Isaiah 45

²⁰“You are My war club, My weapon for battle. With you I shatter nations; with you I bring kingdoms to ruin.

²¹With you I shatter the horse and rider; with you I shatter the chariot and driver.

⁶“I, the Lord, have called you for a righteous purpose, and I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations,

²⁸who says of Cyrus, ‘My shepherd will fulfill all that I desire,’ who says of Jerusalem, ‘She will be rebuilt,’ and of the temple, ‘Let its foundation be laid.’”

²³Yet I am always with You; You hold my right hand.

¹³For I am the Lord your God, who takes hold of your right hand and tells you: Do not fear, I will help you.

¹In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah, the Lord stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows:

⁴Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low; the uneven ground will become smooth, and the rugged land a plain.

¹⁶I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; I will guide them on unfamiliar paths. I will turn darkness into light before them and rough places into level ground. These things I will do for them, and I will not forsake them.

⁵Every valley shall be filled in, and every mountain and hill made low. The crooked ways shall be made straight, and the rough ways smooth.

¹⁶For He has broken down the gates of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.

³⁰The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting; they sit in their strongholds. Their strength is exhausted; they have become like women. Babylon’s homes have been set ablaze, the bars of her gates are broken.

⁴Listen, a tumult on the mountains, like that of a great multitude! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations gathered together! The Lord of Hosts is mobilizing an army for war.

⁵They are coming from faraway lands, from the ends of the heavens—the Lord and the weapons of His wrath—to destroy the whole country.

¹⁵I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him. I have brought him, and he will succeed in his mission.

¹But now, this is what the Lord says—He who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine!

¹⁷So the Lord said to Moses, “I will do this very thing you have asked, for you have found favor in My sight, and I know you by name.”

¹²Then Moses said to the Lord, “Look, You have been telling me, ‘Lead this people up,’ but You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have found favor in My sight.’

²“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, who has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, has appointed me to build a house for Him at Jerusalem in Judah.

³⁷A sword is against her horses and chariots and against all the foreigners in her midst, and they will become like women. A sword is against her treasuries, and they will be plundered.

⁸“But you, O Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham My friend—

⁹I brought you from the ends of the earth and called you from its farthest corners. I said, ‘You are My servant.’ I have chosen and not rejected you.

²³For as I walked around and examined your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN God. Therefore what you worship as something unknown, I now proclaim to you.

⁵Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.

⁶And unto Me you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to speak to the Israelites.”

¹But now listen, O Jacob My servant, Israel, whom I have chosen.

⁷What then? What Israel was seeking, it failed to obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened,

¹⁷Israel is a scattered flock, chased away by lions. The first to devour him was the king of Assyria; the last to crush his bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.”

¹⁸Therefore this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “I will punish the king of Babylon and his land as I punished the king of Assyria.

⁸Do not tremble or fear. Have I not told you and declared it long ago? You are My witnesses! Is there any God but Me? There is no other Rock; I know not one.”

⁶Thus says the Lord, the King and Redeemer of Israel, the Lord of Hosts: “I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God but Me.

⁹Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me.

²⁷Then you will know that I am present in Israel and that I am the Lord your God, and there is no other. My people will never again be put to shame.

⁶⁰so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God. There is no other!

²¹Speak up and present your case—yes, let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago? Who announced it from ancient times? Was it not I, the Lord? There is no other God but Me, a righteous God and Savior; there is none but Me.

²²Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.

¹¹For My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place, incense and pure offerings will be presented in My name, because My name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord of Hosts.

²⁰And now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O Lord, are God.”

⁵I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God but Me. I will equip you for battle, though you have not known Me,

¹⁰“Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted over the earth.”

²³I will magnify and sanctify Myself, and I will reveal Myself in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

¹⁸May they know that You alone, whose name is the Lord, are Most High over all the earth.

¹³Consider the work of God: Who can straighten what He has bent?

¹⁴In the day of prosperity, be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider this: God has made one of these along with the other, so that a man cannot discover anything that will come after him.

⁶If a ram’s horn sounds in a city, do the people not tremble? If calamity comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it?

⁷but it is God who judges; He brings down one and exalts another.

¹⁰“You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept from God only good and not adversity?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

²Yet He too is wise and brings disaster; He does not call back His words. He will rise up against the house of the wicked and against the allies of evildoers.

¹³For behold, He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind and reveals His thoughts to man, who turns the dawn to darkness and strides on the heights of the earth—the Lord, the God of Hosts, is His name.”

¹²Sow for yourselves righteousness and reap the fruit of loving devotion; break up your unplowed ground. For it is time to seek the Lord until He comes and sends righteousness upon you like rain.

¹¹For as the earth brings forth its growth, and as a garden enables seed to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.

⁶May he be like rain that falls on freshly cut grass, like spring showers that water the earth.

⁶I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.

