Isaiah

¹ to Cyrus, whom he took by the hand To give the task of taming the nations, of terrifying their kings— He gave him free rein, no restrictions:

² clearing and paving the road. I'll break down bronze city gates, smash padlocks, kick down barred entrances.

³ secret caches of valuables— Confirmations that it is, in fact, I, God, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.

⁴ Israel my chosen, That I've singled you out, called you by name, and given you this privileged work. And you don't even know me!

⁵ Besides me there are no real gods. I'm the one who armed you for this work, though you don't even know me,

⁶ that I have no god-rivals. I am God, the only God there is.

⁷ I make harmonies and create discords. I, God, do all these things.

⁸ Clouds, pour out buckets of my goodness! Loosen up, earth, and bloom salvation; sprout right living. I, God, generate all this.

⁹ you're a pot at odds with the potter! Does clay talk back to the potter: 'What are you doing? What clumsy fingers!'

¹⁰ 'Who gave you permission to use me to make a baby?' Or a fetus to a mother, 'Why have you cooped me up in this belly?' "

¹¹ "Do you question who or what I'm making? Are you telling me what I can or cannot do?

¹² and I created man and woman to live on it. I handcrafted the skies and direct all the constellations in their turnings.

¹³ I've rolled out the red carpet before him. He will build my city. He will bring home my exiles. I didn't hire him to do this. I told him. I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies."

¹⁴ "The workers of Egypt, the merchants of Ethiopia, and those statuesque Sabeans Will all come over to you—all yours. Docile in chains, they'll follow you, Hands folded in reverence, praying before you: 'Amazing! God is with you! There is no other God—none.' "

¹⁵ God of Israel, Savior God.

¹⁶ will be ashamed to show their faces in public. Out of work and at loose ends, the makers of no-god idols won't know what to do with themselves.

¹⁷ saved with an eternal salvation. They won't be ashamed, they won't be at loose ends, ever.

¹⁸ he is, remember, God. Maker of earth— he put it on its foundations, built it from scratch. He didn't go to all that trouble to just leave it empty, nothing in it. He made it to be lived in. This God says: "I am God, the one and only.

¹⁹ or mumble under my breath. I never told Jacob, 'Seek me in emptiness, in dark nothingness.' I am God. I work out in the open, saying what's right, setting things right.

²⁰ all you refugees and castoffs. They don't seem to know much, do they— those who carry around their no-god blocks of wood, praying for help to a dead stick?

²¹ Put your heads together. Make your case. Who told you, and a long time ago, what's going on here? Who made sense of things for you? Wasn't I the one? God? It had to be me. I'm the only God there is— The only God who does things right and knows how to help.

²² everyone, whoever and wherever you are. I am God, the only God there is, the one and only.

²³ Every word out of my mouth does what it says. I never take back what I say. Everyone is going to end up kneeling before me. Everyone is going to end up saying of me,

²⁴ All who have raged against him will be brought before him, disgraced by their unbelief.

²⁵ will have a robust, praising, good life in God!