Isaiah 45

This is what the LORD says to Cyrus, the man he chose and set apart for this work, and whose right hand he has taken hold of: "I will bring nations down before him and strip kings of their power. I will open the double doors ahead of him, and the gates will not be shut."

1Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;

NoteCyrus was the king of Persia who captured Babylon in 539 BC and the following year allowed the deported Judeans to return home (events still in the future at the point where this speech stands. "Anointed" translates the Hebrew *mashiach*, the word behind "Messiah": it means a person smeared with olive oil in a ceremony that marks him out for an office, normally an Israelite king or priest. Using it of a foreign ruler who does not worship Israel's God is startling, and Cyrus is the only such figure in the Hebrew Bible to be called it. Taking a king by the right hand was the standard image, in Babylonian royal ceremony, of a god confirming that king's rule. The King James "loose the loins of kings" pictures undoing the belt that held up a soldier's robe and carried his sword) that is, leaving him unarmed and unready. Where "LORD" appears in small capitals, the Hebrew has God's personal name, the four letters usually written Yahweh, which Jewish tradition does not pronounce aloud.

2I will go ahead of you and make the rough ground level. I will smash gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron.

2I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:

NoteGates of bronze and bars of iron are the fortifications of a great walled city; Babylon's massive gates were famous throughout the ancient world. City gates were the one weak point in a wall, so they were plated with metal and barred.

3I will give you treasures stored in the dark and riches hidden in secret places, so that you will know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, the one who calls you by your name.

3And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.

Note"Treasures of darkness" are treasures kept in dark places, the sealed vaults and underground strongrooms where kings stored precious metal. The wealth captured at Babylon was proverbial.

4For the sake of Jacob my servant and of Israel, the people I chose, I have called you by your name. I have given you a title of honor, though you do not know me.

4For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.

NoteThe King James "surnamed" does not mean a family name. Ancient Near Eastern kings took honorific throne titles ("king of the four quarters of the world," and the like), and the claim here is that Israel's God, not Babylon's gods, is the one conferring Cyrus's standing.

5I am the LORD, and there is no other. There is no God but me. I make you ready and strong for battle, though you do not know me.

5I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:

Note"Girded" means fastening a belt on someone. A soldier belted his tunic up and hung his weapons from that belt, so to gird a man was to equip him for battle, the exact reverse of what verse 1 says God does to Cyrus's enemies.

6I do this so that people everywhere, from where the sun rises to where it sets, will know there is no one but me. I am the LORD, and there is no other.

6That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.

7I form the light and create the darkness. I bring peace and well-being, and I create disaster. I, the LORD, do all these things.

7I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

NoteThe Hebrew word the King James renders "evil" here is *ra'*, which covers harm, misfortune, ruin and disaster; it is not the word for moral wickedness in this pairing. It is set against *shalom* ("peace"), which means not just the absence of war but safety and thriving. The line is a pair of opposites (light and dark, good times and bad) of the kind Persian religion attributed to two rival powers.

8Pour down from above, you heavens; let the skies rain down what is right. Let the earth open wide so that rescue grows up from it, and let what is right spring up with it. I, the LORD, have created this.

8Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.

Note"Righteousness" here translates *tsedaqah*, which in these chapters carries the sense of a wrong being set right (vindication, a verdict in your favor) and it is paired with rescue as its twin. The picture is agricultural: rain falls from the sky, the ground splits open, and the crop comes up.

9How terrible for anyone who fights with the one who made him. He is only a broken piece of pottery among the broken pieces lying on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter shaping it, "What are you making?" Does the thing you made say, "He has no hands"?

9Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?

NoteA potsherd is a fragment of a smashed clay pot. Broken pottery was the commonest rubbish in any ancient town, worthless and lying everywhere underfoot. The Hebrew of the middle line is compressed and can be read either as calling the objector one shard among the shards, or as "let a shard argue with the shards", a fight between equals that neither can win.

10How terrible for anyone who says to his father, "Why did you father a child?" or who says to a woman, "Why did you give birth?"

10Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?

11This is what the LORD says, the Holy One of Israel, the one who made him: "Will you question me about what is coming for my children, and give me orders about the work of my hands?

11Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.

NoteThe Hebrew of this verse is genuinely unclear, and translators split over it. The same consonants can be read as an invitation ("ask me about what is coming, and give me your orders") which is how the King James takes it, or as an indignant question, "do you dare to question me and give me orders?", which is how most modern versions take it. The surrounding verses about clay and potters favor the rebuke.

