9remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like me,
10declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, “My purpose shall stand,
and I will fulfill my intention,”
11calling a bird of prey from the east,
the man for my purpose from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
I have planned, and I will do it.
12Listen to me, you stubborn of heart,
you who are far from deliverance:
13I bring near my deliverance, it is not far off,
and my salvation will not tarry;
I will put salvation in Zion,
for Israel my glory.
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a Meaning of Heb uncertain
46.1–13 Idols must be carried by their worshipers, but God has always carried his people, and God will yet carry and save them.
46.1 Bel, “Lord,” an epithet that became an alternate name for Marduk, the chief god of Babylon. Nebo, the Babylonian god Nabu, city god of Borsippa and son of Marduk.
46.2 The Babylonian gods cannot even save their own images, which weigh down the pack animals (see note on 45.20).
46.3–4 God has carried and will carry Israel from the womb (cf. Pss 22.9–11; 71.5–6) to old age (Ps 71.18).
46.5–7 Cf. 40.18–20.
46.7 The reference could be to the yearly processions of the divine images in Babylon, or it could refer to Nabonidus’s vain attempt to prevent the Persians from capturing the images (45.20).
46.8–11 Cf. 45.9–13.
46.8 This, the prophetic history of God’s dealing with Israel (44.21).
46.9 Cf. 41.22–29; 42.8–9.
46.10 My purpose shall stand. Cf. 14.24–27.
46.11 Bird of prey, a reference to Cyrus and the swiftness of his assault (41.2–3; 44.28).
46.12–13 Stubborn unbelievers are warned that God’s salvation of Israel is near.
ISAIAH 47
The Humiliation of Babylon
1Come down and sit in the dust,
virgin daughter Babylon!
Sit on the ground without a throne,
daughter Chaldea!
For you shall no more be called
tender and delicate.
2Take the millstones and grind meal,
remove your veil,
strip off your robe, uncover your legs,
pass through the rivers.
3Your nakedness shall be uncovered,
and your shame shall be seen.
I will take vengeance,
and I will spare no one.
4Our Redeemer—the LORD of hosts is his name—
is the Holy One of Israel.
5Sit in silence, and go into darkness,
daughter Chaldea!
For you shall no more be called
the mistress of kingdoms.
6I was angry with my people,
I profaned my heritage;
I gave them into your hand,
you showed them no mercy;
on the aged you made your yoke
exceedingly heavy.
7You said, “I shall be mistress forever,”
so that you did not lay these things to heart
or remember their end.
8Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures,
who sit securely,
who say in your heart,
“I am, and there is no one besides me;
I shall not sit as a widow
or know the loss of children”—
9both these things shall come upon you
in a moment, in one day:
the loss of children and widowhood
shall come upon you in full measure,
in spite of your many sorceries
and the great power of your enchantments.
10You felt secure in your wickedness;
you said, “No one sees me.”
Your wisdom and your knowledge
led you astray,
and you said in your heart,
“I am, and there is no one besides me.”
11But evil shall come upon you,
which you cannot charm away;
disaster shall fall upon you,
which you will not be able to ward off;
and ruin shall come on you suddenly,
of which you know nothing.
12Stand fast in your enchantments
and your many sorceries,
with which you have labored from your youth;
perhaps you may be able to succeed,
perhaps you may inspire terror.
13You are wearied with your many consultations;
let those who studya the heavens
stand up and save you,
those who gaze at the stars,
and at each new moon predict
whatb shall befall you.
14See, they are like stubble,
the fire consumes them;
they cannot deliver themselves
from the power of the flame.
No coal for warming oneself is this,
no fire to sit before!
15Such to you are those with whom you have labored,
who have trafficked with you from your youth;
they all wander about in their own paths;
there is no one to save you.
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a Meaning of Heb uncertain
b Gk Syr Compare Vg: Heb from what
47.1–15 God will punish Babylon for its treatment of Israel.
47.1–4 Babylon is portrayed as a royal princess stripped of her glory and taken into captivity.
