O daughter of the Chaldeans;
i For you shall no longer be called
The Lady of Kingdoms.
6j I was angry with My people;
k I have profaned My inheritance,
And given them into your hand.
You showed them no mercy;
l On the elderly you laid your yoke very heavily.
7And you said, ‘I shall be ma lady forever,’
So that you did not ntake these things to heart,
o Nor remember the latter end of them.
8“Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures,
Who dwell securely,
Who say in your heart,
‘I am, and there is no one else besides me;
I shall not sit as a widow,
Nor shall I know the loss of children’;
9But these two things shall come to you
p In a moment, in one day:
The loss of children, and widowhood.
They shall come upon you in their fullness
Because of the multitude of your sorceries,
For the great abundance of your enchantments.
10“For you have trusted in your wickedness;
You have said, ‘No one qsees me’;
Your wisdom and your knowledge have 2warped you;
And you have said in your heart,
‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’
11Therefore evil shall come upon you;
You shall not know from where it arises.
And trouble shall fall upon you;
You will not be able 3to put it off.
And rdesolation shall come upon you ssuddenly,
Which you shall not know.
12“Stand now with your enchantments
And the multitude of your sorceries,
In which you have labored from your youth—
Perhaps you will be able to profit,
Perhaps you will prevail.
13t You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels;
Let now uthe4 astrologers, the stargazers,
And 5the monthly prognosticators
Stand up and save you
From what shall come upon you.
14Behold, they shall be vas stubble,
The fire shall wburn them;
They shall not deliver themselves
From the power of the flame;
It shall not be a coal to be warmed by,
Nor a fire to sit before!
15Thus shall they be to you
With whom you have labored,
x Your merchants from your youth;
They shall wander each one to his 6quarter.
No one shall save you.
Israel Refined for God’s Glory
Isaiah 48
Israel’s Unfaithfulness Rebuked
1“Hear this, O house of Jacob,
Who are called by the name of Israel,
And have come forth from the wellsprings of Judah;
Who swear by the name of the LORD,
And make mention of the God of Israel,
But anot in truth or in righteousness;
2For they call themselves bafter the holy city,
And clean on the God of Israel;
The LORD of hosts is His name:
3“I have ddeclared the former things from the beginning;
They went forth from My mouth, and I caused them to hear it.
Suddenly I did them, eand they came to pass.
4Because I knew that you were 1obstinate,
And fyour neck was an iron sinew,
And your brow bronze,
5Even from the beginning I have declared it to you;
Before it came to pass I proclaimed it to you,
Lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them,
And my carved image and my molded image
Have commanded them.’
6“You have heard;
See all this.
And will you not declare it?
I have made you hear new things from this time,
Even hidden things, and you did not know them.
7They are created now and not from the beginning;
And before this day you have not heard them,
Lest you should say, ‘Of course I knew them.’
8Surely you did not hear,
Surely you did not know;
Surely from long ago your ear was not opened.
For I knew that you would deal very treacherously,
And were called ga transgressor from the womb.
9“Forh My name’s sake iI will 2defer My anger,
And for My praise I will restrain it from you,
So that I do not cut you off.
10Behold, jI have refined you, but not as silver;
I have tested you in the kfurnace of affliction.
11For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it;
For lhow should My name be profaned?
And mI will not give My glory to another.
God’s Ancient Plan to Redeem Israel
12“Listen to Me, O Jacob,
And Israel, My called:
I am He, nI am the oFirst,
I am also the Last.
13Indeed pMy hand has laid the foundation of the earth,
And My right hand has stretched out the heavens;
When qI call to them,
They stand up together.
14“All of you, assemble yourselves, and hear!
Who among them has declared these things?
r The LORD loves him;
s He shall do His pleasure on Babylon,
And His arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
15I, even I, have spoken;
Yes, tI have called him,
I have brought him, and his way will prosper.
16“Come near to Me, hear this:
u I have not spoken in secret from the beginning;
From the time that it was, I was there.
And now vthe Lord GOD and His Spirit
3 Have sent Me.”
17Thus says wthe LORD, your Redeemer,
The Holy One of Israel:
“I am the LORD your God,
Who teaches you to profit,
x Who leads you by the way you should go.
