The Lord Appoints Cyrus

¹The Lord has chosen Cyrus to be king. He has appointed him to conquer nations; he sends him to strip kings of their power; the Lord will open the gates of cities for him. To Cyrus the Lord says,

²“I myself will prepare your way, leveling mountains and hills. I will break down bronze gates and smash their iron bars.

³I will give you treasures from dark, secret places; then you will know that I am the Lord and that the God of Israel has called you by name.

⁴I appoint you to help my servant Israel, the people that I have chosen. I have given you great honor, although you do not know me.

⁵“I am the Lord; there is no other god. I will give you the strength you need, although you do not know me.

⁶I do this so that everyone from one end of the world to the other may know that I am the Lord and that there is no other god.

⁷I create both light and darkness; I bring both blessing and disaster. I, the Lord, do all these things.

⁸I will send victory from the sky like rain; the earth will open to receive it and will blossom with freedom and justice. I, the Lord, will make this happen.”

The Lordof Creation and History

⁹Does a clay pot dare argue with its maker, a pot that is like all the others? Does the clay ask the potter what he is doing? Does the pot complain that its maker has no skill?

¹⁰Do we dare say to our parents, “Why did you make me like this?”

¹¹The Lord, the holy God of Israel, the one who shapes the future, says: “You have no right to question me about my children or to tell me what I ought to do!

¹²I am the one who made the earth and created human beings to live there. By my power I stretched out the heavens; I control the sun, the moon, and the stars.

¹³I myself have stirred Cyrus to action to fulfill my purpose and put things right. I will straighten out every road that he travels. He will rebuild my city, Jerusalem, and set my captive people free. No one has hired him or bribed him to do this.” The Lord Almighty has spoken.

¹⁴The Lord says to Israel, “The wealth of Egypt and Ethiopia will be yours, and the tall men of Seba will be your slaves; they will follow you in chains. They will bow down to you and confess, ‘God is with you—he alone is God.

¹⁵The God of Israel, who saves his people, is a God who conceals himself.

¹⁶Those who make idols will all be ashamed; all of them will be disgraced.

¹⁷But Israel is saved by the Lord, and her victory lasts forever; her people will never be disgraced.’”

¹⁸The Lord created the heavens— he is the one who is God! He formed and made the earth— he made it firm and lasting. He did not make it a desolate waste, but a place for people to live. It is he who says, “I am the Lord, and there is no other god.

¹⁹I have not spoken in secret or kept my purpose hidden. I did not require the people of Israel to look for me in a desolate waste. I am the Lord, and I speak the truth; I make known what is right.”

The Lordof the World and the Idols of Babylon

²⁰The Lord says, “Come together, people of the nations, all who survive the fall of the empire; present yourselves for the trial! The people who parade with their idols of wood and pray to gods that cannot save them— those people know nothing at all!

²¹Come and present your case in court; let the defendants consult one another. Who predicted long ago what would happen? Was it not I, the Lord, the God who saves his people? There is no other god.

²²“Turn to me now and be saved, people all over the world! I am the only God there is.

²³My promise is true, and it will not be changed. I solemnly promise by all that I am: Everyone will come and kneel before me and vow to be loyal to me.

²⁴“They will say that only through me are victory and strength to be found; but all who hate me will suffer disgrace.

²⁵I, the Lord, will rescue all the descendants of Jacob, and they will give me praise.

¹“This is the end for Babylon's gods! Bel and Nebo once were worshiped, but now they are loaded on donkeys, a burden for the backs of tired animals.

²The idols cannot save themselves; they are captured and carried away. This is the end for Babylon's gods!

³“Listen to me, descendants of Jacob, all who are left of my people. I have cared for you from the time you were born.

⁴I am your God and will take care of you until you are old and your hair is gray. I made you and will care for you; I will give you help and rescue you.

⁵“To whom will you compare me?” says the Lord. “Is there anyone else like me?

⁶People open their purses and pour out gold; they weigh out silver on the scales. They hire a goldsmith to make a god; then they bow down and worship it.

⁷They lift it to their shoulders and carry it; they put it in place, and there it stands, unable to move from where it is. If any pray to it, it cannot answer or save them from disaster.

⁸“Remember this, you sinners; consider what I have done.

⁹Remember what happened long ago; acknowledge that I alone am God and that there is no one else like me.

¹⁰From the beginning I predicted the outcome; long ago I foretold what would happen. I said that my plans would never fail, that I would do everything I intended to do.

¹¹I am calling a man to come from the east; he will swoop down like a hawk and accomplish what I have planned. I have spoken, and it will be done.

¹²“Listen to me, you stubborn people who think that victory is far away.

¹³I am bringing the day of victory near— it is not far away at all. My triumph will not be delayed. I will save Jerusalem and bring honor to Israel there.”

The Lord Condemns Idolatry

¹The Lord spoke to me.

²“Mortal man,” he said, “look toward the mountains of Israel and give them my message.

³Tell the mountains of Israel to hear the Sovereign Lord's word—to hear what I, the Sovereign Lord, am telling the mountains, the hills, the gorges, and the valleys: I will send a sword to destroy the places where people worship idols.

