The Lord calls Cyrus and bestows upon him a career of victory, for Israel and the world’s sake

24 Thus says the Lord, your redeemer,

who formed you from the womb:

I am the Lord, creator of all things,

who stretched forth the heavens alone,

and spread out the earth by myself;

25 who frustrates the omens of soothsayers,

making diviners like fools,

thrusting the wise to the background,

and turning their science to folly;

26 but the words that my servants have spoken I confirm,

and the purpose my messengers urge I fulfil.

For I say to Jerusalem, ‘You will be peopled,

the cities of Judah will yet be rebuilt,

and the ruins thereof I will raise again.’

27 I will say to the deep, ‘Be dry;

for all your floods I will wither.’

28 Cyrus I name as my friend,

he will execute all my purpose,

Jerusalem will yet be rebuilt,

the Temple foundations will yet be laid.

45 Thus says the (true) God, the Lord,

to Cyrus his anointed,

whose hand I hold in mine,

to bring down nations before him,

to open doors before him,

and gates – to be closed no more:

2 ‘I will go in person before you,

and mountains I will level;

I will shiver the doors of bronze,

and cleave bars of iron in sunder.

3 I will give you the dark-hidden treasures,

in secret places hoarded,

that so you may learn that I am the Lord,

the God of Israel, who called you by name.

4 For the sake of Jacob my servant,

and Israel my chosen,

I called you by your name:

though you knew me not, I rejoiced in you.

5 I am the Lord, and there is no other;

beside me is no god at all.

I will gird you, though you knew me not,

6 that men from the sunrise and sunset

may know there is none beside me.

I am the Lord, and there us no other,

7 the maker of light, the creator of darkness,

the maker of weal, the creator of woe:

it is I, the Lord, who does all this.’

8 You heavens, pour down your showers,

let victory rain from the skies.

Let the earth open up

and bring forth the fruit of deliverance.

Let victory blossom,

I, the Lord have created it.