Isaiah 44:1-28
44 “And now listen, O Jacob my servant,+ and you, O Israel, whom I have chosen.+
2 This is what Jehovah has said, your Maker+ and your Former,+ who kept helping you even from the belly,*+ ‘Do not be afraid,+ O my servant Jacob, and you, Jeshʹu·run,*+ whom I have chosen.
3 For I shall pour out water upon the thirsty one,+ and trickling streams upon the dry place.+ I shall pour out my spirit upon your seed,*+ and my blessing upon your descendants.
4 And they will certainly spring up as among the green grass,+ like poplars+ by the water ditches.
5 This one will say: “I belong to Jehovah.”+ And that one will call [himself] by the name of Jacob,+ and another will write upon his hand: “Belonging to Jehovah.”* And by the name of Israel one will betitle [himself].’+
6 “This is what Jehovah has said, the King of Israel+ and the Repurchaser of him,+ Jehovah of armies, ‘I am the first and I am the last,+ and besides me there is no God.*+
7 And who is there like me?+ Let him call out,* that he may tell it and present it to me.+ From when I appointed the people of long ago,+ both the things coming and the things that will enter in let them tell on their part.
8 Do not be in dread, YOU people, and do not become stupefied.+ Have I not from that time on caused you individually to hear and told [it] out?+ And YOU are my witnesses.+ Does there exist a God* besides me?+ No, there is no Rock.*+ I have recognized none.’”
9 The formers of the carved image are all of them an unreality,+ and their darlings* themselves will be of no benefit;+ and as their witnesses* they see nothing and know nothing,+ in order that they may be ashamed.+
10 Who has formed a god* or cast a mere molten image?+ Of no benefit at all has it been.+
11 Look! All his partners themselves will be ashamed,+ and the craftsmen are from earthling men.* They will all of them collect themselves together.+ They will stand still. They will be in dread. They will be ashamed at the same time.+
12 As for the carver of iron with the billhook, he has been busy [at it] with the coals; and with the hammers he proceeds to form it, and he keeps busy at it with his powerful arm.+ Also, he has become hungry, and so without power. He has not drunk water; so he gets tired.
13 As for the wood carver, he has stretched out the measuring line; he traces it out with red chalk; he works it up with a wood scraper; and with a compass he keeps tracing it out, and gradually he makes it like the representation of a man,*+ like the beauty of mankind,* to sit in a house.+
14 There is one whose business is to cut down cedars; and he takes a certain species of tree, even a massive tree, and he lets it become strong for himself among the trees of the forest.+ He planted the laurel tree, and the pouring rain itself keeps making it get big.
15 And it has become [something] for man* to keep a fire burning. So he takes part of it that he may warm himself. In fact he builds a fire and actually bakes bread. He also works on a god* to which he may bow down.+ He has made it into a carved image,+ and he prostrates himself to it.
16 Half of it* he actually burns up in a fire. Upon half of it he roasts well the flesh that he eats, and he becomes satisfied. He also warms himself and says: “Aha! I have warmed myself. I have seen the firelight.”
17 But the remainder of it he actually makes into a god itself, into his carved image. He prostrates himself to it and bows down and prays to it and says: “Deliver me, for you are my god.”+
18 They have not come to know,+ nor do they understand,+ because their eyes have been besmeared so as not to see,+ their heart so as to have no insight.+
19 And no one recalls to his heart+ or has knowledge or understanding,+ saying: “The half of it I have burned up in a fire, and upon its coals I have also baked bread; I roast flesh and eat. But the rest of it shall I make into a mere detestable thing?+ To the dried-out wood of a tree shall I prostrate myself?”
20 He is feeding on ashes.+ His own heart that has been trifled with has led him astray.+ And he does not deliver his soul, nor does he say: “Is there not a falsehood in my right hand?”+
21 “Remember these things, O Jacob,+ and you, O Israel, because you are my servant.+ I have formed you.+ You are a servant belonging to me. O Israel, you will not be forgotten on my part.+
22 I will wipe out your transgressions just as with a cloud,+ and your sins just as with a cloud mass. Do return to me,+ for I will repurchase you.+
23 “Joyfully cry out, YOU heavens,+ for Jehovah has taken action!+ Shout in triumph,+ all YOU lowest parts* of the earth!+ Become cheerful, YOU mountains,+ with joyful outcry, you forest and all YOU trees in it! For Jehovah has repurchased Jacob, and on Israel he shows his beauty.”+
24 This is what Jehovah has said, your Repurchaser+ and the Former of you from the belly:* “I, Jehovah, am doing everything, stretching out the heavens+ by myself, laying out the earth.+ Who was with me?
25 [I am] frustrating the signs of the empty talkers,* and [I am] the One that makes diviners themselves act crazily;+ the One turning wise men backwards, and the One that turns even their knowledge into foolishness;+
26 the One making the word of his servant come true, and the One that carries out completely the counsel of his own messengers;+ the One saying of Jerusalem, ‘She will be inhabited,’+ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They will be rebuilt,+ and her desolated places I shall raise up’;+
27 the One saying to the watery deep, ‘Be evaporated; and all your rivers I shall dry up’;+
28 the One saying of Cyrus,*+ ‘He is my shepherd, and all that I delight in he will completely carry out’;+ even in [my] saying* of Jerusalem, ‘She will be rebuilt,’* and of the temple, ‘You will have your foundation laid.’”+
Footnotes
^ That is, the mother’s womb.
^ “Jeshurun” (meaning “Upright One,” an honorary title for Israel), M; Vg, “Most upright one”; LXX, “beloved Israel”; TSy, “Israel.”
^ Or, “offspring.”
^ Or, “upon his hand: ‘Jehovah’s.’ ”
^ “God.” Heb., ʼElo·himʹ.
^ “Let him stand up, let him call out,” LXX.
^ “God.” Heb., ʼElohʹah.
^ “Rock.” Heb., Tsur; TSy, “Strong one.”
^ Or, “desired things.”
^ “And as their witnesses.” Heb., weʽe·dheh·hemʹ. The next word (hemʹmah, “they [are]”) is marked with extraordinary points by the Sopherim, indicating that it should be canceled because of being merely a dittography of the pronominal ending (hem, “their”) of the word preceding it. The pronoun for “they” is also absent in Sy. Accordingly the passage should read: “and as their witnesses they [the darlings; the carved images] see nothing and know nothing, in order that they [the formers of the carved image] may be ashamed.” Ignoring the extraordinary points, the passage would read: “and they [Heb., hemʹmah] are their witnesses that see nothing and that know nothing, in order that they may be ashamed.” See App 2A.
^ “A god.” Heb., ʼel.
^ Or, “from mankind.” Heb., me·ʼa·dhamʹ.
^ “Man.” Heb., ʼish.
^ Or, “earthling man.” Heb., ʼa·dhamʹ.
^ Or, “for an earthling man.” Heb., leʼa·dhamʹ.
^ Lit., “He also makes a god [Heb., ʼel].”
^ “It,” that is, the fuel; possibly tree branches.
^ That is, from the mother’s womb.
^ Lit., “the empty talk,” but personalized.
^ “Of Cyrus,” M(Heb., leKhohʹresh)TLXXVg.
^ “Even in [my] saying,” MSy; LXX, “the One saying”; Vg, “I who say.”
^ “To Jerusalem: ‘You will be rebuilt,’ ” TLXXVg.
