Isaiah
43 And 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.+ 2 In 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.+ 3 For I am Jehovah your God,* the Holy One of Israel your Savior.+ I have given Egypt as a ransom for you,*+ E·thi·oʹpi·a*+ and Seʹba in place of you. 4 Owing 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.+ 6 I 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,+ 7 everyone 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.+ 9 Let 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.*+ 11 I—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.*+ 13 Also, 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?”+
14 This 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·deʹans in the ships with whining cries on their part.+ 15 I am Jehovah YOUR Holy One,*+ the Creator of Israel,+ YOUR King.”+
16 This is what Jehovah has said, the One making a way through the sea itself and a roadway even through strong waters,+ 17 the 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. 19 Look! 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.+ 20 The 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, 21 the 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.+ 23 You 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.+ 24 For 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.+ 26 Remind me; let us put ourselves on judgment* together;+ tell your own account of it in order that you may be in the right.+ 27 Your own father, the first one, has sinned,+ and your own spokesmen* have transgressed against me.+ 28 So 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.+