The Lord Redeems Israel
21 hRemember these things, O Jacob,
and Israel, for you are my servant;
I formed you; you are my servant;
O Israel, iyou will not be forgotten by me.
22 I have jblotted out your transgressions like a cloud
and your sins like mist;
return to me, for I have redeemed you.
23 kSing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it;
shout, O depths of the earth;
lbreak forth into singing, O mountains,
O forest, and every tree in it!
For the Lord mhas redeemed Jacob,
and will be glorified1 in Israel.
24 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer,
who formed you from the womb:
“I am the Lord, who made all things,
who alone nstretched out the heavens,
who spread out the earth by myself,
25 who frustrates the signs of liars
and makes fools of diviners,
who turns wise men back
and omakes their knowledge foolish,
26 who confirms the word of his servant
and fulfills the counsel of his messengers,
who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited,’
and of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built,
and I will raise up their ruins’;
27 who says to the deep, ‘Be dry;
I will dry up your rivers’;
28 who says of pCyrus, ‘He is my shepherd,
and he shall fulfill all my purpose’;
saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’
and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’”
Cyrus, God’s Instrument
1 Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,
whose right hand I have grasped,
to subdue nations before him
and to loose the belts of kings,
to open doors before him
that gates may not be closed:
2 “I will go before you
and qlevel the exalted places,2
I will rbreak in pieces the doors of bronze
and cut through the bars of iron,
3 I will give you the treasures of darkness
and the hoards in secret places,
that you may know that it is I, the Lord,
the God of Israel, who call you by your name.
4 For the sake of my servant Jacob,
and Israel my schosen,
I call you by your name,
I name you, though you do not know me.
5 I am the Lord, and there is no other,
besides me there is no God;
I equip you, though you do not know me,
6 that people may know, tfrom the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is none besides me;
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
7 I form light and create darkness;
I make well-being and create calamity;
I am the Lord, who does all these things.
8 “Shower, O heavens, from above,
and let the clouds rain down righteousness;
let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit;
let the earth cause them both to sprout;
I the Lord have created it.
9 “Woe to him who strives with him who formed him,
a pot among earthen pots!
Does the uclay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’
or ‘Your work has no handles’?
10 Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’
or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’”
11 Thus says the Lord,
the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him:
“Ask me of things to come;
will you command me concerning my vchildren and the work of my hands?3
12 I made the earth
and created man on it;
it was my hands that wstretched out the heavens,
and I commanded all their host.
13 I have xstirred him up in righteousness,
and I will make all his ways level;
he shall ybuild my city
and set my exiles free,
znot for price or reward,”
says the Lord of hosts.
The Lord, the Only Savior
14 Thus says the Lord:
“The wealth of aEgypt and the merchandise of Cush,
and the Sabeans, men of stature,
shall come over to you and be yours;
they shall bfollow you;
they shall come over in chains and cbow down to you.
They will plead with you, saying:
d‘Surely God is in you, and there is no other,
no god besides him.’”
15 Truly, you are a God who hides himself,
O God of Israel, the Savior.
16 All of them are eput to shame and confounded;
the makers of idols go in confusion together.
17 But Israel is saved by the Lord
with everlasting salvation;
fyou shall not be put to shame or confounded
to all eternity.
18 For thus says the Lord,
gwho created the heavens
(he is God!),
who formed the earth and made it
(he established it;
he did not create it empty,
he formed it to be inhabited!):
“I am the Lord, and there is no other.
19 hI did not speak in secret,
in a land of darkness;
I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,
‘Seek me in vain.’4
I the Lord speak the truth;
I declare what is right.
20 “Assemble yourselves and come;
draw near together,
you survivors of the nations!
They have no knowledge
who icarry about their wooden idols,
and keep on jpraying to a god
that cannot save.
21 Declare and present your case;
let them take counsel together!
Who ktold this long ago?
Who declared it of old?
Was it not I, the Lord?
And there is no other god besides me,
a righteous God and a Savior;
there is none besides me.
22 “Turn to me and be saved,
all the ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.
23 lBy myself I have sworn;
mfrom my mouth has gone out in righteousness
a word that shall not return:
‘To me nevery knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear allegiance.’5
24 “Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me,
are righteousness and strength;
to him shall come and be ashamed
oall who were incensed against him.
25 In the Lord all the offspring of Israel
shall be justified and shall glory.”
The Woman and the Dragon
1 And a great psign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red qdragon, with rseven heads and sten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. 4 His tail swept down ta third of the stars of heaven and ucast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. 5 She gave birth to a male child, one who is vto rule1 all the nations wwith a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, 6 and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for x1,260 days.
Satan Thrown Down to Earth
7 Now war arose in heaven, yMichael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, 8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was zthrown down, athat ancient serpent, who is called the bdevil and Satan, the cdeceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. 10 And I heard a dloud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the eauthority of fhis Christ have come, for the gaccuser of our brothers2 has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. 11 And they have hconquered him by the blood of the iLamb and by the word of their testimony, for jthey loved not their lives even kunto death. 12 Therefore, lrejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But mwoe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
13 And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 But the woman was given the two nwings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished ofor a time, and times, and half a time. 15 The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. 16 But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. 17 Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on pthose who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood3 on the sand of the sea.
