Isaiah 45:1-25

45 ** Says Jehovah to his anointed one Cyrus, whom I hold by his right hand to have nations trodden down before him, and I unbelt kings’ waists; to open doors before him, and gates shall not be locked: 2 * I will go before you and level off knolls and smash bronze doors and chop through iron bars, 3  and give you treasures stored in darkness and buried in screened places, in order that you may know that I am Jehovah, he who names you is Israel’s God; 4  on account of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen—and I called you by your name, gave you a title when you did not know me. 5 * I am Jehovah, and there is no other; except me there is no God; I will be fastening your girdle when you are not conscious of me, 6 * in order that from farthest east to farthest west they may know there is nobody besides me: I am Jehovah, and there is no other. 7  Framer of light and creator of darkness, maker of welfare and creator of calamity, I Jehovah am the doer of all these things. 8 * Pour, skies, from above, and let the ether drip down right; let earth open and salvation start its growth, and right shoot up withal—I Jehovah have created it. 9 ** Ha, man that wrangles with his Framer! a broken dish with the crockery-makers! will clay say to its potter “What are you doing, your work is a botch”? 10  Ha, man that says to a father “What are you begetting?” and to a woman “What are you in labor with?” 11 * Says Jehovah, Israel’s Holy One and its Framer, Will you ask me questions about my sons and give me orders about the work of my hands? 12  It was I made earth and created man on it; it was I whose hands stretched the sky and who gave orders to all its legions. 13  It is I that have called him out in good faith and will level all his road; he shall rebuild my city and release my deportees, not for price nor for pelf, says Jehovah of Armies. 14 * Says Jehovah, Egypt’s earnings and Nubia’s profits, and the Sudanese, tall men that they are, shall come across to you and belong to you; they shall follow you in fetters; they shall come across and to you make prayers: “only in you is there a deity, and there is no other, not a god. 15 * With you there was a veiled Deity! Israel’s God is a savior!” 16  They are crestfallen, downright humiliated, all of them together; figure-sculptors go off in humiliation. 17  Israel is saved in Jehovah with eternal salvation; you shall not be crestfallen nor humiliated forever and aye. 18  For this is what Jehovah says, the Creator of the heavens—he is God! the Shaper and Maker of the earth—it was he set it in order, he did not create it as a chaos, he shaped it to be inhabited—: I am Jehovah and there is nobody to be added. I have not spoken in secret, 19  in a place in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob’s descendants “Look for me at random”; I Jehovah speak right, I make straightforward statements. 20 * Gather and come on, throng up and come in, my survivors! The nations do not know, those who bear along the wood of their statues and pray to a deity that does not save. 21  Tell and bring them on; yes, let them put their heads together; who uttered this in ancient times, announced it already? was it not I, Jehovah? and there is no other God outside me; honest, saving Deity there is none except me. 22  Face toward me and be saved, all ends of earth! for I am Deity and there is no other. 23 * By myself I have sworn, a word has gone out of my mouth in good faith and will never go back, that to me every knee shall bend, by me every tongue shall swear. 24 * Only in Jehovah, it is said of me, is fair dealing and might; to him all that are spiteful toward him shall come and be ashamed. 25  In Jehovah shall all the descendants of Israel have their vindication and their boast.

Footnotes

45:1 Conj. that the name Cyrus does not belong in the text
45:1 Codd.* have nations go down
45:2 Or I go
45:5 Or girdle, though you did not know me
45:6 Lit. from the place where the sun rises and from the place where it sets
45:8 Var. and let them be fruitful of salvation
45:9 (crockery-makers) Lit. earthwrights Var.* fragments in the ground
45:9 Lit. your work has no hands Or doing” and your work “He has no skill (lit. no hands)” Conj. doing” and his work “You have no skill”
45:11 Codd. The things that are coming, they asked me questions
45:14 (first part) Susp.
45:15 Var. not a god.” You were a (and no quotation mark at end of verse)
45:20 Var. come on, approach together, survivors of the nations! They do not know
45:23 Lit. without by me Perhaps translate so
45:24 Or Only in Jehovah have I, one says, rightness and might Susp.; conj. shall bend, every tongue shall swear only by me. In Jehovah, one shall say