The Commission to Cyrus

451 God's Message to his anointed, to Cyrus, whom he took by the hand To give the task of taming the nations, of terrifying their kings - He gave him free rein, no restrictions: 2 "I'll go ahead of you, clearing and paving the road. I'll break down bronze city gates, smash padlocks, kick down barred entrances. 3 I'll lead you to buried treasures, secret caches of valuables - Confirmations that it is, in fact, I, God, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name. 4 It's because of my dear servant Jacob, Israel my chosen, That I've singled you out, called you by name, and given you this privileged work. And you don't even know me!

5 I am God, the only God there is. Besides me there are no real gods. I'm the one who armed you for this work, though you don't even know me, 6 So that everyone, from east to west, will know that I have no god-rivals. I am God, the only God there is. 7 I form light and create darkness, I make harmonies and create discords. I, God, do all these things.

The LORD the Creator

8 "Open up, heavens, and rain. Clouds, pour out buckets of my goodness! Loosen up, earth, and bloom salvation; sprout right living. I, God, generate all this. 9 But doom to you who fight your Maker - you're a pot at odds with the potter! Does clay talk back to the potter: 'What are you doing? What clumsy fingers!' 10 Would a sperm say to a father, 'Who gave you permission to use me to make a baby?' Or a fetus to a mother, 'Why have you cooped me up in this belly?'"

11 Thus God, The Holy of Israel, Israel's Maker, says: "Do you question who or what I'm making? Are you telling me what I can or cannot do? 12 I made earth, and I created man and woman to live on it. I handcrafted the skies and direct all the constellations in their turnings. 13 And now I've got Cyrus on the move. I've rolled out the red carpet before him. He will build my city. He will bring home my exiles. I didn't hire him to do this. I told him. I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies." 14 God says: "The workers of Egypt, the merchants of Ethiopia, and those statuesque Sabeans Will all come over to you - all yours. Docile in chains, they'll follow you, Hands folded in reverence, praying before you: 'Amazing! God is with you! There is no other God - none.'" Look at the Evidence 15 Clearly, you are a God who works behind the scenes, God of Israel, Savior God. 16 Humiliated, all those others will be ashamed to show their faces in public. Out of work and at loose ends, the makers of no-god idols won't know what to do with themselves. 17 The people of Israel, though, are saved by you, God, saved with an eternal salvation. They won't be ashamed, they won't be at loose ends, ever. 18 God, Creator of the heavens - he is, remember, God. Maker of earth - he put it on its foundations, built it from scratch. He didn't go to all that trouble to just leave it empty, nothing in it. He made it to be lived in. This God says: "I am God, the one and only. 19 I don't just talk to myself or mumble under my breath. I never told Jacob, 'Seek me in emptiness, in dark nothingness.' I am God. I work out in the open, saying what's right, setting things right.

Babylon's Idols and the LORD

20 So gather around, come on in, all you refugees and castoffs. They don't seem to know much, do they - those who carry around their no-god blocks of wood, praying for help to a dead stick? 21 So tell me what you think. Look at the evidence. Put your heads together. Make your case. Who told you, and a long time ago, what's going on here? Who made sense of things for you? Wasn't I the one? God? It had to be me. I'm the only God there is - The only God who does things right and knows how to help. 22 So turn to me and be helped - saved! - everyone, whoever and wherever you are. I am God, the only God there is, the one and only. 23 I promise in my own name: Every word out of my mouth does what it says. I never take back what I say. Everyone is going to end up kneeling before me. Everyone is going to end up saying of me, 24 'Yes! Salvation and strength are in God!'" All who have raged against him will be brought before him, disgraced by their unbelief. 25 And all who are connected with Israel will have a robust, praising, good life in God!

The LORD's Judgment on Judah and Jerusalem

31 The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, is emptying Jerusalem and Judah Of all the basic necessities, plain bread and water to begin with. 2 He's withdrawing police and protection, judges and courts, pastors and teachers, 3 captains and generals, doctors and nurses, and, yes, even the repairmen and jacks-of-all-trades. 4 He says, "I'll put little kids in charge of the city. Schoolboys and schoolgirls will order everyone around. 5 People will be at each other's throats, stabbing one another in the back: Neighbor against neighbor, young against old, the no-account against the well-respected. 6 One brother will grab another and say, 'You look like you've got a head on your shoulders. Do something! Get us out of this mess.' 7 And he'll say, 'Me? Not me! I don't have a clue. Don't put me in charge of anything.' 8 "Jerusalem's on its last legs. Judah is soon down for the count. Everything people say and do is at cross-purposes with God, a slap in my face.

9 Brazen in their depravity, they flout their sins like degenerate Sodom. Doom to their eternal souls! They've made their bed; now they'll sleep in it. 10 "Reassure the righteous that their good living will pay off. 11 But doom to the wicked! Disaster! Everything they did will be done to them. 12 "Skinny kids terrorize my people. Silly girls bully them around. My dear people! Your leaders are taking you down a blind alley. They're sending you off on a wild goose chase." A City Brought to Her Knees by Her Sorrows 13 God enters the courtroom. He takes his place at the bench to judge his people. 14 God calls for order in the court, hauls the leaders of his people into the dock: "You've played havoc with this country. Your houses are stuffed with what you've stolen from the poor. 15 What is this anyway? Stomping on my people, grinding the faces of the poor into the dirt?" That's what the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says.

Judgment on the Daughters of Zion

16 God says, "Zion women are stuck-up, prancing around in their high heels, Making eyes at all the men in the street, swinging their hips, Tossing their hair, gaudy and garish in cheap jewelry." 17 The Master will fix it so those Zion women will all turn bald - Scabby, bald-headed women. The Master will do it. 18 The time is coming when the Master will strip them of their fancy baubles - 19 the dangling earrings, anklets and bracelets, 20 combs and mirrors and silk scarves, diamond brooches and pearl necklaces, 21 the rings on their fingers and the rings on their toes, 22 the latest fashions in hats, exotic perfumes and aphrodisiacs, gowns and capes, 23 all the world's finest in fabrics and design. 24 Instead of wearing seductive scents, these women are going to smell like rotting cabbages; Instead of modeling flowing gowns, they'll be sporting rags; Instead of their stylish hairdos, scruffy heads; Instead of beauty marks, scabs and scars. 25 Your finest fighting men will be killed, your soldiers left dead on the battlefield. 26 The entrance gate to Zion will be clotted with people mourning their dead - A city stooped under the weight of her loss, brought to her knees by her sorrows.