ³  I give orders to all the heavenly lights. ⁴ 

O sky, rain down from above! Let the clouds send down showers ¹  of deliverance! Let the earth absorb it ²  so salvation may grow, ³  and deliverance may sprout up ⁴  along with it. I, the Lord, create it. ⁵ 

For I will not be hostile ¹  forever or perpetually angry, for then man’s spirit would grow faint before me, ²  the life-giving breath I created.

Then the Lord will create over all of Mount Zion ¹  and over its convocations a cloud and smoke by day and a bright flame of fire by night; ²  indeed a canopy will accompany the Lord’s glorious presence. ³ 

Now, this is what the Lord says, the one who created you, O Jacob, and formed you, O Israel: “Don’t be afraid, for I will protect ¹  you. I call you by name, you are mine.

Look up at the sky! ¹  Who created all these heavenly lights? ²  He is the one who leads out their ranks; ³  he calls them all by name. Because of his absolute power and awesome strength, not one of them is missing.

This is what the true God, ¹  the Lord, says – the one who created the sky and stretched it out, the one who fashioned the earth and everything that lives on it, ²  the one who gives breath to the people on it, and life to those who live on it: ³ 

Because you rage against me and the uproar you create has reached my ears, ¹  I will put my hook in your nose, ²  and my bridle between your lips, and I will lead you back the way you came.”

I will do this so ¹  people ²  will observe and recognize, so they will pay attention and understand that the Lord’s power ³  has accomplished this, and that the Holy One of Israel has brought it into being.” ⁴ 

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.’

I am the one who gives them reason to celebrate. ¹  Complete prosperity ²  is available both to those who are far away and those who are nearby,” says the Lord, “and I will heal them.

I have seen their behavior, ¹  but I will heal them and give them rest, and I will once again console those who mourn. ² 

“Listen to me, O family of Jacob, ¹  all you who are left from the family of Israel, ²  you who have been carried from birth, ³  you who have been supported from the time you left the womb. ⁴