18y Oh, that you had heeded My commandments!
z Then your peace would have been like a river,
And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
19a Your descendants also would have been like the sand,
And the offspring of your body like the grains of sand;
His name would not have been cut off
Nor destroyed from before Me.”
20b Go forth from Babylon!
Flee from the Chaldeans!
With a voice of singing,
Declare, proclaim this,
Utter it to the end of the earth;
Say, “The LORD has credeemed
His servant Jacob!”
21And they ddid not thirst
When He led them through the deserts;
He ecaused the waters to flow from the rock for them;
He also split the rock, and the waters gushed out.
22“Theref is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.”
The Servant, the Light to the Gentiles
Isaiah 49
The Messiah Is the Light to the Gentiles
1“Listen, aO coastlands, to Me,
And take heed, you peoples from afar!
b The LORD has called Me from the womb;
From the 1matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name.
2And He has made cMy mouth like a sharp sword;
d In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me,
And made Me ea polished shaft;
In His quiver He has hidden Me.”
3“And He said to me,
f‘You are My servant, O Israel,
g In whom I will be glorified.’
4h Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain;
Yet surely my 2just reward is with the LORD,
And my 3work with my God.’ ”
5“And now the LORD says,
Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To bring Jacob back to Him,
So that Israel iis 4gathered to Him
(For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the LORD,
And My God shall be My strength),
6Indeed He says,
‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also give You as a jlight to the Gentiles,
That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”
7Thus says the LORD,
The Redeemer of Israel, 5their Holy One,
k To Him 6whom man despises,
To Him whom the nation abhors,
To the Servant of rulers:
l“Kings shall see and arise,
Princes also shall worship,
Because of the LORD who is faithful,
The Holy One of Israel;
And He has chosen You.”
8Thus says the LORD:
“In an macceptable7 time I have heard You,
And in the day of salvation I have helped You;
I will 8preserve You nand give You
As a covenant to the people,
To restore the earth,
To cause them to inherit the desolate 9heritages;
9That You may say oto the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’
To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’
“They shall feed along the roads,
And their pastures shall be on all desolate heights.
10They shall neither phunger nor thirst,
q Neither heat nor sun shall strike them;
For He who has mercy on them rwill lead them,
Even by the springs of water He will guide them.
11s I will make each of My mountains a road,
And My highways shall be elevated.
12Surely tthese shall come from afar;
Look! Those from the north and the west,
And these from the land of Sinim.”
13u Sing, O heavens!
Be joyful, O earth!
And break out in singing, O mountains!
For the LORD has comforted His people,
And will have mercy on His afflicted.
God Will Remember Zion
14v But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me,
And my Lord has forgotten me.”
15“Canw a woman forget her nursing child,
10 And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
x Yet I will not forget you.
16See, yI have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
Your walls are continually before Me.
17Your 11sons shall make haste;
Your destroyers and those who laid you waste
Shall go away from you.
18z Lift up your eyes, look around and see;
All these gather together and come to you.
As I live,” says the LORD,
“You shall surely clothe yourselves with them all aas an ornament,
And bind them on you as a bride does.
19“For your waste and desolate places,
And the land of your destruction,
b Will even now be too small for the inhabitants;
And those who swallowed you up will be far away.
20c The children you will have,
d After you have lost the others,
Will say again in your ears,
‘The place is too small for me;
Give me a place where I may dwell.’
21Then you will say in your heart,
‘Who has begotten these for me,
Since I have lost my children and am desolate,
A captive, and wandering to and fro?
And who has brought these up?
There I was, left alone;
But these, where were they?’ ”
22eThus says the Lord GOD:
“Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations,
And set up My 12standard for the peoples;
They shall bring your sons in their 13arms,
And your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders;
23f Kings shall be your foster fathers,
And their queens your nursing mothers;
They shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth,
And glick up the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the LORD,
h For they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.”
24i Shall the prey be taken from the mighty,
Or the captives 14of the righteous be delivered?
