Isaiah 46

Translated from the Hebrew of the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Tap a verse to see why it reads as it does. Tap a small letter to read its footnote.

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The gods of Babylon must be carried

¹Bel crouches low; Nebo sinks down. Their idols are left to pack animals and cattle. The images you used to carry are packed up as cargo, a load for exhausted animals. ²Together they crouch and stoop. They cannot save the load, and they themselves are led away as captives.

The God who carries Israel

³Listen to me, house of Jacob, all who remain of the house of Israel, you whom I have carried as my load since birth, whom I have borne since you came from the womb. ⁴Until you are old I am he, and until your hair turns gray I am the one who will carry you. I made you, and I will lift you; I will carry you and bring you to safety.

⁵Whom will you hold up as my likeness, or rank as my equal? Whom will you set beside me, as though we were alike? ⁶Some empty gold from their purses and weigh out silver on the balance. They pay a craftsman to shape it into a god, then fall on their faces before it and bow low. ⁷They heave it onto their shoulders and haul it, and set it down where it belongs. There it stays; it cannot budge from the spot. A person may cry out to it, but it makes no reply; it saves no one from distress.

God’s plan will stand

⁸Remember this and steady yourselves; think it through again, you rebels. ⁹Remember what happened long ago, in ages past: I alone am God, and there is no other; I am God, and none can compare with me. ¹⁰From the start I announce how things will end, and from ages past what has not yet happened. I say that my plan will stand and that I will carry out all that I desire. ¹¹Out of the east I call a bird of prey, from a far country the man who serves my plan. I have spoken it, and I will bring it to pass; I have shaped it, and I will see it done.

¹²Listen to me, you hard of heart, standing far off from righteousness. ¹³My righteousness I have brought near; it is close at hand, and my salvation will not linger. In Zion I will set salvation, and on Israel I will bestow my splendor.