UST GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOS JDG RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR EZRA NEH EST JOB PSA PROV ECC SNG ISA JER LAM EZE DAN HOS JOEL AMOS OBA YNA MIC NAH HAB ZEP HAG ZEC MAL MAT MARK LUKE YHN ACTs ROM 1 COR 2 COR GAL EPH PHP COL 1 TH 2 TH 1 TIM 2 TIM TIT PHM HEB YAC 1 PET 2 PET 1 YHN 2 YHN 3 YHN YUD REV

ISA C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21 C22 C23 C24 C25 C26 C27 C28 C29 C30 C31 C32 C33 C34 C35 C36 C37 C38 C39 C40 C41 C42 C43 C44 C45 C46 C47 C48 C49 C50 C51 C52 C53 C54 C55 C56 C57 C58 C59 C60 C61 C62 C63 C64 C65 C66

UST ISA Chapter 45

◄ ISA 45 ► ║ ═ ©

45 Yahweh has chosen Cyrus, and he has given him great power.

He is enabling him to defeat other kings when they fight against him

and to conquer the nations that they rule.

Yahweh is enabling Cyrus to conquer cities that have strong walls around them.

No one has been able to stop Cyrus from doing that.

Yahweh says this to him:

2 “I myself will go ahead of you

and prepare the way for you.

Even if city walls have bronze gates and iron bars,

I will enable you to cut through those bars and smash those gates.

3 I will enable you to take valuable possessions

that people are hiding in secret places.

Then you will know that I am Yahweh,

the God of Israel,

and that I have called you personally to serve me.

4 I have chosen the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob, to be my servants.

For their sake, I have called you personally to serve me.

Even though you do not know me,

I have given you an honorable title.

5 I am Yahweh, and no one else is like me.

I am the only true God.

Even though you do not know me,

I will enable you to win battles.

6 Then people throughout the world will know

that I am the only true God.

I am Yahweh, and no one else is like me.

7 I make light, and I make darkness.

I cause things to go well, and I cause things to go badly.

I, Yahweh, do all these things.”

8 Yahweh also says, “After rain pours down from the sky above,

the ground soaks up the water

and plants grow and produce fruit.

Just as surely, I will act to save my people and make things right for them again.

I, Yahweh, will make this happen.”

9 How terrible it will be for anyone who argues with the God who made him!

A person is like a piece of broken pottery among many pieces on the ground.

The clay should never say to the potter, “You should be making something else!”

It should not say, “You do not work very skillfully at all!”

10 When people question what Yahweh is doing, that is like

someone saying to the man who would be his father,

“You should not have me as a child!”

That is like someone saying to the woman who would be his mother,

“You should not give birth to me!”

How terrible it will be for people who do that!

11 Yahweh is the holy God of the Israelites. He made them.

This is what he says.

“No one should question me about what I am going to do

for the Israelites, who are like my children!

No one should tell me what to do for the people I have made!

12 I am the one who made the earth

and created people to live on it.

I created the sky by my own power,

and I put all the stars in their places.

13 I have empowered Cyrus to do what is right,

and I will make it possible for him to do that.

He will command people to rebuild my city of Jerusalem,

and he will return my people, whose enemies them took away as captives.

He will do this without anyone paying or bribing him.”

This is what Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, says.

14 Yahweh also says this.

“You Israelites will obtain the goods that the Egyptians work to produce

and the products that the people of Cush and the tall Sabean people sell.

Those things will be yours.

You will take those people captive, and they will become your slaves.

They will bow down to you and plead with you,

‘You God is the only true God,

and he is surely helping you, so let us be part of your community.’ ”

15 Surely you, the God of the Israelites, the one who saves them,

are a God who works in ways that people can not see.

16 All those who make idols will feel shame and disgrace.

They will walk away in disgrace together.

17 Yahweh will save the Israelites,

and they will always be safe.

The Israelites will not feel shame or disgrace

at any time in the future.

18 Yahweh is God.

He is the one who created the sky

and formed the earth and set it in place.

He did not create the earth to remain empty.

He formed it so that people would live on it.

This is what he says:

“I am Yahweh, and I am the only true God.

19 I have spoken openly,

in a way that has not been difficult to discover.

I did not tell the descendants of Jacob

that they would have to search for me

in a place where nothing seemed to be.

I, Yahweh, clearly state what is right.

20 Some of the survivors from the nations that the Babylonians destroyed

carry around their wooden idols

and pray to gods that can not save anyone.

They are very foolish.

Suppose they had to gather

and come and appear together in court before Yahweh.

21 Suppose the court case was about who announced long ago what would happen.

Suppose those survivors could discuss together what to say,

and suppose they tried to make a case and present evidence for it.

It would become clear that I, Yahweh, was the one who did that.

I am the only true God.

I am a God who does what is right and saves people.

None of the foreign gods are real.

22 People from throughout the world.

come to me, and I will save you.

Come to me because I am the only true God.

23 I have sworn a solemn oath in my own name.

What I have said is true,

and I will never take it back:

“All people will bow down to me as their ruler,

and they will solemnly promise to be loyal to me.

24 People will say about me,

‘Only Yahweh does what is right.

He is the one who gives us strength.’ ”

Some people have been hostile to Yahweh.

This will now humiliate them,

and they will have to come and submit to him.

25 Yahweh will show that the Israelite people are right,

and they will praise him for what he has done.