Isaiah 45

¹ Thus says Yahweh to his anointed, to Cyrus, whom he has taken by his right hand to subdue nations before him and strip the loins of kings,[*a] to force gateways before him that their gates be closed no more:

² I will go before you levelling the heights. I will shatter the bronze gateways, smash the iron bars.

³ I will give you the hidden treasures, the secret hoards, that you may know that I am Yahweh, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.

⁴ It is for the sake of my servant Jacob, of Israel my chosen one, that I have called you by your name, conferring a title though you do not know me.

⁵ I am Yahweh, unrivalled; there is no other God besides me. Though you do not know me, I arm you

⁶ that men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that, apart from me, all is nothing.

⁷ I form the light and create the dark. I make good fortune and create calamity, it is I, Yahweh, who do all this.

⁸ Send victory like a dew, you heavens, and let the clouds rain it down. Let the earth open for salvation to spring up. Let deliverance, too, bud forth which I, Yahweh, shall create.

⁹ Can it argue with the man who fashioned it, one vessel among earthen vessels? Does the clay say to its fashioner, ‘What are you making?’, does the thing he shaped say, ‘You have no skill’?

¹⁰ Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What have you begotten?’ or to a woman, ‘To what have you given birth?’

¹¹ Thus says Yahweh, the Holy One, he who fashions Israel: Is it for you to question me about my children and to dictate to me what my hands should do?

¹² I it was who made the earth, and created man who is on it. I it was who spread out the heavens with my hands and now give orders to their whole array.

¹³ I it was who roused him to victory, I levelled the way for him. He will rebuild my city, will bring my exiles back without ransom or indemnity, so says Yahweh Sabaoth.

¹⁴ Thus says Yahweh: The peasants of Egypt and the traders of Cush, and the tall men of Seba, will submit to you and be yours; they will follow you in chains. They will bow down before you, they will pray to you: ‘With you alone is God, and he has no rival; there is no other god’.

¹⁵ Truly, God is hidden with you, the God of Israel, the saviour.

¹⁶ Those who opposed you will be disgraced and humiliated; the makers of idols will go away confounded.

¹⁷ Israel will be saved by Yahweh, saved everlastingly. You will never be disgraced or humiliated for ever and ever.

¹⁸ Yes, thus says Yahweh, creator of the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who set it firm, created it no chaos, but a place to be lived in:

¹⁹ ‘I am Yahweh, unrivalled, I have not spoken in secret in some corner of a darkened land. I have not said to Jacob’s descendants, “Seek me in chaos”. I, Yahweh, speak with directness I express myself with clarity.’

²⁰ Assemble, come, gather together, survivors of the nations. They are ignorant, those who carry about their idol of wood, those who pray to a god that cannot save.

²¹ Speak up, present your case, consult with each other. ‘Who foretold this and revealed it in the past? Am I not Yahweh? There is no other god besides me, a God of integrity and a saviour; there is none apart from me.

²² Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God unrivalled.

²³ ‘By my own self I swear it; what comes from my mouth is truth, a word irrevocable: before me every knee shall bend, by me every tongue shall swear,

²⁴ saying, “From Yahweh alone come victory and strength”. To him shall come, ashamed, all who raged against him.

²⁵ Victorious and glorious through Yahweh shall be all the descendants of Israel.’