1But now listen, Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen.
2This is what Yahweh says – he who made you and will help you, he who formed you from the womb: Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.
3For I will pour water upon the thirsty land
and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon your race and my blessing upon your offspring.
4They will spring up like grass,
like poplars beside the flowing streams. 5One will say, “I belong to Yahweh”;another will call himself by Jacob’s name. On his hand another will write “Yahweh” and take the name of Israel.
6This is what the Lord says –
Israel’s King and Redeemer, Yahweh Sabaoth:
I am the first and the last,
there is no other God besides me.
7Who then is like me?
Let him stand up and speak,
let him argue this out with me.
Who from the beginning has foretold the future,
and revealed to us what was to come?
8Do not be afraid or troubled.
Have I not proclaimed
and foretold this long ago?
You are my witnesses;
is there a God besides me
or another Rock? I know of none.
Mockery against those who worship idols
9 ① Good-for-nothing are all idol makers, and useless are the works they prize so much. Their witnesses, blind and ignorant, will be put to shame. 10Who ever fashioned a god or cast an idol without hope of gain? See how its devotees will be ridiculed, for its craftsmen are but humans. 11Let them all assemble, let them come to court; they will be both terrified and scorned.
12The blacksmith works on an iron image over the fire and beats it into shape with a hammer. He gets hungry and tired; if there is no water to drink, he gets exhausted.
13In like manner, the wood carver takes the measurement and marks the out line of an idol, carves it with chisels, giving it a bodily form and a human face that it may live in a shrine. 14He cut down cedars or perhaps took an oak or cypress from the forest or maybe he planted a cedar which the rain caused to grow. 15For the common people, that means fuel which they use to warm themselves and to cook their food. But the craftsman carves out of the tree trunk an idol which he worships and before which he bows down. 16The remaining portion he burns to warm himself; over its live embers he roasts meat and is satisfied. He says, “Well and good, I feel warm and enjoy the light.” 17The other portion which he has made into an idol he worships and bows before it, praying “Rescue me, for you are my god.”
18They have no knowledge, no discernment. For they have shut their mind to un derstanding, their heart to all reason. 19Not one of them has the intelligence to reflect and the sense to say, “Half of the log I burned, and on its embers I baked bread and roasted meat. Shall I then make a dirty idol of what remains? Am I to worship a block of wood?”
20Only one of deluded mind can hold on to ashes. Will he not save himself at least and confess, “What I hold is only a lie?”
21Remember this, Jacob,
for you are my servant, O Israel,
I have formed you to be my servant; Israel, do not forget me.
22I have blotted out your offenses as a thick cloud,
your sins as a mist.
Return to me for I am redeeming you.
23Sing gladly, O heavens, for Yahweh has done this. Shout aloud, O earth below! Burst into song, you mountains, you forests with all your trees! For Yahweh has redeemed Jacob and shown his glory to Israel.
24Thus says Yahweh, your redeemer, who formed you from the womb: I am Yahweh who made all things,
I alone stretched out the heavens, and spread out the earth. Who helped me?
25I am he who thwarts the omens of false prophets, who makes fools of diviners,
who turns the wise back and makes nonsense of their knowledge.
26I confirm the word of my servant and carry out the plan announced by my messengers.
I am he who says of Jerusalem,
“It shall be inhabited,”
and of the towns of Judah,
“They shall be rebuilt; I will restore their ruins.”
27I am he who says to the ocean, “Be dry,
I will dry up your wellsprings!”
28I call on Cyrus, “My shepherd!”
and he goes to fulfill my will.
I say to Jerusalem, “Be rebuilt!”
and see: the cornerstone is laid.
- Is 44,9 The passage 9-20, placed here though coming from elsewhere, should be read separately: it ridicules the makers of idols. We will find other similar examples of irony in the Bible. They may still be of value today when people who are proud of scientific discoveries maintain superstitions. See the commentary on Isaiah 30:22 and Jeremiah 2:13.