47.1 Virgin daughter, daughter (also v. 5), parallel terms of endearment for a city or country (37.22; Jer 31.4; 46.11). Chaldea, a name for the country of Babylon derived from the Chaldeans (see note on 13.19).
47.2–3 The former princess is stripped of her finery (3.16–24), forced to do common labor, and subjected to sexual humiliation.
47.6–7 God used Babylon to punish his people, but Babylon did not understand her role and in thoughtless self-conceit failed to show mercy (cf. 10.5–15).
47.8–11 Babylon’s haughty sense of security will prove false.
47.9 Sorceries, enchantments, a reference to the many Babylonian rituals for divining the future and warding off evil omens.
47.11 Charm away, ward off. Babylonian religion had rituals for warding off evils predicted by divination. Know nothing. Divination will fail to alert Babylon to the destruction that will suddenly overtake her.
47.13 Many consultations. There were many different methods in Babylonian divination, but the inspection of the internal organs of sacrificial animals was the dominant one, always requiring a second consultation to confirm the first. If two consultations did not produce the desired favorable response from the deity, one tried again; since each consultation required another sacrificial animal, one could exhaust oneself and one’s economic resources in attempting to get a reliable response. Study the heavens. Astrology was an important means of divination in the Neo-Babylonian period.
47.14–15 Her diviners and astrologers may try, but they cannot deliver Babylon from its destruction; they cannot even save themselves.
ISAIAH 48
God the Creator and Redeemer
1Hear this, O house of Jacob,
who are called by the name of Israel,
and who came forth from the loinsa of Judah;
who swear by the name of the LORD,
and invoke the God of Israel,
but not in truth or right.
2For they call themselves after the holy city,
and lean on the God of Israel;
the LORD of hosts is his name.
3The former things I declared long ago,
&nbs
p; they went out from my mouth and I made them known;
then suddenly I did them and they came to pass.
4Because I know that you are obstinate,
and your neck is an iron sinew
and your forehead brass,
5I declared them to you from long ago,
before they came to pass I announced them to you,
so that you would not say, “My idol did them,
my carved image and my cast image commanded them.”
6You have heard; now see all this;
and will you not declare it?
From this time forward I make you hear new things,
hidden things that you have not known.
7They are created now, not long ago;
before today you have never heard of them,
so that you could not say, “I already knew them.”
8You have never heard, you have never known,
from of old your ear has not been opened.
For I knew that you would deal very treacherously,
and that from birth you were called a rebel.
9For my name’s sake I defer my anger,
for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,
so that I may not cut you off.
10See, I have refined you, but not likeb silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of adversity.
11For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
for why should my namec be profaned?
My glory I will not give to another.
12Listen to me, O Jacob,
and Israel, whom I called:
I am He; I am the first,
and I am the last.
13My hand laid the foundation of the earth,
and my right hand spread out the heavens;
when I summon them,
they stand at attention.
14Assemble, all of you, and hear!
Who among them has declared these things?
The LORD loves him;
he shall perform his purpose on Babylon,
and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
15I, even I, have spoken and called him,
I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.
16Draw near to me, hear this!
From the beginning I have not spoken in secret,
from the time it came to be I have been there.
And now the Lord GOD has sent me and his spirit.
17Thus says the LORD,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I am the LORD your God,
who teaches you for your own good,
who leads you in the way you should go.
18O that you had paid attention to my commandments!
Then your prosperity would have been like a river,
and your success like the waves of the sea;
19your offspring would have been like the sand,
and your descendants like its grains;
their name would never be cut off
or destroyed from before me.
20Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea,
declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it,
send it forth to the end of the earth;
say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
21They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
he made water flow for them from the rock;
he split open the rock and the water gushed out.
22“There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.”
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a Cn: Heb waters
b Cn: Heb with
c Gk Old Latin: Heb for why should it
48.1–22 God warns his obstinate people to pay attention this time, for God the creator is about to redeem them from Babylonian bondage.
