The Folly of Idols

¹“Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights: I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations.

²He will not shout, nor raise his voice, nor cause it to be heard in the street.

³He won’t break a bruised reed. He won’t quench a dimly burning wick. He will faithfully bring justice.

⁴He will not fail nor be discouraged, until he has set justice on the earth, and the islands wait for his law.”

⁵God the LORD, he who created the heavens and stretched them out, he who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it, he who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it, says:

⁶“I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness. I will hold your hand. I will keep you, and make you a covenant for the people, as a light for the nations,

⁷to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.

⁸“I am the LORD. That is my name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to engraved images.

⁹Behold, the former things have happened and I declare new things. I tell you about them before they come up.”

¹⁰Sing to the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the islands and their inhabitants.

¹¹Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices, with the villages that Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing. Let them shout from the top of the mountains!

¹²Let them give glory to the LORD, and declare his praise in the islands.

¹³The LORD will go out like a mighty man. He will stir up zeal like a man of war. He will raise a war cry. Yes, he will shout aloud. He will triumph over his enemies.

¹⁴“I have been silent a long time. I have been quiet and restrained myself. Now I will cry out like a travailing woman. I will both gasp and pant.

¹⁵I will destroy mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs. I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools.

¹⁶I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know. I will lead them in paths that they don’t know. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. I will do these things, and I will not forsake them.

¹⁷“Those who trust in engraved images, who tell molten images, ‘You are our gods,’ will be turned back. They will be utterly disappointed.

¹⁸“Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see.

¹⁹Who is blind, but my servant? Or who is as deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is as blind as he who is at peace, and as blind as the LORD’s servant?

²⁰You see many things, but don’t observe. His ears are open, but he doesn’t listen.

²¹It pleased the LORD, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify the law and make it honorable.

²²But this is a robbed and plundered people. All of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prisons. They have become captives, and no one delivers, and a plunder, and no one says, ‘Restore them!’

²³Who is there among you who will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come?

²⁴Who gave Jacob as plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Didn’t the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, and they disobeyed his law.

²⁵Therefore he poured the fierceness of his anger on him, and the strength of battle. It set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know. It burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart.”

¹But now the LORD who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel, says: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.

²When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, and flame will not scorch you.

³For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I have given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place.

⁴Since you have been precious and honored in my sight, and I have loved you, therefore I will give people in your place, and nations instead of your life.

⁵Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. I will bring your offspring from the east, and gather you from the west.

⁶I will tell the north, ‘Give them up!’ and tell the south, ‘Don’t hold them back! Bring my sons from far away, and my daughters from the ends of the earth—

⁷everyone who is called by my name, and whom I have created for my glory, whom I have formed, yes, whom I have made.’”

⁸Bring out the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears.

⁹Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the peoples be assembled. Who among them can declare this, and show us former things? Let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified, or let them hear, and say, “That is true.”

¹⁰“You are my witnesses,” says the LORD, “With my servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither will there be after me.

¹¹I myself am the LORD. Besides me, there is no savior.

¹²I have declared, I have saved, and I have shown, and there was no strange god among you. Therefore you are my witnesses”, says the LORD, “and I am God.

¹³Yes, since the day was, I am he. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand. I will work, and who can hinder it?”

¹⁴The LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: “For your sake, I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring all of them down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing.

¹⁵I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.”

¹⁶The LORD, who makes a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters,

¹⁷who brings out the chariot and horse, the army and the mighty man (they lie down together, they shall not rise; they are extinct, they are quenched like a wick) says:

¹⁸“Don’t remember the former things, and don’t consider the things of old.

¹⁹Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs out now. Don’t you know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

²⁰The animals of the field, the jackals and the ostriches, shall honor me, because I give water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen,

²¹the people which I formed for myself, that they might declare my praise.

²²Yet you have not called on me, Jacob; but you have been weary of me, Israel.

²³You have not brought me any of your sheep for burnt offerings, neither have you honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, nor wearied you with frankincense.

²⁴You have bought me no sweet cane with money, nor have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices, but you have burdened me with your sins. You have wearied me with your iniquities.

²⁵I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins.

²⁶Put me in remembrance. Let us plead together. Declare your case, that you may be justified.

²⁷Your first father sinned, and your teachers have transgressed against me.

²⁸Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary; and I will make Jacob a curse, and Israel an insult.”

¹Yet listen now, Jacob my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen.

²This is what the LORD who made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you says: “Don’t be afraid, Jacob my servant; and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

³For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your offspring;

⁴and they will spring up among the grass, as willows by the watercourses.

⁵One will say, ‘I am the LORD’s.’ Another will be called by the name of Jacob; and another will write with his hand ‘to the LORD,’ and honor the name of Israel.”

⁶This is what the LORD, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the LORD of Armies, says: “I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God.

⁷Who is like me? Who will call, and will declare it, and set it in order for me, since I established the ancient people? Let them declare the things that are coming, and that will happen.

⁸Don’t fear, neither be afraid. Haven’t I declared it to you long ago, and shown it? You are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? Indeed, there is not. I don’t know any other Rock.”

⁹Everyone who makes a carved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that they may be disappointed.

¹⁰Who has fashioned a god, or molds an image that is profitable for nothing?

¹¹Behold, all his fellows will be disappointed; and the workmen are mere men. Let them all be gathered together. Let them stand up. They will fear. They will be put to shame together.

¹²The blacksmith takes an ax, works in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm. He is hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water, and is faint.

¹³The carpenter stretches out a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes. He marks it out with compasses, and shapes it like the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to reside in a house.

¹⁴He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak, and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest. He plants a cypress tree, and the rain nourishes it.

¹⁵Then it will be for a man to burn; and he takes some of it and warms himself. Yes, he burns it and bakes bread. Yes, he makes a god and worships it; he makes it a carved image, and falls down to it.

¹⁶He burns part of it in the fire. With part of it, he eats meat. He roasts a roast and is satisfied. Yes, he warms himself and says, “Aha! I am warm. I have seen the fire.”

¹⁷The rest of it he makes into a god, even his engraved image. He bows down to it and worships, and prays to it, and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”

¹⁸They don’t know, neither do they consider, for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see, and their hearts, that they can’t understand.

¹⁹No one thinks, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, “I have burned part of it in the fire. Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it. Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?”

²⁰He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”

²¹Remember these things, Jacob and Israel, for you are my servant. I have formed you. You are my servant. Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.

²²I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.

²³Sing, you heavens, for the LORD has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth! Break out into singing, you mountains, O forest, all of your trees, for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and will glorify himself in Israel.

²⁴The LORD, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb says: “I am the LORD, who makes all things; who alone stretches out the heavens; who spreads out the earth by myself;

²⁵who frustrates the signs of the liars, and makes diviners mad; who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolish;

²⁶who confirms the word of his servant, and performs the counsel of his messengers; who says of Jerusalem, ‘She will be inhabited;’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They will be built,’ and ‘I will raise up its waste places;’

²⁷who says to the deep, ‘Be dry,’ and ‘I will dry up your rivers,’

²⁸who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure,’ even saying of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built;’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’”