Israel, A Light to the Nations

¹Listen to me, distant nations, you people who live far away! Before I was born, the Lord chose me and appointed me to be his servant.

²He made my words as sharp as a sword. With his own hand he protected me. He made me like an arrow, sharp and ready for use.

³He said to me, “Israel, you are my servant; because of you, people will praise me.”

⁴I said, “I have worked, but how hopeless it is! I have used up my strength, but have accomplished nothing.” Yet I can trust the Lord to defend my cause; he will reward me for what I do.

⁵Before I was born, the Lord appointed me; he made me his servant to bring back his people, to bring back the scattered people of Israel. The Lord gives me honor; he is the source of my strength.

⁶The Lord said to me, “I have a greater task for you, my servant. Not only will you restore to greatness the people of Israel who have survived, but I will also make you a light to the nations— so that all the world may be saved.”

⁷Israel's holy God and savior says to the one who is deeply despised, who is hated by the nations and is the servant of rulers: “Kings will see you released and will rise to show their respect; princes also will see it, and they will bow low to honor you.” This will happen because the Lord has chosen his servant; the holy God of Israel keeps his promises.

The Restoration of Jerusalem

⁸The Lord says to his people, “When the time comes to save you, I will show you favor and answer your cries for help. I will guard and protect you and through you make a covenant with all peoples. I will let you settle once again in your land that is now laid waste.

⁹I will say to the prisoners, ‘Go free!’ and to those who are in darkness, ‘Come out to the light!’ They will be like sheep that graze on the hills;

¹⁰they will never be hungry or thirsty. Sun and desert heat will not hurt them, for they will be led by one who loves them. He will lead them to springs of water.

¹¹“I will make a highway across the mountains and prepare a road for my people to travel.

¹²My people will come from far away, from the north and the west, and from Aswan in the south.”

¹³Sing, heavens! Shout for joy, earth! Let the mountains burst into song! The Lord will comfort his people; he will have pity on his suffering people.

¹⁴But the people of Jerusalem said, “The Lord has abandoned us! He has forgotten us.”

¹⁵So the Lord answers, “Can a woman forget her own baby and not love the child she bore? Even if a mother should forget her child, I will never forget you.

¹⁶Jerusalem, I can never forget you! I have written your name on the palms of my hands.

¹⁷“Those who will rebuild you are coming soon, and those who destroyed you will leave.

¹⁸Look around and see what is happening! Your people are assembling—they are coming home! As surely as I am the living God, you will be proud of your people, as proud as a bride is of her jewels.

¹⁹“Your country was ruined and desolate— but now it will be too small for those who are coming to live there. And those who left you in ruins will be far removed from you.

²⁰Your people who were born in exile will one day say to you, ‘This land is too small— we need more room to live in!’

²¹Then you will say to yourself, ‘Who bore all these children for me? I lost my children and could have no more. I was exiled and driven away— who brought these children up? I was left all alone— where did these children come from?’”

²²The Sovereign Lord says to his people: “I will signal to the nations, and they will bring your children home.

²³Kings will be like fathers to you; queens will be like mothers. They will bow low before you and honor you; they will humbly show their respect for you. Then you will know that I am the Lord; no one who waits for my help will be disappointed.”

²⁴Can you take away a soldier's loot? Can you rescue the prisoners of a tyrant?

²⁵The Lord replies, “That is just what is going to happen. The soldier's prisoners will be taken away, and the tyrant's loot will be seized. I will fight against whoever fights you, and I will rescue your children.

²⁶I will make your oppressors kill each other; they will be drunk with murder and rage. Then all people will know that I am the Lord, the one who saves you and sets you free. They will know that I am Israel's powerful God.”

¹The Lord says, “Do you think I sent my people away like a man who divorces his wife? Where, then, are the papers of divorce? Do you think I sold you into captivity like a man who sells his children as slaves? No, you went away captive because of your sins; you were sent away because of your crimes.

²“Why did my people fail to respond when I went to them to save them? Why did they not answer when I called? Am I too weak to save them? I can dry up the sea with a command and turn rivers into a desert, so that the fish in them die for lack of water.

³I can make the sky turn dark, as if it were in mourning for the dead.”

The Obedience of the Lord's Servant

⁴The Sovereign Lord has taught me what to say, so that I can strengthen the weary. Every morning he makes me eager to hear what he is going to teach me.

⁵The Lord has given me understanding, and I have not rebelled or turned away from him.

⁶I bared my back to those who beat me. I did not stop them when they insulted me, when they pulled out the hairs of my beard and spit in my face.

⁷But their insults cannot hurt me because the Sovereign Lord gives me help. I brace myself to endure them. I know that I will not be disgraced,

⁸for God is near, and he will prove me innocent. Does anyone dare bring charges against me? Let us go to court together! Let him bring his accusation!

⁹The Sovereign Lord himself defends me— who, then, can prove me guilty? All my accusers will disappear; they will vanish like moth-eaten cloth.

¹⁰All of you that honor the Lord and obey the words of his servant, the path you walk may be dark indeed, but trust in the Lord, rely on your God.

¹¹All of you that plot to destroy others will be destroyed by your own plots. The Lord himself will make this happen; you will suffer a miserable fate.

The Glory of the Lord Leaves the Temple

¹I looked at the dome over the heads of the living creatures and above them was something that seemed to be a throne made of sapphire.

