Isaiah, starting at chapter 46 {46:1} Bel bows down, Nebo stoops; their idols are on the animals, and on the livestock: the things that you carried about are made a load, a burden to the weary [animal]. {46:2} They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity. {46:3} "Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, that have been borne [by me] from their birth, that have been carried from the womb; {46:4} and even to old age I am he, and even to gray hairs will I carry you. I have made, and I will bear; yes, I will carry, and will deliver. {46:5} "To whom will you liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like? {46:6} Some pour out gold from the bag, and weigh silver in the balance. They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god. They fall down--yes, they worship. {46:7} They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it, and set it in its place, and it stands, from its place it shall not move: yes, one may cry to it, yet it can not answer, nor save him out of his trouble. {46:8} "Remember this, and show yourselves men; bring it again to mind, you transgressors. {46:9} Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; [I am] God, and there is none like me; {46:10} declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not [yet] done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure; {46:11} calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country; yes, I have spoken, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed, I will also do it. {46:12} Listen to me, you stout-hearted, who are far from righteousness: {46:13} I bring near my righteousness, it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not wait; and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory. {47:1} "Come down, and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Kasdim: for you shall no more be called tender and delicate. {47:2} Take the millstones, and grind meal; remove your veil, strip off the train, uncover the leg, pass through the rivers. {47:3} Your nakedness shall be uncovered, yes, your shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and will spare no man." {47:4} Our Redeemer, the LORD of Hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel. {47:5} "Sit in silence, and go into darkness, daughter of the Kasdim; for you shall no more be called the mistress of kingdoms. {47:6} I was angry with my people, I profaned my inheritance, and gave them into your hand: you showed them no mercy; on the aged you have very heavily laid your yoke. {47:7} You said, I shall be mistress forever; so that you did not lay these things to your heart, neither did remember the latter end of it. {47:8} "Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, I am, and there is none else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children: {47:9} but these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood; in their full measure shall they come on you, in the multitude of your sorceries, and the great abundance of your enchantments. {47:10} For you have trusted in your wickedness; you have said, No one sees me; your wisdom and your knowledge, it has perverted you, and you have said in your heart, I am, and there is none else besides me. {47:11} Therefore evil will come on you; you won't know when it dawns: and mischief wil fall on you; you will not be able to put it away: and desolation shall come on you suddenly, which you don't know. {47:12} "Stand now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth; if so be you shall be able to profit, if so be you may prevail. {47:13} You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels: let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save you from the things that shall come on you. {47:14} Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: it shall not be a coal to warm at, nor a fire to sit before. {47:15} Thus shall the things be to you in which you have labored: those who have trafficked with you from your youth shall wander everyone to his quarter; there shall be none to save you. {48:1} "Hear this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and have come forth out of the waters of Judah; who swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness {48:2} (for they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; the LORD of Hosts is his name): {48:3} I have declared the former things from of old; yes, they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them: suddenly I did them, and they happened. {48:4} Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow brass; {48:5} therefore I have declared it to you from of old; before it came to pass I showed it to you; lest you should say, 'My idol has done them, and my engraved image, and my molten image, has commanded them.' {48:6} You have heard it; see all this; and you, will you not declare it? "I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, which you have not known. {48:7} They are created now, and not from of old; and before this day you didn't hear them; lest you should say, 'Behold, I knew them.' {48:8} Yes, you didn't hear; yes, you didn't know; yes, from of old your ear was not opened: for I knew that you did deal very treacherously, and was called a transgressor from the womb. {48:9} For my name's sake will I defer my anger, and for my praise will I refrain for you, that I not cut you off. {48:10} Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction. {48:11} For my own sake, for my own sake, will I do it; for how should [my name] be profaned? and my glory I will not give to another. {48:12} "Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel my called: I am he; I am the first, I also am the last. {48:13} Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spread out the heavens: when I call to them, they stand up together. {48:14} "Assemble yourselves, all you, and hear; who among them has declared these things? He whom the LORD loves shall perform his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm [shall be on] the Kasdim. {48:15} I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him; I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.
{48:16} "Come near to me and hear this: "From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it was, there am I." Now the Lord GOD has sent me, with his Spirit. {48:17} Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go. {48:18} Oh that you had listened to my commandments! then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea: {48:19} your seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of your body like its grains: his name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me. {48:20} Go forth from Babylon, flee from the Kasdim; with a voice of singing declare, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth: say, the LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob. {48:21} They didn't thirst when he led them through the deserts; he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them; he split the rock also, and the waters gushed out. {48:22} "There is no peace," says the LORD, "for the wicked." ________________________________________________________________________ The World English Bible: Messianic Edition is in the Public Domain. This translation is also known as the Hebrew Names Version. "World English Bible," "World English Bible: Messianic Edition," and "World English Bible" are trademarks of Rainbow Missions, Inc., and may only be used as names for the Bible translations so named and distributed by Rainbow Missions, Inc., and faithful copies thereof. Typo reports are welcome at http://eBible.org/cgi-bin/comment.cgi. Please see http://HNVBible.org for updates. ___ To cancel this free email subscription, please send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe hnv in the body of the message OR use the form at http://ebible.org/subscribe.htm