Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

1 There is coming a king who will reign justly

and princes who will rule uprightly.

2 A man will be like a refuge from the wind,

like protection from a storm,

like streams of water on arid ground,

like a rock cliff shading a weary land.

3 The eyes of those seeing will not be closed,

the ears of those hearing will pay close attention.

4 The minds of the impetuous will learn to weigh carefully,

the tongues of the stutterers will speak readily and clearly.

5 The mean person will no longer be called generous,

or the miserly said to be noble;

6 for the mean person will speak meanness,

his heart planning evil, so that he can act godlessly,

spreading error concerningAdonai,

as he lets the hungry go on starving

and deprives the thirsty of drink.

7 The mean person’s means are mean —

he devises wicked devices

to ruin the poor and needy with lies,

even when their cause is just.

8 But the generous person devises generous things,

and his generosity will keep him standing.

9 You women who are so complacent, listen to me!

Overconfident women, pay attention to my words!

10 In a year and a few days more,

you overconfident women will shudder,

because the vintage will fail,

the harvest will not come.

11 Tremble, you complacent women!

Shudder, you overconfident women!

Strip bare, wear sackcloth to cover yourselves.

12 Beat your breasts in mourning

for the pleasant fields and fruitful vines,

13 for the land of my people, producing thorns and briars,

for all the happy homes in the joyful city.

14 For the palace will be abandoned,

the crowded city deserted,

‘Ofel and fortress wastelands forever,

a delight for wild donkeys and a pasture for flocks —

15 till the Spirit is poured out on us from above,

and the desert becomes a fertile field,

with the fertile field regarded as a forest.

16 Then justice will dwell in the desert,

and righteousness abide in the fertile field.

17 The effect of righteousness will be peace;

the result of righteousness, quiet trust forever.

18 My people will live in a peaceful place,

in secure neighborhoods and tranquil dwellings.

19 Just as the forest will surely come down,

the city will surely be laid low.

20 Happy are you who sow by all streams,

letting oxen and donkeys roam freely.

1 Woe, destroyer, yourself undestroyed!

Woe, betrayer, yourself unbetrayed!

When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed;

when you tire of betraying, they will betray you.

2 Adonai, show us mercy;

we have waited for you.

Be their arm every morning,

and our salvation in time of trouble.

3 At the sound of the tumult, the peoples wander off;

when you exalt yourself, the nations are scattered.

4 Your spoil is gathered as if stripped by shearer-worms;

they run over it like a swarm of locusts.

5 Adonaiis exalted, for he dwells on high;

he has filled Tziyon with justice and right.

6 He will be the stability of your times,

a wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge,

and fear ofAdonai, which is his treasure.

7 Hear their brave men crying out for help!

The envoys of peace weep bitterly.

8 The highways are deserted, there are no travelers.

He has broken the covenant, despised the cities;

he has no regard for human life.

9 The land is mourning and wilting away.

The L’vanon is withering with shame.

The Sharon has become like the ‘Aravah.

Bashan and Karmel have been shaken bare.

10 “Now I will arise,” saysAdonai,

“Now I will exalt and lift myself up.

11 You conceive chaff and give birth to stubble,

your breath is a fire devouring you.

12 The peoples will be as if burned into lime,

like thorns cut off to burn in the fire.

13 You living far off, hear what I have done!

You who are near, acknowledge my strength!”

14 The sinners in Tziyon are frightened;

trembling has seized the ungodly.

“Who of us can live with the devouring fire?

Who of us can live with eternal burning?”

15 He whose life is right and whose speech is straight,

he who scorns getting rich by extortion,

he who shakes his hands free of bribes,

stops his ears against talk of bloodshed

and shuts his eyes against looking at evil.

16 Such a person will live on the heights,

his refuge a fortress among the cliffs,

his food and water in steady supply.

17 Your eyes will see the king in his beauty,

they will gaze on a land stretching into the distance.

18 Your mind will meditate on the terror:

“Where is the man who did the counting?

Where is the man who did the weighing?

Where is the man who numbered the towers?”

