Even until your old age, I am the one, and I'll carry you even until your gray hairs come. It is I who have created, and I who will carry, and it is I who will bear and save.

Those who pour out gold in a purse, weigh silver in a balance, hire a goldsmith in order to make a god, and then they bow down and even worship it.

And they lift it on their shoulders, carry it, set it up in its place, and there it stands. It cannot move from that spot. One may even call to it, but it cannot answer nor save him from his distress.

"Remember this, and stand firm; take it again to heart, you rebels.

I declare from the beginning things to follow, and from ancient times things that have not yet been done; saying, "My purpose will stand, and he will accomplish everything that I please.'

I am calling a bird of prey from the east, and from a far country a man with his purpose. Indeed, I've spoken; I will certainly make it happen; I've planned it; and I will certainly carry it out.

My righteousness is brought near and it's not far off, and my salvation won't delay. I'll grant salvation in Zion, and to Israel, my glory."

Take millstones and grind flour. Remove your veil, strip off your robes, bare your legs, and wade through the rivers.

"Now hear this, you wanton creature, lounging with no cares, and saying to herself: "I am the one, and there will be none besides me; I won't live as a widow, nor will I see the loss of children.'

"But disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to charm it away. A calamity will befall you that you will not be able to ward off; and devastation will come upon you suddenly, and you won't anticipate it.

"But stand up now with your spells and your many incantations, at which you have labored from your childhood until today,

according to your multiple schemes. Let them stand up now those who conjure the heavens and gaze at the stars, predicting at the new moons and save you from what is about to happen to them.

I foretold the former things long ago; it went forth from my mouth, and I disclosed them; Suddenly, I acted, and they came to pass.

"You have heard now look at them all! How can you not admit them? From now on, I'll make you hear new things, hidden things that you have not known.

I defer my anger for my name's sake, and as my first act I'm restraining it for you, so as not to cut you off.

For my own sake Yes, for my own sake! I'm doing it; indeed, how can I be profaned? Furthermore, I won't give my glory to another."

Moreover, my hands laid the earth's foundation, and my right hand spread out the heavens. I call out to them, and they stand up together.

Draw near to me, and listen to this: "From the beginning I haven't spoken in secret; at the time it happened, I was there.' And now the LORD God, and his Spirit, has sent me.

"This is what the LORD says, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you how to succeed, who directs you in the path by which you should go.

Your descendants would've been like the sand, and your offspring like its numberless grains. Their name wouldn't have been cut off or annihilated out of my reach.

"Go out from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans! With happy shouts, announce and proclaim this to the ends of the earth: Say, "The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!'

They didn't thirst when he led him through the desolate places. He made water gush from a rock for them; he split open the rock, and water gushed out.

"I said: "I've labored for nothing. I've exhausted my strength on futility and on emptiness.' Yet surely my recompense is with the LORD, and my reward is with my God.

he says: "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Israel and bring back those of Jacob I have preserved. I'll also make you as a light to the nations, to be my salvation to the ends of the earth.

"This is what my Lord says the LORD your Redeemer, O Israel, and his Holy One to one despised by people, to those abhorred as a nation, to the servant of rulers: "Kings see and arise, and princes will bow down, because of the LORD who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, the one who has chosen you."

"This what the LORD says: "I'll answer you in a time of favor, and on a day of salvation I'll help you. I have watched over you, and given you as a covenant for the people, to restore the land, to reassign the inheritances that have been devastated;

saying to captives, "Come out!' and to those who are in darkness, "Be free!' "They will feed on all the mountains, and their pasture will be on all the barren hills.

Shout with joy, you heavens, and rock with glee, you earth! Break out in song, you mountains! The LORD is comforting his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

"The children who are grieving at present will yet say in your hearing, "This place is too crowded for me; make room for me, so I may have a place to live.'

"For this what the LORD says, "Watch! I'll lift up my hand to the nations and raise my banner to the nations. They will bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.'

But this is what the LORD says: "He will seize even the warriors' plunder, and the captives of tyrants will be rescued. I myself will quarrel with those who have a quarrel with you, and I myself will save your children.

