Isaiah

44 But now listen, my servant Jacob, Israel that I have chosen. 2* Says Jehovah your Maker, your Framer in your mother’s body, he who helps you: Do not be afraid, my servant Jacob, Jeshurun whom I have chosen. 3 For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, wetness on that which is dry. I will pour my spirit on your descendants and my blessing on your offspring, 4* and they will shoot up like grass in mud, like poplars by watercourses. 5* This one will say “I am Jehovah’s,” and this one will announce the name of Jacob, and this one will mark his arm as Jehovah’s and will put into his name the name of Israel.

6* Says the King of Israel and its friend in need, Jehovah of Armies, I am first and I am last, and besides me there is no god. 7*** And who is like me? let him stand up and proclaim, and tell of it and give me his statement, who from of old has announced coming things; and the things that are to be let them tell them. 8* Do not be in dread, do not be stampeded; have I not announced it to you and told of it in the past? are not you my witnesses? Is there a god besides me? no Rock there is, I know of none. 9 Shapers of statues all amount to nothing, and their charming works are of no use; and the witnesses they have do not see nor know so as to be ashamed.

10 Who has shaped a deity and cast a statue to be of no use? 11 here will all his partners be put to shame; they are human mechanics, they will all gather, come to a stand, be startled, be put to shame together. 12* A blacksmith takes a chunk of metal and works it with coals and shapes it with hammers, has worked it up with his strong arm, gone hungry and lost strength, not had a drink of water and grown faint. 13* A carpenter stretches a line, outlines his job with a pencil, does it with chisels and contours it with compasses, and has made it in the figure of a man, in the elegance of human form, to sit still in a house. 14** One has cut himself cedars, and taken an oak, a live-oak, seized it for himself among the trees in the badlands, has planted a stone-pine and showers grow it; 15 and men have it to burn, and they have taken parts and warmed themselves—also heat a baking-crock and bake bread—also cut out deities and do reverence, make statues and kowtow to them. 16 Half of it they have burned up, off half of it they are eating meat, are cooking a roast and filling their stomachs, also warm themselves and say “Ah there, I am warm, I have seen a fire,” 17 and the remainder of it they make into deities, statues, to kowtow to and do reverence and pray to and say “Deliver me, because you are my God.” 18 They do not know nor realize, because their eyes are sealed up from seeing, their hearts from reasoning. 19 And they do not take it in, and have no knowledge or sense to say “Half of it I burned up, also baked bread over its coals, roasted meat and ate it, and shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? kowtow to a remnant of wood?” 20* Feeder on ashes, a befooled heart has put him off the track, and he will not deliver his soul nor think “Have I not a falsification in my right hand?”

21** Remember these things, Jacob; and, Israel, that you are my servant. I shaped you for servant of mine; you, Israel, are not to forget me. 22 I have cleared your crimes off like a cloud, your sins like a vapor; come back to me, because I claim you. 23 Shout, skies, because Jehovah has acted; cheer, subterranean depths; break out in shouting, mountains, bush and every tree in it, because Jehovah claims Jacob and makes his boast of Israel.

24* Says Jehovah your friend in need, your Framer in your mother’s body: I Jehovah, maker of everything, single-handed stretcher of the sky, unaccompanied spreader of the earth, 25 who foil diviners’ signs and make soothsayers go wild, who reverse wise men and make their knowledge foolish, 26 who make good my servant’s word and execute my messengers’ plan, am he who says of Jerusalem “it shall be inhabited” and of the cities of Judah “they shall be rebuilt and I will rehabilitate her wastes”; 27 who say to the morass “Dry up; I will dry off your rivers”; 28* who say of Cyrus “my servant, and he shall execute everything I want, saying of Jerusalem ‘it shall be rebuilt’ and the temple ‘it shall be refounded.’”