19 You will not see the intransigent people,

that people whose language is so obscure,

whose stuttering speech you cannot understand.

20 Look at Tziyon, the city of our festivals;

your eyes will see Yerushalayim a secure abode,

a tent that will not be removed,

whose pegs will never be pulled out

and whose guy-ropes will not be cut.

21 But there in his splendorAdonaiwill be with us,

in a place of rivers and broad streams.

But no boat with oars will go there,

no majestic ship will pass by.

22 ForAdonaiis our judge,Adonaiis our lawgiver,

Adonaiis our king. He will save us.

23 For your ropes are hanging loose,

not holding the mast, not spreading the sail.

Then the plunder shared out is so huge

that even the lame get part of the spoil.

24 No inhabitant will say, “I am ill”;

the people living there will be forgiven their sin.

1 Come close, you nations, and listen!

Pay close attention, you peoples!

Let the earth hear, and everything in it;

the world, with all it produces.

2 ForAdonaiis angry at every nation,

furious with all their armies;

he has completely destroyed them,

handed them over to slaughter.

3 Their slain will be thrown out,

the stench will rise from their corpses,

the mountains will flow with their blood.

4 The whole host of heaven will decompose,

the heavens themselves be rolled up like a scroll;

all their array will wither away

like a withering grape-leaf that falls from a vine

or a withered fig from a fig tree.

5 “For my sword has drunk its fill in heaven;

now it descends on Edom to judge them,

the people I have doomed to destruction.”

6 There is a sword that belongs toAdonai.

It is filled with blood, gorged with fat,

filled with the blood of lambs and goats,

gorged with the fat of the kidneys of rams.

ForAdonaihas a sacrifice in Botzrah,

a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

7 The wild oxen will fall with them,

the young bulls with the strong, mature ones.

Their land will be drunk with blood

and their dust made greasy with fat.

8 ForAdonaihas a day of vengeance,

a year of requital for fighting with Tziyon.

9 Its streams will be changed to tar,

its dust to sulfur, its land burning tar

10 that will not be quenched night or day;

its smoke will rise forever.

In all generations it will lie waste;

no one will pass through it ever again.

11 Horned owl and hawk will possess it,

screech owl and raven will live there;

he will stretch over it the measuring line of confusion

and the plumbline of the empty void.

12 Of its nobles, none will be called to be king,

and all its princes will be nothing.

13 Thorns will overgrow its palaces,

nettles and thistles its fortresses;

it will become a lair for jackals,

an enclosure for ostriches.

14 Wildcats and hyenas will meet there;

and billy-goats call to each other;

Lilit [the night monster] will lurk there

and find herself a place to rest.

15 There the hoot owl will nest, lay her eggs,

hatch and gather her young in its shade.

There the vultures will assemble,

every one with its mate.

16 Consult the book ofAdonaiand read it:

not one of these will be missing,

none will be lacking a mate.

For by his own mouth he gave the order,

and by his Spirit he brought them together.

17 It is he who cast the lot for them,

his hand measured out their shares.

They will possess it forever,

and live there through all generations.

1 The desert and the dry land will be glad;

the ‘Aravah will rejoice and blossom like the lily.

2 It will burst into flower,

will rejoice with joy and singing,

will be given the glory of the L’vanon,

the splendor of Karmel and the Sharon.

They will see the glory ofAdonai,

the splendor of our God.

3 Strengthen your drooping arms,

and steady your tottering knees.

4 Say to the fainthearted, “Be strong and unafraid!

Here is your God; he will come with vengeance;

with God’s retribution he will come and save you.”

5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,

and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped;

6 then the lame man will leap like a deer,

and the mute person’s tongue will sing.

For in the desert, springs will burst forth,

streams of water in the ‘Aravah;

7 the sandy mirage will become a pool,

the thirsty ground springs of water.

The haunts where jackals lie down will become

a marsh filled with reeds and papyrus.

8 A highway will be there, a way,

called the Way of Holiness.

The unclean will not pass over it,

but it will be for those whom he guides —

fools will not stray along it.

9 No lion or other beast of prey

will be there, traveling on it.

