I will bless your descendants
1‘But now you must listen,
descendants of Jacob, my servants.
People of Israel, I have chosen you.’
2This is what the Lord says.
He made you, He gave you a body
before you were born,
and He helps you. The Lord says:
‘Descendants of Jacob, my servants,
descendants of Jeshurun,
I have chosen you. Don't be afraid,
3because I will make it rain on dry land,
and there will be streams of water.
I will send my Spirit to your descendants
and I will bless them.
4They will be born and grow like grass
and like poplar trees next to the rivers.
5They will say: “We belong to the Lord,”
and they will say they are the descendants of Jacob,
the people of Israel,
and they will write my name on their hands.’
6This is what the Lord says. He is the King_of_Israel who has made them free, the Lord who rules over all. He says:
‘I was God before the beginning
and I will be God forever. There is no other God.
7Who is like Me? If there is another God,
he must speak. He must tell Me
what happened from the time long ago
when I made my people,
and he must say what will happen in the future.
8My people, don't be afraid. Do not fear.
I told you long ago and
you know that I am God.
Is there another god? No, there is no one,
no one who can do what he says.
I know that there is no other god.’
Come back to Me
9‘All the people who make images are nothing.
They love the images, but the images are worthless.
They say the images are gods,
but they will be ashamed,
because the images can not see,
and they know nothing.
10Who makes a god, an image that is worthless?
Who is so foolish?
11Everyone who worships
a god like that will be ashamed.
It is people who make gods like that,
and then they come together and wait
for the god to say something,
but they don't hear anything
and they are disappointed.
12The blacksmith warms the iron in the fire,
he beats the iron with a hammer and
with his strong hands he makes an image.
But he is only a man
who becomes hungry and thirsty.
If he doesn't eat or drink something,
he will become weak.
13The carpenter measures the wood
and he draws an image on it.
He cuts and measures again and makes
an idol that looks like a beautiful man,
and then he puts the image in a temple.
14Another man cuts down a cedar tree,
or he chooses another tree and waits
until the tree becomes big
among the other trees in the forest,
or he plants a tree that grows big when it rains.
15He makes fire with the wood
and he warms himself and he also bakes bread.
He also uses some of the wood
to make a god and
he bows down before the god.
16He uses some of the wood
to make a fire and he cooks his meat
and eats it until he is full.
He warms himself at the fire and says:
“Good, now I am warm,
and I can see in the light of the fire.”
17Some of the wood is left over
and he uses that to make a god.
He bows down before the image
and he prays to the image and says:
“Please save me, because you are my god.”
18People who do this are very foolish.
Their eyes are closed and
they do not know what they are doing.
19They are very foolish. They do not think
or understand that they have used
some of the wood to make fire
and to bake bread on the coals
and cook meat and eat it,
and that they have made an idol
from the wood that was left over,
and that they are bowing down
to a dry piece of wood.
20Someone who does this is deceiving himself.
He can not save himself.
He does not understand that the god
that he made of wood
can burn in the fire, and it is worthless.’
The Lord will not forget his people
21‘Descendants of Jacob, people of Israel,
you must remember this
because you are my servants.
I made you to serve Me,
and I will not forget you.
22You have been rebellious,
and you have done a lot of sins,
but I took them all away. I made them disappear
like the morning mist.
Come back to Me because
I have saved you and made you free.
23Tell heaven and earth to rejoice,
because the Lord has done wonderful things.
Tell the deep places under the earth
to shout and the mountains
and all the trees in the forest
to be happy and rejoice
because the Lord has saved
the descendants of Jacob and made them free.
He has shown his glory to the Israelites.’
I will build Jerusalem again
24This is what the Lord says.
He made you free. He made your bodies
before you were born. He says:
‘I am the Lord, and I made everything.
I made the expanse above the earth
and put it up like a tent.
No one was with Me when I made the earth.
25I show the false_prophets
that they tell lies. I show the fortune-tellers
that they know nothing.
I show the people who think they are clever,
and who think they know what will happen,
that they are fools.
26I make the messages
of my servants become true.
I make everything happen that my servants have said.
I say to Jerusalem:
“People will live in you again.”
I say to the towns and cities of Judah:
“People will build you again.”
Jerusalem is now only a heap of stones,
but I will build Jerusalem again.
27I say to the deep sea and all the rivers:
“You must become dry.”
28And I say to Cyrus
that he must look after my sheep,
and he must take care of my people.
He will do what I want him to do.
He will say to Jerusalem:
“People must build you again.”
And he will say to the temple:
“They must build your foundations again.” ’