12I made the earth, and I created the people on it. My own hands stretched out the heavens, and I gave the command to all the stars in them.

12I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.

NoteThe "host" of the heavens means the sun, moon and stars, pictured as an army drawn up in ranks. In Babylon these were themselves gods, consulted by astrologers; here they are troops under orders.

13I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will make all his paths straight. He will rebuild my city and let my captured people go free, and not for a price or a payment, says the LORD of Armies.

13I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the LORD of hosts.

Note"My city" is Jerusalem, destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BC. "LORD of hosts" is a military title, the commander of armies, whether Israel's or the heavenly ones of verse 12. "Not for price nor reward" points at the normal ancient practice of ransoming prisoners: someone paid, in silver or in territory, to get captives back. Here nobody does.

14This is what the LORD says: "The goods Egypt works for, the trade goods of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, who are tall men, will come over to you and belong to you. They will walk along behind you. They will come over in chains and bow down to you. They will plead with you and say, 'God is surely with you, and there is no other; there is no other God.'"

14Thus saith the LORD, The labour of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine: they shall come after thee; in chains they shall come over, and they shall fall down unto thee, they shall make supplication unto thee, saying, Surely God is in thee; and there is none else, there is no God.

Note"Ethiopia" is the King James rendering of Cush, the kingdom on the Nile south of Egypt, in what is now Sudan, not the modern country of Ethiopia. The Sabeans came from Sheba in southwestern Arabia, and controlled the incense trade; ancient writers, including Herodotus, remarked on the height of the peoples of this region. All three were bywords for wealth brought from far away.

15Truly you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.

15Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.

16Every one of them will be put to shame and disgraced. The people who make idols will go off in shame together.

16They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols.

17But Israel will be saved by the LORD, and saved forever. You will not be put to shame or disgraced, ever, for all time to come.

17But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.

18For this is what the LORD says, the one who created the heavens. He is God. He formed the earth and made it and set it firmly in place. He did not create it to be empty; he formed it to be lived in. "I am the LORD, and there is no other.

18For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

Note"In vain" translates *tohu*, the word used in Genesis 1:2 for the formless waste before the world was ordered. It means trackless emptiness, the kind of desert nobody can live in.

19I have not spoken in secret, in some dark corner of the earth. I did not say to the descendants of Jacob, 'Look for me where there is nothing.' I, the LORD, speak what is true; I say what is right.

19I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.

Note"A dark place of the earth" contrasts God's speech with the way other ancient peoples got answers from their gods: muttered oracles from caves, mediums consulting the dead, signs read in secret by specialists. The word behind the King James "in vain" is *tohu*, the same word as in verse 18, trackless emptiness, so the promise is that seeking will not lead into a wasteland with nothing at the end of it.

20Gather together and come; come near, all of you who have escaped from the nations. Those who carry their wooden idols around know nothing. They pray to a god that cannot save.

20Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save.

NoteA "graven image" is a figure carved from wood, then usually overlaid with metal. Idols were carried in public processions on poles or carts at festivals, and were evacuated on carts when a city fell, an image the next chapter develops at length. The point being pressed is that the worshipers do the carrying.

21Speak up and state your case. Yes, let them talk it over together. Who announced this long ago? Who told it from ancient times? Was it not I, the LORD? There is no God besides me, a God who does what is right and who saves. There is no one but me.

21Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me.

NoteThese verses are staged as a courtroom scene: the nations and their gods are summoned, told to present their case, and challenged on a single test, whether any of them announced these events in advance. Prediction fulfilled is the evidence being demanded.

22Turn to me and be saved, all you at the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is no other.

22Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.

23I have sworn by myself. The word has gone out from my mouth in truth, and it will not be taken back: every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will swear loyalty.

23I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.

NoteAn oath was sworn by something greater than yourself, which you invoked as guarantor; with no greater party available, God is described as swearing by himself. "Every tongue shall swear" means swearing an oath of allegiance, the formal act by which a subject people acknowledged a king.

24Someone will say, "In the LORD alone I have what is right, and strength." People will come to him, and everyone who burns with anger against him will be put to shame.

24Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed.

25In the LORD all the descendants of Israel will be found to be in the right, and they will celebrate.

25In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.

Note"Justified" is a courtroom word: to be declared in the right, acquitted, the verdict going in your favor. "Seed" in the King James means offspring or descendants.