God Uses Cyrus
1This is what the Lord says to Cyrus His anointed,
Whom I have taken by the right hand,
To subdue nations before him
And Lit I will looseto undo the weapons belt on the waist of kings;
To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:
2“I will go before you and make the Another reading is mountainsrough places smooth;
I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars.
3I will give you the Or hoarded treasurestreasures of darkness
And hidden wealth of secret places,
So that you may know that it is I,
The Lord, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.
4For the sake of Jacob My servant,
And Israel My chosen one,
I have also called you by your name;
I have given you a title of honor
Though you have not known Me.
5I am the Lord, and there is no one else;
There is no God except Me.
I will Or embracearm you, though you have not known Me,
6So that people may know from the rising to the setting of the sun
That there is no one besides Me.
I am the Lord, and there is no one else,
7The One forming light and creating darkness,
Causing Or peacewell-being and creating disaster;
I am the Lord who does all these things.
God’s Supreme Power
8“Drip down, heavens, from above,
And let the clouds pour down righteousness;
Let the earth open up and salvation bear fruit,
And righteousness sprout with it.
I, the Lord, have created it.
A piece of pottery Lit withamong the other earthenware pottery pieces!
Will the clay say to the Lit he who formed himpotter, ‘What are you doing?’
Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’?
10Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you fathering?’
Or to a woman, ‘To what are you Lit in labor pains withgiving birth?’ ”
“Or Will you askAsk Me about the things to come Or uponconcerning My sons,
And you shall commit to Me the work of My hands.
12It is I who made the earth, and created mankind upon it.
I stretched out the heavens with My hands,
And I Or commandedordained all their Lit host; i.e., sun, stars, etc.lights.
13I have stirred him in righteousness,
And I will make all his ways smooth.
He will build My city and let My exiles go free,
Without any payment or reward,” says the Lord of armies.
14This is what the Lord says:
“The Lit laborproducts of Egypt and the merchandise of Or EthiopiaCush
And the Sabeans, men of stature,
Will come over to you and will be yours;
They will walk behind you, they will come over in chains
And will bow down to you;
They will plead with you:
‘Or God is with you aloneGod certainly is Or inwith you, and there is no one else,
No other God.’ ”
15Truly, You are a God who hides Himself,
God of Israel, Savior!
16They will be put to shame and even humiliated, all of them;
The manufacturers of idols will go away together in humiliation.
17Israel has been saved by the Lord
With an everlasting salvation;
You will not be put to shame or humiliated
To all eternity.
18For this is what the Lord says, He who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it LXX in vainas a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited):
“I am the Lord, and there is no one else.
19I have not spoken in secret,
In Lit a place of a land of darknesssome dark land;
I did not say to the Lit seedoffspring of Jacob,
‘Seek Me in Or vaina wasteland’;
I, the Lord, speak righteousness,
Declaring things that are right.
20“Gather yourselves and come;
Come together, you survivors of the nations!
They have no knowledge,
Who carry around Lit the wood of their carved imagetheir wooden idol
And pray to a god who cannot save.
21Declare and present your case;
Indeed, let them consult together.
Who has announced this long ago?
Who has long since declared it?
Is it not I, the Lord?
And there is no other God besides Me,
A righteous God and a Savior;
There is none except Me.
22Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth;
For I am God, and there is no other.
23I have sworn by Myself;
The word has gone out from My mouth in righteousness
And will not turn back,
That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.
24They will say of Me, ‘Only in the Lord are righteousness and strength.’
People will come to Him,
And all who were angry at Him will be put to shame.
25In the Lord all the offspring of Israel
Will be justified and will boast.”
New American Standard Bible
Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020
by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved.
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