They will not be found there,

but the redeemed will go there.

10 Those ransomed byAdonaiwill return

and come with singing to Tziyon,

on their heads will be everlasting joy.

They will acquire gladness and joy,

while sorrow and sighing will flee.

1 It was in the fourteenth year of King Hizkiyahu that Sancheriv king of Ashur advanced against all the fortified cities of Y’hudah and captured them.

2 From Lakhish the king of Ashur sent Rav-Shakeh to Hizkiyahu in Yerushalayim with a large army. He positioned himself by the aqueduct from the Upper Pool, which is by the road to the Launderers’ Field.

3 Elyakim the son of Hilkiyahu, who was in charge of the household, Shevnah the general secretary and Yo’ach the son of Asaf the foreign minister went out to meet him.

4 Rav-Shakeh addressed them: “Tell Hizkiyahu: ‘Here is what the great king, the king of Ashur, says: “What makes you so confident?

5 I say: do mere words constitute strategy and strength for battle? In whom, then, are you trusting when you rebel against me like this?

6 Look! Relying on Egypt is like using a broken stick as a staff — when you lean on it, it punctures your hand. That’s what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like for anyone who puts his trust in him.

7 But if you tell me, ‘We trust inAdonaiour God,’ then isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hizkiyahu has removed, telling Y’hudah and Yerushalayim, ‘You must worship before this altar’?

8 All right, then, make a wager with my lord the king of Ashur: I will give you two thousand horses if you can find enough riders for them.

9 How then can you repulse even one of my master’s lowest-ranked army officers? Yet you are relying on Egypt for chariots and riders!

10 Do you think I have come up to this land to destroy it withoutAdonai’s approval?Adonaisaid to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it!’ ” ’ ”

11 Elyakim, Shevnah and Yo’ach said to Rav-Shakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it; don’t speak to us in Hebrew while the people on the wall are listening.”

12 But Rav-Shakeh answered, “Did my master send me to deliver my message just to your master and yourselves? Didn’t he send me to address the men sitting on the wall, who, like you, are going to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”

13 Then Rav-Shakeh stood up and, speaking loudly in Hebrew, said: “Hear what the great king, the king of Ashur, says!

14 This is what the king says: ‘Don’t let Hizkiyahu deceive you, because he won’t be able to save you.

15 And don’t let Hizkiyahu make you trust inAdonaiby saying, “Adonaiwill surely save us; this city will not be given over to the king of Ashur.”

16 Don’t listen to Hizkiyahu.’ For this is what the king says: ‘Make peace with me, surrender to me. Then every one of you can eat from his vine and fig tree and drink the water in his own cistern,

17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land with grain and wine, a land with bread and vineyards.

18 Beware of Hizkiyahu; he is only deluding you when he says, “Adonaiwill save us.” Has any god of any nation ever saved his land from the power of the king of Ashur?

19 Where are the gods of Hamat and Arpad? Where are the gods of S’farvayim? Did they save Shomron from my power?

20 Where is the god of any of these countries that has saved its country from my power, so thatAdonaimight be able to save Yerushalayim from my power?’”

21 But they kept still and didn’t answer him so much as a word, for the king’s order was, “Don’t answer him.”

22 Then Elyakim the son of Hilkiyahu, who was in charge of the household, Shevnah the general secretary and Yo’ach the son of Asaf the foreign minister went to Hizkiyahu with their clothes torn and reported to him what Rav-Shakeh had said.

1 On hearing it, King Hizkiyahu tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house ofAdonai.

2 He sent Elyakim, who was in charge of the household, Shevnah the general secretary and the leadingcohanim, covered with sackcloth, to Yesha‘yahu the prophet, the son of Amotz.

3 They said to him, “This is what Hizkiyahu says: ‘Today is a day of trouble, rebuke and disgrace. Children are ready to be born, but there is no strength to bring them to birth.

4 MaybeAdonaiyour God will hear the words of Rav-Shakeh, whom his master the king of Ashur has sent to taunt the living God, and will rebuke the message whichAdonaiyour God has heard. So pray for the remnant that is left.’”

