Isaiah 46

• 1. The idols of Babylon, Bel and Nebo, are being hauled away on ox carts. But look! The beasts are staggering under the weight!
• 2. Both the idols and the ones carrying them are bowed down. The gods cannot protect the people, and the people cannot protect the gods. They go off into captivity together.
• 3. "Listen to me, all you who are left in Israel. I created you and have cared for you since before you were born.
• 4. I will be your God throughout your lifetime--until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you.
• 5. "To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?
• 6. Some people pour out their silver and gold and hire a craftsman to make a god from it. Then they bow down and worship it!
• 7. They carry it around on their shoulders, and when they set it down, it stays there. It cannot even move! And when someone prays to it, there is no answer. It has no power to get anyone out of trouble.
• 8. "Do not forget this, you guilty ones.
• 9. And do not forget the things I have done throughout history. For I am God--I alone! I am God, and there is no one else like me.
• 10. Only I can tell you what is going to happen even before it happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish.
• 11. I will call a swift bird of prey from the east--a leader from a distant land who will come and do my bidding. I have said I would do it, and I will.
• 12. Listen to me, you stubborn, evil people!
• 13. For I am ready to set things right, not in the distant future, but right now! I am ready to save Jerusalem and give my glory to Israel.

Isaiah 47

• 1. "Come, Babylon, unconquered one, sit in the dust. For your days of glory, pomp, and honor have ended. O daughter of Babylonia, never again will you be the lovely princess, tender and delicate.
• 2. Take heavy millstones and grind the corn. Remove your veil and strip off your robe. Expose yourself to public view.
• 3. You will be naked and burdened with shame. I will take vengeance against you and will not negotiate."
• 4. Our Redeemer, whose name is the LORD Almighty, is the Holy One of Israel.
• 5. "O daughter of Babylonia, sit now in darkness and silence. Never again will you be known as the queen of kingdoms.
• 6. For I was angry with my chosen people and began their punishment by letting them fall into your hands. But you, Babylon, showed them no mercy. You have forced even the elderly to carry heavy burdens.
• 7. You thought, `I will reign forever as queen of the world!' You did not care at all about my people or think about the consequences of your actions.
• 8. "You are a pleasure-crazy kingdom, living at ease and feeling secure, bragging as if you were the greatest in the world! You say, `I'm self-sufficient and not accountable to anyone! I will never be a widow or lose my children.'
• 9. Well, those two things will come upon you in a moment: widowhood and the loss of your children. Yes, these calamities will come upon you, despite all your witchcraft and magic.
• 10. "You felt secure in all your wickedness. `No one sees me,' you said. Your `wisdom' and `knowledge' have caused you to turn away from me and claim, `I am self-sufficient and not accountable to anyone!'
• 11. So disaster will overtake you suddenly, and you won't be able to charm it away. Calamity will fall upon you, and you won't be able to buy your way out. A catastrophe will arise so fast that you won't know what hit you.
• 12. "Call out the demon hordes you have worshiped all these years. Ask them to help you strike terror into the hearts of people once again.
• 13. You have more than enough advisers, astrologers, and stargazers. Let them stand up and save you from what the future holds.
• 14. But they are as useless as dried grass burning in a fire. They cannot even save themselves! You will get no help from them at all. Their hearth is not a place to sit for warmth.
• 15. And all your friends, those with whom you have done business since childhood, will slip away and disappear, unable to help.

Isaiah 48

• 1. "Listen to me, O family of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel and born into the family of Judah. Listen, you who take oaths in the name of the LORD and call on the God of Israel. You don't follow through on any of your promises,
• 2. even though you call yourself the holy city and talk about depending on the God of Israel, whose name is the LORD Almighty.
• 3. Time and again I warned you about what was going to happen in the future. Then suddenly I took action, and all my predictions came true.
• 4. "I know how stubborn and obstinate you are. Your necks are as unbending as iron. You are as hardheaded as bronze.
• 5. That is why I told you ahead of time what I was going to do. That way, you could never say, `My idols did it. My wooden image and metal god commanded it to happen!'
• 6. You have heard my predictions and seen them fulfilled, but you refuse to admit it. Now I will tell you new things I have not mentioned before, secrets you have not yet heard.
• 7. They are brand new, not things from the past. So you cannot say, `We knew that all the time!'
• 8. "Yes, I will tell you of things that are entirely new, for I know so well what traitors you are. You have been rebels from your earliest childhood, rotten through and through.
• 9. Yet for my own sake and for the honor of my name, I will hold back my anger and not wipe you out.
• 10. I have refined you but not in the way silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering.
• 11. I will rescue you for my sake--yes, for my own sake! That way, the pagan nations will not be able to claim that their gods have conquered me. I will not let them have my glory!
• 12. "Listen to me, O family of Jacob, Israel my chosen one! I alone am God, the First and the Last.
• 13. It was my hand that laid the foundations of the earth. The palm of my right hand spread out the heavens above. I spoke, and they came into being.
• 14. "Have any of your idols ever told you this? Come, all of you, and listen: `The LORD has chosen Cyrus as his ally. He will use him to put an end to the empire of Babylon, destroying the Babylonian armies.'
• 15. I have said it: I am calling Cyrus! I will send him on this errand and will help him succeed.
• 16. Come closer and listen. I have always told you plainly what would happen so you would have no trouble understanding." And now the Sovereign LORD and his Spirit have sent me with this message:
• 17. "The LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, says: I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is good and leads you along the paths you should follow.
• 18. Oh, that you had listened to my commands! Then you would have had peace flowing like a gentle river and righteousness rolling like waves.
• 19. Then you would have become as numerous as the sands along the seashore--too many to count! There would have been no need for your destruction."
• 20. Yet even now, be free from your captivity! Leave Babylon and the Babylonians, singing as you go! Shout to the ends of the earth that the LORD has redeemed his servants, the people of Israel.
• 21. They were not thirsty when he led them through the desert. He divided the rock, and water gushed out for them to drink.
• 22. "But there is no peace for the wicked," says the LORD.

New Living Translation: 252 of 324 days.