²God said to the man wearing linen clothes, “Go between the wheels under the creatures and fill your hands with burning coals. Then scatter the coals over the city.” I watched him go.

³The creatures were standing to the south of the Temple when he went in, and a cloud filled the inner courtyard.

⁴The dazzling light of the Lord's presence rose up from the creatures and moved to the entrance of the Temple. Then the cloud filled the Temple, and the courtyard was blazing with the light.

⁵The noise made by the creatures' wings was heard even in the outer courtyard. It sounded like the voice of Almighty God.

⁶When the Lord commanded the man wearing linen clothes to take some fire from between the wheels that were under the creatures, the man went in and stood by one of the wheels.

⁷One of the creatures reached his hand into the fire that was there among them, picked up some coals, and put them in the hands of the man in linen. The man took the coals and left.

⁸I saw that each creature had what looked like a human hand under each of its wings.

^9-10I also saw that there were four wheels, all alike, one beside each creature. The wheels shone like precious stones, and each one had another wheel which intersected it at right angles.

¹¹When the creatures moved, they could go in any direction without turning. They all moved together in the direction they wanted to go, without having to turn around.

¹²Their bodies, backs, hands, wings, and wheels were covered with eyes.

¹³I heard a voice calling out, “Whirling wheels.”

¹⁴Each creature had four faces. The first was the face of a bull, the second a human face, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.

¹⁵(They were the same creatures that I had seen by the Chebar River.) When the creatures rose in the air

¹⁶and moved, the wheels went with them. Whenever they spread their wings to fly, the wheels still went with them.

¹⁷When the creatures stopped, the wheels stopped; and when the creatures flew, the wheels went with them, because the creatures controlled them.

¹⁸Then the dazzling light of the Lord's presence left the entrance of the Temple and moved to a place above the creatures.

¹⁹They spread their wings and flew up from the earth while I was watching, and the wheels went with them. They paused at the east gate of the Temple, and the dazzling light was over them.

²⁰I recognized them as the same creatures which I had seen beneath the God of Israel at the Chebar River.

²¹Each of them had four faces, four wings, and what looked like a human hand under each wing.

²²Their faces looked exactly like the faces I had seen by the Chebar River. Each creature moved straight ahead.

Jerusalem Is Condemned

¹God's spirit lifted me up and took me to the east gate of the Temple. There near the gate I saw twenty-five men, including Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, two leaders of the nation.

²God said to me, “Mortal man, these men make evil plans and give bad advice in this city.

³They say, ‘We will soon be building houses again. The city is like a cooking pot, and we are like the meat in it, but at least it protects us from the fire.’

⁴Now then, denounce them, mortal man.”

⁵The spirit of the Lord took control of me, and the Lord told me to give the people this message: “People of Israel, I know what you are saying and what you are planning.

⁶You have murdered so many people here in the city that the streets are full of corpses.

⁷“So this is what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying to you. This city is a cooking pot all right, but what is the meat? The corpses of those you have killed! You will not be here—I will throw you out of the city!

⁸Are you afraid of swords? I will bring soldiers with swords to attack you.

⁹I will take you out of the city and hand you over to foreigners. I have sentenced you to death,

¹⁰and you will be killed in battle in your own country. Then everyone will know that I am the Lord.

¹¹This city will not protect you the way a pot protects the meat in it. I will punish you wherever you may be in the land of Israel.

¹²You will know that I am the Lord and that while you were keeping the laws of the neighboring nations, you were breaking my laws and disobeying my commands.”

¹³While I was prophesying, Pelatiah dropped dead. I threw myself face downward on the ground and shouted, “No, Sovereign Lord! Are you going to kill everyone left in Israel?”

God's Promise to the Exiles

¹⁴The Lord spoke to me.

¹⁵“Mortal man,” he said, “the people who live in Jerusalem are talking about you and those of your nation who are in exile. They say, ‘The exiles are too far away to worship the Lord. He has given us possession of the land.’

¹⁶“Now tell your fellow exiles what I am saying. I am the one who sent them to live in far-off nations and scattered them in other countries. Yet, for the time being I will be present with them in the lands where they have gone.

¹⁷“So tell them what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying. I will gather them out of the countries where I scattered them, and will give the land of Israel back to them.

¹⁸When they return, they are to get rid of all the filthy, disgusting idols they find.

¹⁹I will give them a new heart and a new mind. I will take away their stubborn heart of stone and will give them an obedient heart.

²⁰Then they will keep my laws and faithfully obey all my commands. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

²¹But I will punish the people who love to worship filthy, disgusting idols. I will punish them for what they have done.” The Sovereign Lord has spoken.

God's Glory Leaves Jerusalem

²²The living creatures began to fly, and the wheels went with them. The dazzling light of the presence of the God of Israel was over them.

²³Then the dazzling light left the city and moved to the mountain east of it.

²⁴In the vision the spirit of God lifted me up and brought me back to the exiles in Babylonia. Then the vision faded,

²⁵and I told the exiles everything that the Lord had shown me.

¹⁷When you tell the truth, justice is done, but lies lead to injustice.

¹⁸Thoughtless words can wound as deeply as any sword, but wisely spoken words can heal.

¹⁹A lie has a short life, but truth lives on forever.

²⁰Those who plan evil are in for a rude surprise, but those who work for good will find happiness.