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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. 46:2 They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves have gone into captivity.
46:3 “Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, that have been borne 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 Chaldeans: 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, Yahweh of Armies is his name, the Holy One of Israel.
47:5 “Sit in silence, and go into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans;
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 a mistress forever;’ so that you did not lay these things to your heart, nor did you 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 will 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 Yahweh, 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; Yahweh of Armies 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 dealt 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? I will not give my glory 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 Yahweh loves shall perform his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans. 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 Yahweh has sent me, with his Spirit.
48:17 Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am Yahweh 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 Chaldeans; with a voice of singing declare, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth: say, Yahweh 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 Yahweh, “for the wicked.”