⁷So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

³For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and currents on the dry ground. I will pour out My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring.

³For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

⁴But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,

²⁰But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?”

²¹Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use?

⁸But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.

¹⁵Does an axe raise itself above the one who swings it? Does a saw boast over him who saws with it? It would be like a rod waving the one who lifts it, or a staff lifting him who is not wood!

⁶“O house of Israel, declares the Lord, can I not treat you as this potter treats his clay? Just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.

¹⁶You have turned things upside down, as if the potter were regarded as clay. Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”? Can the pottery say of the potter, “He has no understanding”?

³⁰There is no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel that can prevail against the Lord.

⁶“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of Me?” says the Lord of Hosts to you priests who despise My name. “But you ask, ‘How have we despised Your name?’

¹⁶‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

⁹Furthermore, we have all had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Should we not much more submit to the Father of our spirits and live?

³Call to Me, and I will answer and show you great and unsearchable things you do not know.

¹⁷Thus says the Lord your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you for your benefit, who directs you in the way you should go.

²⁴Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

³⁷This is what the Lord God says: Once again I will hear the plea of the house of Israel and do for them this: I will multiply their people like a flock.

¹⁰For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.

²³For when he sees his children around him, the work of My hands, they will honor My name, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and they will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

⁵This is what God the Lord says—He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who walk in it:

²⁴Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer who formed you from the womb: “I am the Lord, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who by Myself spread out the earth,

⁵By My great power and outstretched arm, I made the earth and the men and beasts on the face of it, and I give it to whom I please.

¹Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

⁶You alone are the Lord. You created the heavens, the highest heavens with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all things, and the host of heaven worships You.

¹⁷“Oh, Lord God! You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You!

²Who has aroused one from the east and called him to his feet in righteousness? He hands nations over to him and subdues kings before him. He turns them to dust with his sword, to windblown chaff with his bow.

¹⁷Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes, who have no regard for silver and no desire for gold.

²⁵I have raised up one from the north, and he has come—one from the east who calls on My name. He will march over rulers as if they were mortar, like a potter who treads the clay.

²⁵Indeed, this is what the Lord says: “Even the captives of the mighty will be taken away, and the plunder of the tyrant will be retrieved; I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.

²²In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah, the Lord stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows:

²³“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, who has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, has appointed me to build a house for Him at Jerusalem in Judah. Whoever among you belongs to His people, may the Lord his God be with him, and may he go up.’”

¹¹I summon a bird of prey from the east, a man for My purpose from a far-off land. Truly I have spoken, and truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, and I will surely do it.

²³Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow to you facedown and lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in Me will never be put to shame.”

²⁵and the secrets of his heart will be made known. So he will fall facedown and worship God, proclaiming, “God is truly among you!”

¹⁹O Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of distress, the nations will come to You from the ends of the earth, and they will say, “Our fathers inherited nothing but lies, worthless idols of no benefit at all.

²⁵As Peter was about to enter, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet to worship him.

²⁶But Peter helped him up. “Stand up,” he said, “I am only a man myself.”

⁵Strangers will stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners will be your plowmen and vinedressers.

⁶But you will be called the priests of the Lord; they will speak of you as ministers of our God; you will feed on the wealth of nations, and you will boast in their riches.

²⁰This is what the Lord of Hosts says: “Peoples will yet come—the residents of many cities—

²¹and the residents of one city will go to another, saying: ‘Let us go at once to plead before the Lord and to seek the Lord of Hosts. I myself am going.’

¹⁷I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in Him.

²⁴Why do You hide Your face and forget our affliction and oppression?

¹⁷I was enraged by his sinful greed, so I struck him and hid My face in anger; yet he kept turning back to the desires of his heart.

¹³I am bringing My righteousness near; it is not far away, and My salvation will not be delayed. I will grant salvation to Zion and adorn Israel with My splendor.

¹⁹Your path led through the sea, Your way through the mighty waters, but Your footprints were not to be found.

³³O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!

³⁴“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?”

⁹All makers of idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Their witnesses fail to see or comprehend, so they are put to shame.

¹¹Behold, all his companions will be put to shame, for the craftsmen themselves are only human. Let them all assemble and take their stand; they will all be brought to terror and shame.

¹⁷But those who trust in idols and say to molten images, ‘You are our gods!’ will be turned back in utter shame.

²⁶As the thief is ashamed when he is caught, so the house of Israel is disgraced. They, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets

²⁷say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ They have turned their backs to Me and not their faces. Yet in the time of trouble, they say, ‘Rise up and save us!’

¹⁹I will plant cedars in the wilderness, acacias, myrtles, and olive trees. I will set cypresses in the desert, elms and boxwood together,

¹⁴Every man is senseless and devoid of knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols. For his molten images are a fraud, and there is no breath in them.

¹⁵They are worthless, a work to be mocked. In the time of their punishment they will perish.