5 When King Hizkiyahu’s servants came to Yesha‘yahu,

6 he said to them, “Tell your master that this is whatAdonaisays: ‘Don’t be afraid of the words you heard the servants of the king of Ashur use to insult me.

7 I will put a spirit in him that will make him hear a rumor and return to his own land; then I will cause him to die by the sword in his own land.’”

8 Rav-Shakeh returned and, having heard that the king of Ashur had left Lakhish, found him making war with Livnah.

9 Then he heard it said that Tirhakah king of Ethiopia was on his way to fight him. On hearing this, the king of Ashur sent messengers to Hizkiyahu, after ordering them,

10 “This is what you are to say to Hizkiyahu king of Y’hudah: ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you by saying, “Yerushalayim will not be handed over to the power of the king of Ashur.”

11 You have heard what the kings of Ashur have done to all lands — they have completely destroyed them. So how will you be delivered?

12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them? No, my ancestors destroyed them — Gozan, Haran, Retzef and the people of ‘Eden who were in Tel’asar.

13 Where is the king of Hamat? the king of Arpad? the king of the city of S’farvayim, of Hena and ‘Ivah?’”

14 Hizkiyahu took the letter from the messengers’ hands and read it. Then Hizkiyahu went up to the house ofAdonaiand spread it out beforeAdonai.

15 This is the prayer that Hizkiyahu prayed toAdonai:

16 “Adonai-Tzva’ot, God of Isra’el, who dwells above thek’ruvim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms on earth. You made heaven and earth.

17 Turn your ear,Adonai, and hear! Open your eyes,Adonai, and see! Hear all the words that Sancheriv sent to taunt the living God.

18 It is true that the kings of Ashur have laid waste all the countries and their lands

19 and have thrown their gods into the fire. For those were non-gods, merely the products of people’s hands, wood and stone; this is why they could destroy them.

20 Now therefore,Adonaiour God, save us from his power — so that all the kingdoms on earth will know that you areAdonai— you only.”

21 Then Yesha‘yahu the son of Amotz sent this message to Hizkiyahu: “Adonaithe God of Isra’el says: ‘You prayed to me against Sancheriv king of Ashur.’

22 Here isAdonai’s answer concerning him:

“ ‘The virgin daughter of Tziyon

despises you; she laughs you to scorn.

The daughter of Yerushalayim

shakes her head at you.

23 Whom have you taunted and insulted?

Against whom have you raised your voice

and haughtily lifted your eyes?

The Holy One of Isra’el!

24 “ ‘Through your servants you tauntedAdonai.

You said, “With my many chariots

I have ascended the mountain heights

even in the far reaches of the L’vanon.

I cut down its tall cedars

and its best cypress trees.

I reached its remotest heights

and its best forests.

25 I dug [wells] and drank the water.

The soles of my [soldiers’] feet

dried up all the rivers of Egypt.”

26 “ ‘Haven’t you heard? Long ago I made it;

in antiquity I produced it;

and now I am making it happen:

you are turning fortified cities

into heaps of ruins,

27 while their inhabitants, shorn of power,

are disheartened and ashamed,

weak as grass, frail as plants,

like grass on the rooftops

or grain scorched by the east wind.

28 “ ‘But I know when you sit, when you leave,

when you enter — and when you rage against me.

29 And because of your rage against me,

because of your pride that has reached my ears,

I am putting my hook in your nose

and my bridle on your lips;

and I will make you return

by the way on which you came.

30 “ ‘This will be the sign for you [people of Isra’el]: this year, you will eat the grain that grows of itself; the second year, you will eat what grows from that; but in the third year, you will sow, reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

31 “ ‘Meanwhile, the remnant

of the house of Y’hudah that has escaped

will again take root downward

and bear fruit upward;

32 for a remnant will go out from Yerushalayim,

those escaping will go out from Mount Tziyon.

The zeal ofAdonai-Tzva’ot

will accomplish this.’

33 “Therefore this is whatAdonaisays concerning the king of Ashur:

“ ‘He will not come to this city

or even shoot an arrow there;

he will not confront it with a shield

or erect earthworks against it.