"I'll make those who mistreat you eat their own flesh, and they will get drunk on their own blood, as with new wine. "Then all mankind will know that I am the LORD your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob."

This is what the LORD says: "Where is your mother's certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Look! It's because of your sins that you were sold, and because of your transgressions that your mother was sent away.

Why is it that when I came, no one was there? Why was there no answer when I called? Was my arm too short to redeem you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you? Look! By my mere rebuke I dry up the sea, I turn rivers into a desert. Their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst.

I gave my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not turn away my face from insults and spitting.

See! It is the Lord GOD who will help me. Who is it that will declare me guilty? See! They will all wear out like a garment; moths will eat them up.

Look! All those who light a fire, who surround yourselves with flaming torches walk by the light of your fire, and by the torches that you have set ablaze! This is what you will receive from my hand: you will lie down in torment.

"Pay attention to me, my people! Listen to me, my nation! For instruction will go out from me, and my justice will become a light for the nations.

I will quickly bring my deliverance near; my salvation is on the way. His arm will bring justice to the nations; the coastlands will hope for him, and they will wait for his arm.

Listen to me, you who know righteousness, you people who have my instruction in their hearts. Don't fear the insults of mortals, and don't be dismayed at their hateful words.

For moths will eat them up just like a garment, and worms will devour them like wool; but my deliverance will last forever, and my salvation to all generations.

"Awake! Awake! Clothe yourself with strength, you arm of the LORD! Awake, as in days gone by, as in generations of long ago. Was it not you who split apart Rehob, who pierced that sea monster through?

Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made a road in the depths of the sea so that the redeemed could cross over?"

As a result, you have forgotten the LORD who made you, who stretched out the heavens and laid the earth's foundations, and you live in constant fear every day because of the oppressor's fury, since he's ready to destroy. Now where is the oppressor's fury?

"Awake, Awake! Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the LORD's hand from the cup that is his anger. You have drunk to the dregs the cup that makes you stagger, and have drained it.

There is no one to guide you out of all the children she bore, no one to take her by the hand out of all the children she brought up.

Your children have fainted. They lie at the head of every street, like antelope caught in a trap, filled with the anger of the LORD and the rebuke of your God.

This is what your Lord, the LORD, says, your God, who defends his people's cause: "See, I have taken from your hand the cup that made you stagger. And you will never again drink to the dregs the cup that is my anger.

But I will put it into the hands of those who tormented and oppressed you, those who said to you, "Lie down, so we can step over you,' so that you had to make your back like the ground, and like a street for them to walk over."

For this is what the LORD says: "You were sold for nothing, and you'll be redeemed without money."

For this is what the LORD says: "My people went down long ago into Egypt to live there; the Assyrian, too, has oppressed them without cause.

"Now therefore, what am I doing here," asks the LORD, "seeing that my people are taken away without cause? Those who rule over them are deluded," says the LORD, "and continuously, all the day long, my name is blasphemed.

Therefore my people will know my name; in that day they'll know that it is I who speaks, "Here I am!'

"Depart! Depart! Go out from there; touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the LORD.

For you won't go out in haste, nor will you go in flight; for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rear guard. He is called the God of all the earth."

Just as many were astonished at you so was he marred in his appearance, more than any human, and his form beyond that of human semblance

so will he startle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths at him; for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand.

For he grew up before him like a tender plant, and like a root out of a dry ground; he had no form and he had no majesty that we should look at him, and there is no attractiveness that we should desire him.

"Surely he has borne our sufferings and carried our sorrows; yet we considered him stricken, and struck down by God, and afflicted.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he didn't open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

"Yet the LORD was willing to crush him, and he made him suffer. Although you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring, and he will prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will triumph in his hand.

Out of the suffering of his soul he will see light and find satisfaction. And through his knowledge his servant, the righteous one, will make many righteous, and he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong; because he poured out his life to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he carried the sins of many, and made intercession for their transgressions."

"Enlarge the location of your tent, let the curtains of your dwellings be stretched wide, and don't hold back. Lengthen your cords; strengthen your stakes.

