Israel’s Only Savior

1And now thus says the Lord who created you, O Jacob, and who formed you, O Israel: Do not be afraid. For I have redeemed you, and I have called you by your name. You are mine.

2When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and the rivers will not cover you. When you walk through fire, you will not be burned, and the flames will not scorch you.

3For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour. I have presented Egypt as your atonement, Ethiopia and Seba on your behalf.

4Since then, you have become honorable in my eyes, and glorious. I have loved you, and I will present men on behalf of you, and people on behalf of your life.

5Fear not, for I am with you. I will lead your offspring from the East, and I will gather you from the West.

6I will say to the North, “Release him,” and to the South, “Do not turn him away.” Bring my sons from far away, and my daughters from the ends of the earth.

7And each one who calls upon my name, I have created for my glory. I have formed him, and I have made him.

8Lead forth the people who are blind and have eyes, who are deaf and have ears.

9All the nations have been assembled together, and the tribes have been collected. Who among you will announce this, and who will cause us to listen to the things that are first? Let them present their witnesses. Let them act justly, and listen, and say: “It is true.”

10You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and you are my servant, whom I have chosen, so that you may know, and may believe in me, and so that you may understand that I am the same. Before me, there was no god formed, and after me there will be none.

11I am. I am the Lord. And there is no savior apart from me.

12I have announced, and I have saved. I have caused it to be heard. And there was no stranger among you. You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and I am God.

13And from the beginning, I am the same. And there is no one who can rescue from my hand. I act, and who can turn it aside?

A Way in the Wilderness

14Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake, I sent to Babylon, and tore down all their bars, with the Chaldeans who glory in their ships.

15I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.

16Thus says the Lord, who gave you a way through the sea and a path through the torrent of waters,

17who led out the chariot and the horse, the column of robust troops. They went to sleep together, and they will not arise. They have been crushed like flax, and they have been extinguished.

18You need not call to mind the past, nor consider the things of antiquity.

19Behold, I am accomplishing new things. And presently, they will spring forth. With certainty, you will know them. I will make a way in the desert, and rivers in an impassible place.

20The wild beasts of the field will glorify me, with the serpents and the ostriches. For I have brought waters to the desert, rivers to inaccessible places, in order to give drink to my people, to my elect.

21This is the people whom I have formed for myself. They will speak my praise.

Israel’s Unfaithfulness
(Judges 2:10–15; Jeremiah 2:23–37)

22But you have not called upon me, O Jacob, nor have you struggled for me, O Israel.

23You have not offered me the ram of your holocaust, and you have not glorified me with your victims. I have not burdened you with oblations, nor have I wearied you with incense.

24You have bought me no sweet cane with money, and you have not inebriated me with the fat of your victims. Yet truly, you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities.

25I am. I am the very One who wipes away your iniquities for my own sake. And I will not remember your sins.

26Call me to mind, and let us go to judgment together. If you have anything to justify yourself, explain it.

27Your first father sinned, and your interpreters have betrayed me.

28And so, I have defiled the holy leaders. I have handed over Jacob to slaughter, and Israel to calumny.