34 “ ‘By the way he came he will return;

he will not come to this city,’

saysAdonai.

35 ‘For I will defend this city and save it, both for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake.’ ”

36 Then the angel ofAdonaiwent out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of Ashur. Early the next morning, there they were, all of them, corpses — dead.

37 So Sancheriv king of Ashur left, went and returned to live in Ninveh.

38 One day, as he was worshipping in the temple of Nisrokh his god, his sons Adramelekh and Shar’etzer struck him with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. So his son Esar-Hadon took his place as king.

1 Around this time Hizkiyahu became ill to the point of death. Yesha‘yahu the prophet, the son of Amotz, came and said to him, “Here is whatAdonaisays: ‘Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not live.’”

2 Hizkiyahu turned his face toward the wall and prayed toAdonai:

3 “I plead with you,Adonai, remember now how I have lived before you truly and wholeheartedly, and how I have done what you see as good.” And he cried bitter tears.

4 Then the word ofAdonaicame to Yesha‘yahu:

5 “Go and tell Hizkiyahu that this is whatAdonai, the God of David your ancestor, says: ‘I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; therefore I will add fifteen years to your life.

6 Also I will rescue you and this city from the power of the king of Ashur; I will defend this city.

7 The sign for you fromAdonaithatAdonaiwill do what he said is

8 that I will cause the shadow of the sundial, which has started going down on the sundial of Achaz, to go backward ten intervals.’” So the sun went back ten intervals of the distance it had already gone down.

9 After Hizkiyahu king of Y’hudah had been ill and had recovered, he wrote the following:

10 “I once said: ‘In the prime of life

I am going off to the gates of Sh’ol.

I am being deprived of living out

the full span of my life.’

11 “I said, ‘I will never again seeYah,

Yahin the land of the living;

I will look on human beings no more

or be with those who live in this world.

12 My home is uprooted and taken away

from me like a shepherd’s tent.

Like a weaver, I have rolled up my life;

he cuts me off from the loom.

Between day and night you could finish me off.

13 I try to be strong like a lion till morning,

but still my illness breaks all my bones —

between day and night you could finish me off.

14 I make little chattering sounds like a swallow,

I moan aloud like a dove,

My eyes are weary with looking upward.

Adonai, I am overwhelmed; guarantee my life!’

15 “What is there that I can say?

He has spoken to me and acted!

I will go humbly all my years,

remembering how bitter I was.

16 Adonai, by these things people live;

in all these is the life of my spirit.

You’re restoring my health and giving me life —

17 though instead of peace, I felt very bitter.

You desired my life and preserved it

from the nothingness pit;

for you threw all my sins behind your back.

18 “Sh’ol cannot thank you, death cannot praise you;

those descending to the pit cannot hope for your truth.

19 The living, the living — they can thank you,

as I do today;

fathers will make their children know

about your faithfulness.

20 Adonaiis ready to save me;

hence we will make our stringed instruments sound

all the days of our life

in the house ofAdonai.”

21 Then Yesha‘yahu said, “Have them take a fig-plaster and apply it to the inflammation, and he will recover.”

22 Hizkiyahu asked, “What sign will there be that I will be able to go up to the house ofAdonai?”

1 M’rodakh-Bal’adan the son of Bal’adan, king of Bavel, heard that Hizkiyahu had been ill and had recovered, so he sent a letter and a gift to him.

2 Hizkiyahu was pleased with the gifts and showed the messengers all of the building where he kept his treasures, including the silver, gold, spices and precious oils; also all of the building where he kept his armor; and everything in his treasury — there was nothing in his palace or in his entire domain that Hizkiyahu did not show them.

3 Then Yesha‘yahu the prophet came to King Hizkiyahu and asked him, “What did these men say? Where did they come from?” Hizkiyahu answered, “They came to me from a distant country, Bavel.”

4 Yesha‘yahu asked, “What have they seen in your palace?” “They have seen everything in my palace,” said Hizkiyahu. “There isn’t a thing among my treasures that I haven’t shown them.”

