HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 1014
IS A IA H 4 6
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But the Lord will save the people of Israel
with eternal salvation.
Throughout everlasting ages,
they will never again be humiliated and
disgraced.
For the Lord is God,
and he created the heavens and earth
and put everything in place.
He made the world to be lived in,
not to be a place of empty chaos.
“I am the Lord,” he says,
“and there is no other.
I publicly proclaim bold promises.
I do not whisper obscurities in some
dark corner.
I would not have told the people of Israel*
to seek me
if I could not be found.
I, the Lord, speak only what is true
and declare only what is right.
“Gather together and come,
you fugitives from surrounding nations.
What fools they are who carry around their
wooden idols
and pray to gods that cannot save!
Consult together, argue your case.
Get together and decide what to say.
Who made these things known so long ago?
What idol ever told you they would
happen?
Was it not I, the Lord?
For there is no other God but me,
a righteous God and Savior.
There is none but me.
Let all the world look to me for salvation!
For I am God; there is no other.
I have sworn by my own name;
I have spoken the truth,
and I will never go back on my word:
Every knee will bend to me,
and every tongue will declare allegiance
to me.*”
The people will declare,
“The Lord is the source of all my
righteousness and strength.”
And all who were angry with him
will come to him and be ashamed.
In the Lord all the generations of Israel
will be justified,
and in him they will boast.
Babylon’s False Gods
1 Bel and Nebo, the gods of Babylon,
bow as they are lowered to the
ground.
They are being hauled away on ox carts.
The poor beasts stagger under the
weight.
2 Both the idols and their owners are
bowed down.
46
page 644
The gods cannot protect the people,
and the people cannot protect the gods.
They go off into captivity together.
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“Listen to me, descendants of Jacob,
all you who remain in Israel.
I have cared for you since you were born.
Yes, I carried you before you were born.
I will be your God throughout your
lifetime—
until your hair is white with age.
I made you, and I will care for you.
I will carry you along and save you.
“To whom will you compare me?
Who is my equal?
Some people pour out their silver and gold
and hire a craftsman to make a god
from it.
Then they bow down and worship it!
They carry it around on their shoulders,
and when they set it down, it stays there.
It can’t even move!
And when someone prays to it, there is
no answer.
It can’t rescue anyone from trouble.
“Do not forget this! Keep it in mind!
Remember this, you guilty ones.
Remember the things I have done in
the past.
For I alone am God!
I am God, and there is none like me.
Only I can tell you the future
before it even happens.
Everything I plan will come to pass,
for I do whatever I wish.
I will call a swift bird of prey from
the east—
a leader from a distant land to
come and do my bidding.
I have said what I would do,
and I will do it.
“Listen to me, you stubborn people
who are so far from doing right.
For I am ready to set things right,
not in the distant future, but
right now!
I am ready to save Jerusalem*
and show my glory to Israel.
Prediction of Babylon’s Fall
1 “Come down, virgin daughter of
Babylon, and sit in the dust.
For your days of sitting on a throne
have ended.
O daughter of Babylonia,* never again
will you be
the lovely princess, tender and delicate.
47
45:19 Hebrew of Jacob. See note on 14:1. 45:23 Hebrew will
confess; Greek version reads will declare allegiance to God.
Compare Rom 14:11. 46:13 Hebrew Zion. 47:1 Or Chaldea;
also in 47:5.