48.1 As elsewhere in chs. 40–66, house of Jacob and Israel are used here inclusively for the whole people of God, though the vast majority of the people addressed would be the exiles from the Southern Kingdom, Judah. Not in truth or right. Despite their outward affirmations, the people have not followed the Lord (29.13; Zeph 1.5–6).
48.2 Holy city, Jerusalem.
48.3–5 To prevent the people of Israel from attributing events to their idols, God announced to Israel what would happen to it and the other nations long before it came to pass (30.8–9; Jer 36.27–32).
48.6–8 God calls upon Israel to testify to the previously unexpected new things the Lord was doing for it.
48.6 New things, the deliverance from Babylon and return to Palestine (43.18–21).
48.8 Rebel. See 1.2.
48.9–11 God is saving Israel, not because Israel deserves it, but in order to preserve and enhance God’s own reputation (Ex 32.11–12; Ezek 20.22).
48.10 See 1.24–25; Jer 6.27–30.
48.12–13 Israel’s God is the creator of the whole world.
48.14–15 You, Israel. Them, the idols. Him, Cyrus.
48.16 The first-person references at the beginning of the verse refer to God, but the final phrase refers either to the prophet or to Israel as God’s servant (42.1–4; 61.1)
48.17 Teaches, leads. See 30.20–21.
48.18–19 Had Israel followed God, its prosperity would have come (Ps 81.13–16), fulfilling the ancient promises (Gen 22.17).
48.20–21 Israel’s departure from Babylon is seen as a new exodus (Ex 17.1–7).
48.22 This salvation will not benefit those who persist in their wickedness (57.20–21).
ISAIAH 49
The Servant’s Mission
1Listen to me, O coastlands,
pay attention, you peoples from far away!
The LORD called me before I was born,
while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.
2He made my mouth like a sharp sword,
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow,
in his quiver he hid me away.
3And he said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
4But I said, “I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my cause is with the LORD,
and my reward with my God.”
5And now the LORD says,
who formed me in the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him,
and that Israel might be gathered to him,
for I am honored in the sight of the LORD,
and my God has become my strength—
6he says,
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the survivors of Israel;
I will give you as a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
7Thus says the LORD,
the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations,
the slave of rulers,
“Kings shall see and stand up,
princes, and they shall prostrate themselves,
because of the LORD, who is faithful,
the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
Zion’s Children to Be Brought Home
8Thus says the LORD:
In a time of favor I have answered you,
on a day of salvation I have helped you;
I have kept you and given you
as a covenant to the people,a
to establish the land,
to apportion the desolate heritages;
9saying to the prisoners, “Come out,”
to those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves.”
They shall feed along the ways,
on all the bare heightsb shall be their pasture;
10they shall not hunger or thirst,
neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down,
for he who has pity on them will lead them,
and by springs of water will guide them.
11And I will turn all my mountains into a road,
and my highways shall be raised up.
12Lo, these shall come from far away,
and lo, these from the north and from the west,
and these from the land of Syene.c
13Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;
break forth, O mountains, into singing!
For the LORD has comforted his people,
and will have compassion on his suffering ones.
14But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me,
my Lord has forgotten me.”
15Can a woman forget her nursing child,
or show no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you.
16See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are continually before me.
17Your builders outdo your destroyers,d
and those who laid you waste go away from you.
18Lift up your eyes all around and see;
they all gather, they come to you.
As I live, says the LORD,
you shall put all of them on like an ornament,
and like a bride you shall bind them on.
19Surely your waste and your desolate places
and your devastated land—
surely now you will be too crowded for your inhabitants,
and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
20The children born in the time of your bereavement
will yet say in your hearing:
“The place is too crowded for me;
make room for me to settle.”
21Then you will say in your heart,
“Who has borne me these?
I was bereaved and barren,
exiled and put away—
so who has reared these?
I was left all alone—
where then have these come from?”
22Thus says the Lord GOD:
I will soon lift up my hand to the nations,
and raise my signal to the peoples;
and they shall bring your sons in their bosom,
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