5 Yesha‘yahu said to Hizkiyahu, “Hear whatAdonai-Tzva’otsays:

6 ‘The day will come when everything in your palace, along with everything your ancestors stored up until today, will be carried off to Bavel. Nothing will be left,’ saysAdonai.

7 ‘They will carry off some of your descendants, your own offspring; and they will be made eunuchs serving in the palace of the king of Bavel.”

8 Hizkiyahu said to Yesha‘yahu, “The word ofAdonaiwhich you have just told me is good”; because he thought, “At least peace and truth will continue during my lifetime.”

1 “Comfort and keep comforting my people,” says your God.

2 “Tell Yerushalayim to take heart; proclaim to her

that she has completed her time of service,

that her guilt has been paid off,

that she has received at the hand ofAdonai

double for all her sins.”

3 A voice cries out:

“Clear a road through the desert forAdonai!

Level a highway in the ‘Aravah for our God!

4 Let every valley be filled in,

every mountain and hill lowered,

the bumpy places made level

and the crags become a plain.

5 Then the glory ofAdonaiwill be revealed;

all humankind together will see it,

for the mouth ofAdonaihas spoken.”

6 A voice says, “Proclaim!”

And I answer, “What should I proclaim?”

“All humanity is merely grass,

all its kindness like wildflowers:

7 the grass dries up, the flower fades,

when a wind fromAdonaiblows on it.

Surely the people are grass!

8 The grass dries up, the flower fades;

but the word of our God will stand forever.”

9 You who bring good news to Tziyon,

get yourself up on a high mountain;

you who bring good news to Yerushalayim,

cry out at the top of your voice!

Don’t be afraid to shout out loud!

Say to the cities of Y’hudah,

“Here is your God!

10 Here comesAdonaiElohimwith power,

and his arm will rule for him.

Look! His reward is with him,

and his recompense is before him.

11 He is like a shepherd feeding his flock,

gathering his lambs with his arm,

carrying them against his chest,

gently leading the mother sheep.”

12 Who has counted the handfuls of water in the sea,

measured off the sky with a ruler,

gauged how much dust there is on the earth,

weighed the mountains on scales, or the hills in a balance?

13 Who has measured the Spirit ofAdonai?

Who has been his counselor, instructing him?

14 Whom did he consult, to gain understanding?

Who taught him how to judge,

taught him what he needed to know,

showed him how to discern?

15 The nations are like a drop in a bucket,

they count like a grain of dust on the scales.

The islands weigh as little as specks of dust.

16 The L’vanon would not suffice for fuel

or its animals be enough for burnt offerings.

17 Before him all the nations are like nothing.

He regards them as less than nothing.

18 With whom, then, will you compare God?

By what standard will you evaluate him?

19 An image made by a craftsman,

which a goldsmith overlays with gold,

for which he then casts silver chains?

20 A man too poor to afford an offering

chooses a piece of wood that won’t rot,

then seeks out a skilled artisan

to prepare an image that won’t fall over.

21 Don’t you know? Don’t you hear?

Haven’t you been told from the start?

Don’t you understand how the earth is set up?

22 He who sits above the circle of the earth —

for whom its inhabitants appear like grasshoppers —

stretches out the heavens like a curtain,

spreads them out like a tent to live in.

23 He reduces princes to nothing,

the rulers of the earth to emptiness.

24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,

scarcely their stem taken root in the ground,

when he blows on them, they dry up,

and the whirlwind carries them off like straw.

25 “With whom, then, will you compare me?

With whom am I equal?” asks the Holy One.

26 Turn your eyes to the heavens!

See who created these?

He brings out the army of them in sequence,

summoning each by name.

Through his great might and his massive strength,

not one of them is missing.

27 Why do you complain, Ya‘akov;

why do you say, Isra’el,

“My way is hidden fromAdonai,

my rights are ignored by my God”?

28 Haven’t you known, haven’t you heard

that the everlasting God,Adonai,

the Creator of the ends of the earth,

does not grow tired or weary?

His understanding cannot be fathomed.

