Isaiah 43:1–28

¹And now this is what Jehovah has said, your Creator, O Jacob, and your Former, O Israel: “Do not be afraid, for I have repurchased you. I have called [you] by your name. You are mine.²In case you should pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not flood over you. In case you should walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, neither will the flame itself singe you.³For I am Jehovah your God, the Holy One of Israel your Savior. I have given Egypt as a ransom for you, E‧thi‧o′pi‧a and Se′ba in place of you.⁴Owing to the fact that you have been precious in my eyes, you have been considered honorable, and I myself have loved you. And I shall give men in place of you, and national groups in place of your soul.

⁵“Do not be afraid, for I am with you. From the sunrising I shall bring your seed, and from the sunset I shall collect you together.⁶I shall say to the north, ‘Give up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not keep back. Bring my sons from far off, and my daughters from the extremity of the earth,⁷everyone that is called by my name and that I have created for my own glory, that I have formed, yes, that I have made.’

⁸“Bring forth a people blind though eyes themselves exist, and the ones deaf though they have ears.⁹Let the nations all be collected together at one place, and let national groups be gathered together. Who is there among them that can tell this? Or can they cause us to hear even the first things? Let them furnish their witnesses, that they may be declared righteous, or let them hear and say, ‘It is the truth!’”

¹⁰“YOU​ are my witnesses,” is the utterance of Jehovah, “even my servant whom I have chosen, in order that ​YOU​ may know and have faith in me, and that ​YOU​ may understand that I am the same One. Before me there was no God formed, and after me there continued to be none.¹¹I—I am Jehovah, and besides me there is no savior.”

¹²“I myself have told forth and have saved and have caused [it] to be heard, when there was among ​YOU​ no strange [god]. So ​YOU​ are my witnesses,” is the utterance of Jehovah, “and I am God.¹³Also, all the time I am the same One; and there is no one effecting deliverance out of my own hand. I shall get active, and who can turn it back?”

¹⁴This is what Jehovah has said, the Repurchaser of ​YOU​ people, the Holy One of Israel: “For ​YOUR​ sakes I will send to Babylon and cause the bars of the prisons to come down, and the Chal‧de′ans in the ships with whining cries on their part.¹⁵I am Jehovah ​YOUR​ Holy One, the Creator of Israel, ​YOUR​ King.”

¹⁶This is what Jehovah has said, the One making a way through the sea itself and a roadway even through strong waters,¹⁷the One bringing forth the war chariot and the horse, the military force and the strong ones at the same time: “They will lie down. They will not get up. They will certainly be extinguished. Like a flaxen wick they must be put out.”

¹⁸“Do not remember the first things, and to the former things do not turn ​YOUR​ consideration.¹⁹Look! I am doing something new. Now it will spring up. YOU​ people will know it, will ​YOU​ not? Really, through the wilderness I shall set a way, through the desert rivers.²⁰The wild beast of the field will glorify me, the jackals and the ostriches; because I shall have given water even in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to cause my people, my chosen one, to drink,²¹the people whom I have formed for myself, that they should recount the praise of me.

²²“But you have not called even me, O Jacob, because you have grown weary of me, O Israel.²³You have not brought me the sheep of your whole burnt offerings, and with your sacrifices you have not glorified me. I have not compelled you to serve me with a gift, nor have I made you weary with frankincense.²⁴For me you have bought no [sweet] cane with any money; and with the fat of your sacrifices you have not saturated me. In reality you have compelled me to serve because of your sins; you have made me weary with your errors.

²⁵“I—I am the One that is wiping out your transgressions for my own sake, and your sins I shall not remember.²⁶Remind me; let us put ourselves on judgment together; tell your own account of it in order that you may be in the right.²⁷Your own father, the first one, has sinned, and your own spokesmen have transgressed against me.²⁸So I shall profane the princes of the holy place, and I will give Jacob over as a man devoted to destruction and Israel over to words of abuse.