Isaiah 45

Cyrus is the one whom God has appointed to be the emperor of Persia and to whom he will give great power; God will enable him to defeat other nations and to take away the power of their kings. He will cause gates of cities to be opened, and no one will ever be able to shut them.

This is what God says to him: "Cyrus, I will go ahead of you and level the mountains. I will smash down bronze gates and cut through their iron bars.

I will give you treasures that people have hidden in dark secret places. I will do that so that you will know that I am God, the God to whom the Israelites belong, the God who calls you by your name.

I have summoned you, calling out your name, for the sake of the people of Israel whom I have chosen, who serve me. Even though you do not know me, I will give you a title that has great honor.

I am God, and there is no other God. Even though you do not know me, I will give you power to wage war

so that everyone in the world, from the east to the west, will know that there is no other God. I am God, and there is no other God.

I created the light and the darkness. I cause there to be peace and I cause there to be disasters. I, God, do all those things."

God also says, "Just like the rain falls on the earth to help it, I will help my people and rescue them; I will cause them to be treated justly. I, God, am the one who will cause both of those things to happen.

Terrible things will happen to those who argue with me, because I am the one who created them. They are like clay pots who are arguing with the Potter who made them; they are just like every other clay pot that is made, and yet they argue with the One who made them and formed them out of the clay. Can a lump of clay say to the potter who made him, 'Why are you making me like this?' The clay pot cannot say 'What do you think you are doing, making me this way?' or 'You have no skill and your clay pots are not worth anything!'

And it would be terrible if an unborn baby would say to its father, 'Why are you causing me to be born?' or if it said to its mother, 'The result of your labor pains will be useless.'"

God, the Holy One of the Israelite people, the one who created Israel, says this to them: "Why do you ask questions about what I do for you, my children? Why do you instruct me about the work that I should do?

I am the one who created the earth and created people to live on it. I stretched out the sky with my hands, and I put the stars in their places.

And I have made Cyrus to desire to do things that are right, and I will enable him to do all those things easily. No one will be able to stop him. His workers will rebuild my city, and he will free my people who have been exiled. And he will do it without my rewarding him!" This is what God, commander of the angel armies, says.

And this is also what I, God, say to you, my people: "You will rule the people of Egypt and Ethiopia, and the tall people of Seba will become your slaves. They will come to you bringing all the things that they sell, and it will all be yours. They will have chains on their arms as they follow you. They will bow down in front of you and say, 'God is with you and he is the only God; there is no other God.'"

God, although we cannot see you, you are the one to whom we Israelite people belong, the one who saves us.

All those who make idols will be humiliated. They will all be disgraced together.

But you, God, will rescue us, your Israelite people, and we will be free forever. Never again, during all the future, will we again be humiliated and disgraced.

God is God; he is the one who created the sky and created and formed the earth. He did not want it to remain with nothing living on it; he wanted people to live on it. He says, "I am God; there is no other God.

What I proclaimed, I did not speak secretly; I did not hide what I was saying by speaking in a dark place. When I spoke to the descendants of Jacob, I did not tell them, 'It will be useless for you to seek for me!' I, God, speak only what is true and what is right.

You people who are still alive after experiencing great disasters should come and gather together and listen to this: The people who carry around their wooden idols and pray to them are foolish because those idols cannot rescue them!

Talk among yourselves and decide what you will say to prove that you should pray to idols. And when you do that, I will ask you, 'Who predicted long ago what has now happened? Did any idol tell you that those things would happen?' No, it was only I, God, who told you because I am the only God; there is no other God. I am a God who acts righteously and saves people; there is no other one who does these things.

Everyone in the world should ask me to save them because I am the only God who can do that; there is no other one.

I have solemnly declared, using my own name; I have spoken what is true, and I will never change what I have said: Everyone will bow in front of me, and they will all solemnly promise to be loyal to me.

They will declare, 'God is the one who enables us to live righteously and to be strong.'" And all those who have been angry at God will come to him, and they will be ashamed that they were angry with him.

God is the only one who will enable us Israelite people in all future times to defeat our enemies, and then we will boast about what he has done for us.