29 He invigorates the exhausted,

he gives strength to the powerless.

30 Young men may grow tired and weary,

even the fittest may stumble and fall;

31 but those who hope inAdonaiwill renew their strength,

they will soar aloft as with eagles’ wings;

when they are running they won’t grow weary,

when they are walking they won’t get tired.

1 “Keep silence before me, coastlands!

Let the peoples replenish their strength!

Let them approach; then let them speak.

Let us assemble for judgment.”

2 Who has raised from the east one who is just

and called him to be in his service?

He hands nations over to him

and subjects kings to him;

his sword reduces them to dust,

his bow to driven straw.

3 He pursues them, passing on unscathed,

hardly touching the path with his feet.

4 Whose work is this? Who has brought it about?

He who called the generations from the beginning,

“I,Adonai, am the first;

and I am the same with those who are last.”

5 The coastlands have seen and became afraid.

The ends of the earth have trembled.

They have approached, and now they have come.

6 Every one helps his fellow workman,

everyone says to his brother, “Be strong!”

7 The woodworker encourages the goldsmith,

the polisher encourages the hammerer;

he says of the soldering, “Yes, that’s good,”

then puts nails in [the idol] to keep it from moving.

8 “But you, Isra’el, my servant;

Ya‘akov, whom I have chosen,

descendants of Avraham my friend,

9 I have taken you from the ends of the earth,

summoned you from its most distant parts

and said to you, ‘You are my servant’ —

I have chosen you, not rejected you.

10 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you;

don’t be distressed, for I am your God.

I give you strength, I give you help,

I support you with my victorious right hand.

11 All those who were angry with you

will be disgraced, put to shame;

those who fought against you

will be destroyed, brought to nothing.

12 You will seek them but not find them,

those who contended with you;

yes, those who made war with you

will be brought to nothing, nothing at all.

13 For I,Adonai, your God,

say to you, as I hold your right hand,

‘Have no fear; I will help you.

14 Have no fear, Ya‘akov, you worm,

you men of Isra’el!’

I will help you,” saysAdonai;

“Your redeemer is the Holy One of Isra’el.

15 “I will make you into a threshing-sledge,

new, with sharp, pointed teeth,

to thresh the mountains and crush them to dust,

to reduce the hills to chaff.

16 As you fan them, the wind will carry them off,

and the whirlwind will scatter them.

Then you will rejoice inAdonai,

you will glory in the Holy One of Isra’el.

17 “The poor and needy look for water in vain;

their tongues are parched with thirst.

I,Adonai, will answer them.

I, the God of Isra’el, will not leave them.

18 I will open up rivers on the barren hills

and wells down in the broad valleys.

I will turn the desert into a lake

and dry ground into springs.

19 I will plant the desert with cedars,

acacias, myrtles and olive trees;

In the ‘Aravah I will put cypresses

together with elm trees and larches.”

20 Then the people will see and know,

together observe and understand

that the hand ofAdonaihas done this,

that the Holy One of Isra’el created it.

21 “Present your case,” saysAdonai,

“Produce your arguments,” says Ya‘akov’s king.

22 Bring out those idols!

Have them foretell the future for us,

tell us about past events,

so that we can reflect on them

and understand their consequences.

Or tell us about events yet to come,

23 state what will happen in the future,

so that we can know you are gods.

At least, do something, either good or bad —

anything, to make us awestruck and fearful!

24 You can’t! — because you are less than nothing.

Whoever chooses you is an abomination!

25 “I roused someone from the north,

and he has come from the rising sun;

he will call on my name.

He will trample on rulers as if they were mud,

like a potter treading clay.”

26 Who said this at the start, so we could know,

or foretold it, so we could say, “He’s right”?

In fact, no one said it; no one foretold it —

the fact is, nobody hears what you say.

27 I am the first to declare it to Tziyon,

to send Yerushalayim a messenger with good news.

28 But when I look around, there is no one —

not a single one can give counsel,

who, when I ask, can give an answer.

29 Look at them all! What they do is nothing!

Their idols are so much wind and waste.