⁴The altars will be torn down and the incense altars broken. All the people there will be killed in front of their idols.

⁵I will scatter the corpses of the people of Israel; I will scatter their bones all around the altars.

⁶All the cities of Israel will be destroyed, so that all their altars and their idols will be smashed to pieces, their incense altars will be shattered, and everything they made will disappear.

⁷People will be killed everywhere, and those who survive will acknowledge that I am the Lord.

⁸“I will let some escape the slaughter and be scattered among the nations,

⁹where they will live in exile. There they will remember me and know that I have punished them and disgraced them, because their faithless hearts deserted me and they preferred idols to me. And they will be disgusted with themselves because of the evil and degrading things they have done.

¹⁰They will know that I am the Lord and that my warnings were not empty threats.”

¹¹The Sovereign Lord said, “Wring your hands! Stamp your feet! Cry in sorrow because of all the evil, disgusting things the Israelites have done. They are going to die in war or of starvation or disease.

¹²Those far away will get sick and die; those nearby will be killed in war; those who survive will starve to death. They will feel all the force of my anger.

¹³Corpses will be scattered among the idols and around the altars, scattered on every high hill, on the top of every mountain, under every green tree and every large oak, in every place where they burned sacrifices to their idols. Then everyone will know that I am the Lord.

¹⁴Yes, I will reach out and destroy their country. I will make it a wasteland from the southern desert to the city of Riblah in the north, not sparing any place where the Israelites live. Then everyone will know that I am the Lord.”

The End Is Near for Israel

¹The Lord spoke to me.

²“Mortal man,” he said, “this is what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying to the land of Israel: This is the end for the whole land!

³“Israel, the end has come. You will feel my anger, because I am judging you for what you have done. I will pay you back for all your disgusting conduct.

⁴I will not spare you or show you any mercy. I am going to punish you for the disgusting things you have done, so that you will know that I am the Lord.”

⁵This is what the Sovereign Lord is saying: “One disaster after another is coming on you.

⁶It's all over. This is the end. You are finished.

⁷The end is coming for you people who live in the land. The time is near when there will be no more celebrations at the mountain shrines, only confusion.

⁸“Very soon now you will feel all the force of my anger. I am judging you for what you have done, and I will pay you back for all your disgusting conduct.

⁹I will not spare you or show you any mercy. I am going to punish you for the disgusting things you have done, so that you will know that I am the Lord and that I am the one who punishes you.”

¹⁰The day of disaster is coming. Violence is flourishing. Pride is at its height.

¹¹Violence produces more wickedness. Nothing of theirs will remain, nothing of their wealth, their splendor, or their glory.

¹²The time is coming. The day is near when buying and selling will have no more meaning, because God's punishment will fall on everyone alike.

¹³No merchants will live long enough to get back what they have lost, because God's anger is on everyone. Those who are evil cannot survive.

¹⁴The trumpet blows, and everyone gets ready. But no one goes off to war, for God's anger will fall on everyone alike.

Punishment for Israel's Sins

¹⁵There is fighting in the streets, and sickness and hunger in the houses. Anyone who is out in the country will die in the fighting, and anyone in the city will be a victim of sickness and hunger.

¹⁶Some will escape to the mountains like doves frightened from the valleys. All of them will moan over their sins.

¹⁷Everyone's hands will be weak, and their knees will shake.

¹⁸They will put on sackcloth and they will tremble all over. Their heads will be shaved, and they will all be disgraced.

¹⁹They will throw their gold and silver away in the streets like garbage, because neither silver nor gold can save them when the Lord pours out his fury. They cannot use it to satisfy their desires or fill their stomachs. Gold and silver led them into sin.

²⁰Once they were proud of their beautiful jewels, but they used them to make disgusting idols. That is why the Lord has made their wealth repulsive to them.

²¹“I will let foreigners rob them,” says the Lord, “and lawbreakers will take all their wealth and defile it.

²²I will not interfere when my treasured Temple is profaned, when robbers break into it and defile it.

²³“Everything is in confusion—the land is full of murders and the cities are full of violence.

²⁴I will bring the most evil nations here and let them have your homes. Your strongest men will lose their confidence when I let the nations profane the places where you worship.

²⁵Despair is coming. You will look for peace and never find it.

²⁶One disaster will follow another, and a steady stream of bad news will pour in. You will beg the prophets to reveal what they foresee. The priests will have nothing to teach the people, and the elders will have no advice to give.

²⁷The king will mourn, the prince will give up hope, and the people will shake with fear. I will punish you for all you have done, and will judge you in the same way as you have judged others. This will show you that I am the Lord.”

⁹It is better to be an ordinary person working for a living than to play the part of someone great but go hungry.

¹⁰Good people take care of their animals, but wicked people are cruel to theirs.

¹¹A hard-working farmer has plenty to eat, but it is stupid to waste time on useless projects.

¹²All that wicked people want is to find evil things to do, but the righteous stand firm.