Isaiah 45
1The 1
2“ I 2 and make the rough places smooth. 1 I will break the doors of bronze in pieces 2 and cut apart the bars of iron. 1
3I 2 and hidden riches of secret places, 1 that you may know that it is I, the LORD, who calls you by your name, 2 even the God of Israel. 1
4For 2 and Israel my chosen, 1 I have called you by your name. 2 I have given you a title, 2 though you have not known me. 1
5I 2 Besides me, there is no God. 1 I will strengthen + 45:5 or, equip you, 2 though you have not known me, 1
6that 2 and from the west, 1 that there is no one besides me. 2 I am the LORD, and there is no one else. 1
7I 2 and create darkness. 1 I make peace 2 and create calamity. 1 I am the LORD, 2 who does all these things. 1
8Rain 2 and let the skies pour down righteousness. 1 Let the earth open, that it may produce salvation, 2 and let it cause righteousness to spring up with it. 1 I, the LORD, have created it. 1
9Woe 2 a clay pot amongst the clay pots of the earth! 1 Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘ What are you making?’ 2 or your work, ‘ He has no hands’? 1
10Woe 2 or to a mother, ‘ What have you given birth to?’” 1
11The 2 and his Maker says: 1 “ You ask me about the things that are to come, concerning my sons, 2 and you command me concerning the work of my hands! 1
12I 2 I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens. 2 I have commanded all their army. 1
13I 2 and I will make all his ways straight. 1 He shall build my city, 2 and he shall let my exiles go free, 2 not for price nor reward,” says the LORD of Hosts. 1
14The 2 and the merchandise of Ethiopia, 2 and the Sabeans, men of stature, will come over to you, 2 and they will be yours. 1 They will go after you. 2 They shall come over in chains. 2 They will bow down to you. 1 They will make supplication to you: 2 ‘ Surely God is in you; and there is no one else. 2 There is no other god. 1
15Most certainly you 2 God of Israel, the Saviour.’” 1
16They 2 yes, confounded, all of them. 2 Those who are makers of idols will go into confusion together. 1
17Israel 2 You will not be disappointed nor confounded to ages everlasting. 1
18For 2 the God who formed the earth and made it, 2 who established it and didn’t create it a waste, 2 who formed it to be inhabited says: 1 “ I am the LORD. 2 There is no other. 1
19I 2 in a place of the land of darkness. 1 I didn’t say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘ Seek me in vain.’ 2 I, the LORD, speak righteousness. 2 I declare things that are right. 1
20“ Assemble 2 Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. 1 Those have no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image, 2 and pray to a god that can’t save. 1
21Declare 2 Yes, let them take counsel together. 1 Who has shown this from ancient time? 2 Who has declared it of old? 2 Haven’t I, the LORD? 1 There is no other God besides me, a just God and a Saviour. 2 There is no one besides me. 1
22“ Look 2 for I am God, and there is no other. 1
23I 2 The word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and will not be revoked, 1 that to me every knee shall bow, 2 every tongue shall take an oath. 1
24They 2 ‘ There is righteousness and strength only in the LORD.’” 1 Even to him will men come. 2 All those who raged against him will be disappointed. 1
25All 2 and will rejoice!