25But thus says the LORD:
“Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away,
And the prey of the terrible be delivered;
For I will contend with him who contends with you,
And I will save your children.
26I will jfeed those who oppress you with their own flesh,
And they shall be drunk with their own kblood as with sweet wine.
All flesh lshall know
That I, the LORD, am your Savior,
And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
Isaiah 50
The Servant, Israel’s Hope
1Thus says the LORD:
“Where is athe certificate of your mother’s divorce,
Whom I have put away?
Or which of My bcreditors is it to whom I have sold you?
For your iniquities cyou have sold yourselves,
And for your transgressions your mother has been put away.
2Why, when I came, was there no man?
Why, when I called, was there none to answer?
Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem?
Or have I no power to deliver?
Indeed with My drebuke I dry up the sea,
I make the rivers a wilderness;
Their fish stink because there is no water,
And die of thirst.
3e I clothe the heavens with blackness,
f And I make sackcloth their covering.”
4“Theg Lord GOD has given Me
The tongue of the learned,
That I should know how to speak
A word in season to him who is hweary.
He awakens Me morning by morning,
He awakens My ear
To hear as the learned.
5The Lord GOD ihas opened My ear;
And I was not jrebellious,
Nor did I turn away.
6k I gave My back to those who struck Me,
And lMy cheeks to those who plucked out the beard;
I did not hide My face from shame and mspitting.
7“For the Lord GOD will help Me;
Therefore I will not be disgraced;
Therefore nI have set My face like a flint,
And I know that I will not be ashamed.
8o He is near who justifies Me;
Who will contend with Me?
Let us stand together.
Who is 1My adversary?
Let him come near Me.
9Surely the Lord GOD will help Me;
Who is he who will condemn Me?
p Indeed they will all grow old like a garment;
q The moth will eat them up.
10“Who among you fears the LORD?
Who obeys the voice of His Servant?
Who rwalks in darkness
And has no light?
s Let him trust in the name of the LORD
And rely upon his God.
11Look, all you who kindle a fire,
Who encircle yourselves with sparks:
Walk in the light of your fire and in t
he sparks you have kindled—
t This you shall have from My hand:
You shall lie down uin torment.
Isaiah 51
The LORD Comforts Zion
(cf. Gen. 12:1–3)
1“Listen to Me, ayou who 1follow after righteousness,
You who seek the LORD:
Look to the rock from which you were hewn,
And to the hole of the pit from which you were dug.
2b Look to Abraham your father,
And to Sarah who bore you;
c For I called him alone,
And dblessed him and increased him.”
3For the LORD will ecomfort Zion,
He will comfort all her waste places;
He will make her wilderness like Eden,
And her desert flike the garden of the LORD;
Joy and gladness will be found in it,
Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.
4“Listen to Me, My people;
And give ear to Me, O My nation:
g For law will proceed from Me,
And I will make My justice rest
h As a light of the peoples.
5i My righteousness is near,
My salvation has gone forth,
j And My arms will judge the peoples;
k The coastlands will wait upon Me,
And lon My arm they will trust.
6m Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
And look on the earth beneath.
For nthe heavens will vanish away like smoke,
o The earth will grow old like a garment,
And those who dwell in it will die in like manner;
But My salvation will be pforever,
And My righteousness will not be 2abolished.
7“Listen to Me, you who know righteousness,
You people qin whose heart is My law:
r Do not fear the reproach of men,
Nor be afraid of their insults.
8For sthe moth will eat them up like a garment,
And the worm will eat them like wool;
But My righteousness will be forever,
And My salvation from generation to generation.”
9t Awake, awake, uput on strength,
O arm of the LORD!
Awake vas in the ancient days,
In the generations of old.
w Are You not the arm that cut xRahab apart,
And wounded the yserpent?
10Are You not the One who zdried up the sea,
The waters of the great deep;
That made the depths of the sea a road
For the redeemed to cross over?
11So athe ransomed of the LORD shall return,
And come to Zion with singing,
With everlasting joy on their heads.
They shall obtain joy and gladness;
Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
12“I, even I, am He bwho comforts you.
The MacArthur Study Bible, NKJV Page 328