¹¹It is just as the Scripture says: “Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”

³Surely none who wait for You will be put to shame; but those who engage in treachery without cause will be disgraced.

⁴Do not be afraid, for you will not be put to shame; do not be intimidated, for you will not be humiliated. For you will forget the shame of your youth and will remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.

⁶For it stands in Scripture: “See, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone; and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”

²⁶You will have plenty to eat, until you are satisfied. You will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you. My people will never again be put to shame.

²⁷Then you will know that I am present in Israel and that I am the Lord your God, and there is no other. My people will never again be put to shame.

²³Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow to you facedown and lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in Me will never be put to shame.”

¹⁶The highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth He has given to mankind.

¹²The Lord made the earth by His power; He established the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.

⁵This is what God the Lord says—He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who walk in it:

¹²It is I who made the earth and created man upon it. It was My hands that stretched out the heavens, and I ordained all their host.

²Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

¹⁰I will multiply the people upon you—the house of Israel in its entirety. The cities will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt.

¹¹I will fill you with people and animals, and they will multiply and be fruitful. I will make you as inhabited as you once were, and I will make you prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

¹⁶Come near to Me and listen to this: From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time it happened, I was there.” And now the Lord God has sent me, accompanied by His Spirit.

⁴For this is what the Lord says to the house of Israel: “Seek Me and live!

¹⁹God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?

²⁰I have indeed received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot change it.

¹³You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

¹⁴I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore you from captivity and gather you from all the nations and places to which I have banished you, declares the Lord. I will restore you to the place from which I sent you into exile.”

⁵Every word of God is flawless; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.

²⁰“I have spoken openly to the world,” Jesus answered. “I always taught in the synagogues and at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret.

⁹All the nations gather together and the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare this, and proclaim to us the former things? Let them present their witnesses to vindicate them, so that others may hear and say, “It is true.”

¹⁷From the rest he makes a god, his graven image. He bows down to it and worships; he prays to it and says, “Save me, for you are my god.”

¹⁸They do not comprehend or discern, for He has shut their eyes so they cannot see and closed their minds so they cannot understand.

⁵Like scarecrows in a cucumber patch, their idols cannot speak. They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them, for they can do no harm, and neither can they do any good.”

²On that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of Israel’s survivors.

¹Bel crouches; Nebo cowers. Their idols weigh down beasts and cattle. The images you carry are burdensome, a load to the weary animal.

⁸Those who make them become like them, as do all who trust in them.

⁵I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God but Me. I will equip you for battle, though you have not known Me,

⁹Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me.

¹⁰I declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and all My good pleasure I will accomplish.’

¹¹I, yes I, am the Lord, and there is no Savior but Me.

¹³as we await the blessed hope and glorious appearance of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

¹⁴He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

⁹All the nations gather together and the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare this, and proclaim to us the former things? Let them present their witnesses to vindicate them, so that others may hear and say, “It is true.”

⁷Who then is like Me? Let him say so! Let him declare his case before Me, since I established an ancient people. Let him foretell the things to come, and what is to take place.

⁸Do not tremble or fear. Have I not told you and declared it long ago? You are My witnesses! Is there any God but Me? There is no other Rock; I know not one.”

⁴⁰For it is My Father’s will that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

⁷But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.

²Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

⁸Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live.”

⁹So Moses made a bronze snake and mounted it on a pole. If anyone who was bitten looked at the bronze snake, he would live.

¹⁰Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.

¹³No one has ascended into heaven except the One who descended from heaven—the Son of Man.

¹⁴Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,

¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

¹⁰Why, then, do you judge your brother? Or why do you belittle your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.

¹¹It is written: “As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before Me; every tongue will confess to God.”

¹¹so My word that proceeds from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and it will prosper where I send it.

¹³When God made His promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater to swear by, He swore by Himself,

¹⁴saying, “I will surely bless you and multiply your descendants.”

¹³Fear the Lord your God, serve Him only, and take your oaths in His name.

¹⁹I have not spoken in secret, from a place in a land of darkness. I did not say to the descendants of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in a wasteland.’ I, the Lord, speak the truth; I say what is right.

¹¹Behold, all who rage against you will be ashamed and disgraced; those who contend with you will be reduced to nothing and will perish.

¹³I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

¹⁷No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their vindication is from Me,” declares the Lord.

¹⁷But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message would be fully proclaimed, and all the Gentiles would hear it. So I was delivered from the mouth of the lion.

¹⁸And the Lord will rescue me from every evil action and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

³²And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw everyone to Myself.”

¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.

¹⁶You will winnow them, and a wind will carry them away; a gale will scatter them. But you will rejoice in the Lord; you will glory in the Holy One of Israel.

²⁷For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

¹¹And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

³⁰And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.

⁶It is not as though God’s word has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.

⁷Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants are they all his children. On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”

¹Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.