For you will spread out to the right hand and to the left, and your descendants will possess the nations and will populate the deserted towns.

"In righteousness you'll be established; you will be far from tyranny, for you won't be afraid, and from terror, for it won't come near you.

Watch! If anyone does attack you, it will not be from me; whoever may attack you will fall because of you.

Look! It is I who have created the blacksmith who fans coals in the fire, and produces a weapon for his purpose. It is I who have created the ravager to wreak havoc;

"Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the waters! Also, you that have no money, come, buy, and eat! Come! Buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Why spend your money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in rich food.

"For just as the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, yielding seed for the sower and bread for eating,

so will my message be that goes out of my mouth it won't return to me empty. Instead, it will accomplish what I desire, and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

"For you will go out in joy, and come back with peace; the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees in the fields will clap their hands.

For this is what the LORD says: "Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come, and soon my deliverance will be revealed.

Blessed is the one who does this, and the person that holds it fast, who observes the Sabbath without profaning it, and restrains his hands from practicing any evil.

For this is what the LORD says: "To the eunuchs who observe my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me, and who hold fast my covenant

"Also, the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, and to bless the LORD'S name, observing the Sabbath without profaning it, and who hold fast my covenant

This is what the Lord GOD says, the one who gathers the outcasts of Israel: "I'll gather still others to them besides those already gathered.

"Also the righteous are perishing, but no one takes it to heart; devout people are taken away, while no one understands that the righteous person is taken away from calamity.

Whom are you mocking? And against whom do you make a wide mouth and stick out your tongue? Are you not children of transgression, the offspring of lies,

"Among the smooth stones of the ravines is your portion there they are as your lot. To them you have poured out drink offerings; you have brought grain offerings. Should I be lenient over such things?

Behind the doors and the doorposts you have set up your pagan sign." For in deserting me you have uncovered your bed you have climbed up into it and have opened it wide. And you have made a pact for yourself with them; you have loved their bed, you have looked on their private parts.

You grew tired with your many wanderings, but you wouldn't say: "It is hopeless.' You found new strength for your desire, and so you did not falter.

When you cry out, let your collection deliver you! The wind will carry them all off, and a mere breath will sweep them all away." "But whoever takes refuge in me will possess the land, and will inherit my holy mountain.

"For this is what the high and lofty One says, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "He lives in the height and in holiness, and also with the one who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

I've seen his ways, yet I will heal him, and restore for him comfort to him and for those who mourn for him

But the wicked are tossed like the sea; for it is not able to keep still, and its waters toss up mire and mud.

"Yet there is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked."

"Is this the kind of fast that I have chosen, merely a day for a person to humble himself? Is it merely for bowing down one's head like a bulrush, for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is this what you call a fast, an acceptable day to the LORD?

Isn't it to share your bread with the hungry, and to bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him with clothing, and not to raise yourself up from your own flesh and blood?"

if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the needs of afflicted souls, then your light will rise in darkness, and your night will be like noonday.

"If you keep your feet from trampling the Sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD's holy day honorable; and if you honor it by not going your own ways and seeking your own pleasure or speaking merely idle words,

They hatch adders' eggs and weave a spider's web; whoever eats their eggs dies, and any crushed egg hatches out futility.

Their cobwebs cannot become clothing, they cannot cover themselves with what they make. Their deeds are deeds of iniquity, and acts of violence fill their hands.

"So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We wait for light, but look there is darkness; we wait for brightness, but we walk in deep darkness.

Let's grope along the wall like the blind; let us grope like those who have no eyes. We stumble at midday as if it were twilight, in desolate places like dead people.

We all growl like bears; we sigh mournfully like doves. We look for justice, but there is none, and for deliverance, but it's far from us.

I'll drive back justice, and righteousness stands at a distance; for truth has fallen in the public square, and honesty cannot enter.

Truth is missing, and whoever turns away from evil becomes a prey." "Then the LORD looked, and it displeased him that there was no justice.

"He has given you the glory of Lebanon, and it will come to you, the cypress, and the plane tree, and the pine, to adorn the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious.