471 "Get off your high horse and sit in the dirt, virgin daughter of Babylon. No more throne for you - sit on the ground, daughter of the Chaldeans. Nobody will be calling you 'charming' and 'alluring' anymore. Get used to it. 2 Get a job, any old job: Clean gutters, scrub toilets. Hock your gowns and scarves, put on overalls - the party's over. 3 Your nude body will be on public display, exposed to vulgar taunts. It's vengeance time, and I'm taking vengeance. No one gets let off the hook." You're Acting Like the Center of the Universe 4 Our Redeemer speaks, named God-of-the-Angel-Armies, The Holy of Israel: 5 "Shut up and get out of the way, daughter of Chaldeans. You'll no longer be called 'First Lady of the Kingdoms.' 6 I was fed up with my people, thoroughly disgusted with my progeny. I turned them over to you, but you had no compassion. You put old men and women to cruel, hard labor.
7 You said, 'I'm the First Lady. I'll always be the pampered darling.' You took nothing seriously, took nothing to heart, never gave tomorrow a thought. 8 Well, start thinking, playgirl. You're acting like the center of the universe, Smugly saying to yourself, 'I'm Number One. There's nobody but me. I'll never be a widow, I'll never lose my children.' 9 Those two things are going to hit you both at once, suddenly, on the same day: Spouse and children gone, a total loss, despite your many enchantments and charms. 10 You were so confident and comfortable in your evil life, saying, 'No one sees me.' You thought you knew so much, had everything figured out. What delusion! Smugly telling yourself, 'I'm Number One. There's nobody but me.' 11 Ruin descends - you can't charm it away. Disaster strikes - you can't cast it off with spells. Catastrophe, sudden and total - and you're totally at sea, totally bewildered! 12 But don't give up. From your great repertoire of enchantments there must be one you haven't yet tried. You've been at this a long time. Surely something will work. 13 I know you're exhausted trying out remedies, but don't give up. Call in the astrologers and stargazers. They're good at this. Surely they can work up something! 14 "Fat chance. You'd be grasping at straws that are already in the fire, A fire that is even now raging. Your 'experts' are in it and won't get out. It's not a fire for cooking venison stew, not a fire to warm you on a winter night! 15 That's the fate of your friends in sorcery, your magician buddies you've been in cahoots with all your life. They reel, confused, bumping into one another. None of them bother to help you.
481 "And now listen to this, family of Jacob, you who are called by the name Israel: Who got you started in the loins of Judah, you who use God's name to back up your promises and pray to the God of Israel? But do you mean it? Do you live like it? 2 You claim to be citizens of the Holy City; you act as though you lean on the God of Israel, named God-of-the-Angel-Armies. 3 For a long time now, I've let you in on the way I work: I told you what I was going to do beforehand, then I did it and it was done, and that's that. 4 I know you're a bunch of hardheads, obstinate and flint-faced, 5 So I got a running start and began telling you what was going on before it even happened. That is why you can't say, 'My god-idol did this.' 'My favorite god-carving commanded this.' 6 You have all this evidence confirmed by your own eyes and ears. Shouldn't you be talking about it? And that was just the beginning. I have a lot more to tell you, things you never knew existed. 7 This isn't a variation on the same old thing. This is new, brand-new, something you'd never guess or dream up. When you hear this you won't be able to say, 'I knew that all along.' 8 You've never been good listeners to me. You have a history of ignoring me, A sorry track record of fickle attachments - rebels from the womb.
9 But out of the sheer goodness of my heart, because of who I am, I keep a tight rein on my anger and hold my temper. I don't wash my hands of you. 10 Do you see what I've done? I've refined you, but not without fire. I've tested you like silver in the furnace of affliction. 11 Out of myself, simply because of who I am, I do what I do. I have my reputation to keep up. I'm not playing second fiddle to either gods or people. 12 "Listen, Jacob. Listen, Israel - I'm the One who named you! I'm the One. I got things started and, yes, I'll wrap them up. 13 Earth is my work, handmade. And the skies - I made them too, horizon to horizon. When I speak, they're on their feet, at attention. 14 "Come everybody, gather around, listen: Who among the gods has delivered the news? I, God, love this man Cyrus, and I'm using him to do what I want with Babylon. 15 I, yes I, have spoken. I've called him. I've brought him here. He'll be successful.
16 Come close, listen carefully: I've never kept secrets from you. I've always been present with you." Your Progeny, Like Grains of Sand And now, the Master, God, sends me and his Spirit 17 with this Message from God, your Redeemer, The Holy of Israel: "I am God, your God, who teaches you how to live right and well. I show you what to do, where to go. 18 If you had listened all along to what I told you, your life would have flowed full like a river, blessings rolling in like waves from the sea. 19 Children and grandchildren are like sand, your progeny like grains of sand. There would be no end of them, no danger of losing touch with me." 20 Get out of Babylon! Run from the Babylonians! Shout the news. Broadcast it. Let the world know, the whole world. Tell them, "God redeemed his dear servant Jacob!" 21 They weren't thirsty when he led them through the deserts. He made water pour out of the rock; he split the rock and the water gushed. 22 "There is no peace," says God, "for the wicked."
491 Listen, far-flung islands, pay attention, faraway people: God put me to work from the day I was born. The moment I entered the world he named me. 2 He gave me speech that would cut and penetrate. He kept his hand on me to protect me. He made me his straight arrow and hid me in his quiver. 3 He said to me, "You're my dear servant, Israel, through whom I'll shine." 4 But I said, "I've worked for nothing. I've nothing to show for a life of hard work. Nevertheless, I'll let God have the last word. I'll let him pronounce his verdict." 5 "And now," God says, this God who took me in hand from the moment of birth to be his servant, To bring Jacob back home to him, to set a reunion for Israel - What an honor for me in God's eyes! That God should be my strength! 6 He says, "But that's not a big enough job for my servant - just to recover the tribes of Jacob, merely to round up the strays of Israel. I'm setting you up as a light for the nations so that my salvation becomes global!"
7 God, Redeemer of Israel, The Holy of Israel, says to the despised one, kicked around by the nations, slave labor to the ruling class: "Kings will see, get to their feet - the princes, too - and then fall on their faces in homage Because of God, who has faithfully kept his word, The Holy of Israel, who has chosen you."
8 God also says: "When the time's ripe, I answer you. When victory's due, I help you. I form you and use you to reconnect the people with me, To put the land in order, to resettle families on the ruined properties. 9 I tell prisoners, 'Come on out. You're free!' and those huddled in fear, 'It's all right. It's safe now.' There'll be foodstands along all the roads, picnics on all the hills - 10 Nobody hungry, nobody thirsty, shade from the sun, shelter from the wind, For the Compassionate One guides them, takes them to the best springs. 11 I'll make all my mountains into roads, turn them into a superhighway. 12 Look: These coming from far countries, and those, out of the north, These streaming in from the west, and those from all the way down the Nile!"
13 Heavens, raise the roof! Earth, wake the dead! Mountains, send up cheers! God has comforted his people. He has tenderly nursed his beaten-up, beaten-down people. 14 But Zion said, "I don't get it. God has left me. My Master has forgotten I even exist." 15 "Can a mother forget the infant at her breast, walk away from the baby she bore? But even if mothers forget, I'd never forget you - never. 16 Look, I've written your names on the backs of my hands. The walls you're rebuilding are never out of my sight. 17 Your builders are faster than your wreckers. The demolition crews are gone for good.
18 Look up, look around, look well! See them all gathering, coming to you? As sure as I am the living God" - God's Decree - "you're going to put them on like so much jewelry, you're going to use them to dress up like a bride. 19 "And your ruined land? Your devastated, decimated land? Filled with more people than you know what to do with! And your barbarian enemies, a fading memory. 20 The children born in your exile will be saying, 'It's getting too crowded here. I need more room.' 21 And you'll say to yourself, 'Where on earth did these children come from? I lost everything, had nothing, was exiled and penniless. So who reared these children? How did these children get here?'" 22 The Master, God, says: "Look! I signal to the nations, I raise my flag to summon the people. Here they'll come: women carrying your little boys in their arms, men carrying your little girls on their shoulders. 23 Kings will be your babysitters, princesses will be your nursemaids. They'll offer to do all your drudge work - scrub your floors, do your laundry. You'll know then that I am God. No one who hopes in me ever regrets it."
24 Can plunder be retrieved from a giant, prisoners of war gotten back from a tyrant? 25 But God says, "Even if a giant grips the plunder and a tyrant holds my people prisoner, I'm the one who's on your side, defending your cause, rescuing your children. 26 And your enemies, crazed and desperate, will turn on themselves, killing each other in a frenzy of self-destruction. Then everyone will know that I, God, have saved you - I, the Mighty One of Jacob."
41 One final word, friends. We ask you - urge is more like it - that you keep on doing what we told you to do to please God, not in a dogged religious plod, but in a living, spirited dance. 2 You know the guidelines we laid out for you from the Master Jesus. 3 God wants you to live a pure life. Keep yourselves from sexual promiscuity. 4 Learn to appreciate and give dignity to your body, 5 not abusing it, as is so common among those who know nothing of God. 6 Don't run roughshod over the concerns of your brothers and sisters. Their concerns are God's concerns, and he will take care of them. We've warned you about this before. 7 God hasn't invited us into a disorderly, unkempt life but into something holy and beautiful - as beautiful on the inside as the outside. 8 If you disregard this advice, you're not offending your neighbors; you're rejecting God, who is making you a gift of his Holy Spirit.
9 Regarding life together and getting along with each other, you don't need me to tell you what to do. You're God-taught in these matters. Just love one another! 10 You're already good at it; your friends all over the province of Macedonia are the evidence. Keep it up; get better and better at it. 11 Stay calm; mind your own business; do your own job. You've heard all this from us before, but a reminder never hurts. 12 We want you living in a way that will command the respect of outsiders, not lying around sponging off your friends.
13 And regarding the question, friends, that has come up about what happens to those already dead and buried, we don't want you in the dark any longer. First off, you must not carry on over them like people who have nothing to look forward to, as if the grave were the last word. 14 Since Jesus died and broke loose from the grave, God will most certainly bring back to life those who died in Jesus. 15 And then this: We can tell you with complete confidence - we have the Master's word on it - that when the Master comes again to get us, those of us who are still alive will not get a jump on the dead and leave them behind. In actual fact, they'll be ahead of us. 16 The Master himself will give the command. Archangel thunder! God's trumpet blast! He'll come down from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise - they'll go first. 17 Then the rest of us who are still alive at the time will be caught up with them into the clouds to meet the Master. 18 Oh, we'll be walking on air! And then there will be one huge family reunion with the Master. So reassure one another with these words.
