Isaiah 45 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 This is what the Lord says to Cyrus, the one he has anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to direct him to defeat nations and to make kings weak, to open doors before him and gates that will not be shut.
1 Yahweh says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held to subdue nations before him and strip kings of their armor, to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut:
2 I will go ahead of you and level the mountains. I will break down bronze gates and cut through iron bars.
2 “I will go before you and make the rough places smooth. I will break the doors of bronze in pieces and cut apart the bars of iron.
3 I will give you hidden treasure, treasure concealed in secret places, so that you can know for sure that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, the one who calls you by name.
3 I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that it is I, Yahweh, who calls you by your name, even the God of Israel.
4 I call you by name and I have given you a title of honor, for the sake of Jacob my servant, and Israel the one I chose, even though you don't know me.
4 For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel my chosen, I have called you by your name. I have given you a title, though you have not known me.
5 I am the Lord, there is no God apart from me. Apart from me there is no God. I will make you strong, even though you don't know me,
5 I am Yahweh, and there is no one else. Besides me, there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not known me,
6 so that everyone, from the east to the west, will know that there is no God apart from me, that I am the Lord, and there is none apart from me.
6 that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is no one besides me. I am Yahweh, and there is no one else.
7 I create light, and I make darkness, I bring peace and I bring about disaster. I am the Lord and I do all this.
7 I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create calamity. I am Yahweh, who does all these things.
8 Let the rain fall from the sky above, let goodness fall from the clouds, let the earth open up to receive goodness and salvation so they can grow together. I, the Lord, created them.
8 Rain, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, that it may produce salvation, and let it cause righteousness to spring up with it. I, Yahweh, have created it.
9 What trouble people face when they fight with their Creator—they're just pots among all the other pots on earth! Does the clay tell the potter who is shaping it, “What are you doing?” or “What you're making is so bad it's like you have no hands!”
9 Woe to him who strives with his Maker— a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands’?
10 How bad it would be if you said to your father, “Why did you have me?” or to your mother, “Why was I ever born?”!
10 Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What have you become the father of?’ or to a mother, ‘What have you given birth to?’”
11 This is what the Lord says, the Holy One of Israel, your Creator: You can ask me about things to come. But are you going to lecture me about my children and what I do?
11 Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel and his Maker says: “You ask me about the things that are to come, concerning my sons, and you command me concerning the work of my hands!
12 I'm the one who made the earth, and I created human beings to live there. It was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I ordered all the stars to come into being.
12 I have made the earth, and created man on it. I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens. I have commanded all their army.
13 Because I do what's right, I will encourage him and smooth out all the roads he takes. He will rebuild my city and will set my exiles free without being paid or bribed to do so, says the Lord Almighty.
13 I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways straight. He shall build my city, and he shall let my exiles go free, not for price nor reward,” says Yahweh of Armies.
14 This is what the Lord says: The productive Egyptians and the Ethiopian traders, as well as the tall Sabean people, will come over to you and will belong to you. They will walk behind you in chains and bow down to you, pleading with you, saying, “God is certainly with you, and there is no other God besides him.”
14 Yahweh says: “The labor of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, men of stature, will come over to you, and they will be yours. They will go after you. They shall come over in chains. They will bow down to you. They will make supplication to you: ‘Surely God is in you; and there is no one else. There is no other god.
15 Yet you are a God who hides himself, God of Israel, Savior.
15 Most certainly you are a God who has hidden yourself, God of Israel, the Savior.’”
16 Everyone who makes idols are ashamed and humiliated, all of them are disgraced.
16 They will be disappointed, yes, confounded, all of them. Those who are makers of idols will go into confusion together.
17 But Israel will be saved by the Lord with a salvation that lasts forever. You will never be ashamed or disgraced for all eternity.
17 Israel will be saved by Yahweh with an everlasting salvation. You will not be disappointed nor confounded to ages everlasting.
18 For this is what the Lord says, the God who created the heavens, who formed and made the earth, he founded it. He didn't make it to be left empty, but formed it to be inhabited. He is the one who says, I am the Lord, and there is no God apart from me.
18 For Yahweh who created the heavens, the God who formed the earth and made it, who established it and didn’t create it a waste, who formed it to be inhabited says: “I am Yahweh. There is no other.
19 I haven't been talking in secret in an obscure place. I didn't tell the descendants of Jacob: Look for me in a place where no one can be found. I, the Lord, tell the truth—I say what's right.
19 I have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness. I didn’t say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I, Yahweh, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right.
20 Gather yourselves together, and come, come close, you refugees of the nations. Aren't they stupid, these people who carry around their wooden idols, and who pray to a god that can't save them?
20 “Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. Those have no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image, and pray to a god that can’t save.
21 Discuss this together, and then speak up, present your case. Who predicted this long ago? Who said what would happen in the future back in the past? Wasn't that me, the Lord? There is no other God except me, no other God who does what is right, and who saves. There is no God apart from me.
21 Declare and present it. Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has shown this from ancient time? Who has declared it of old? Haven’t I, Yahweh? There is no other God besides me, a just God and a Savior. There is no one besides me.
22 Everyone on earth, come to me and be saved, for I am God and there is no God apart from me.
22 “Look to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.
23 I have sworn by my own self, I have spoken what is right, and I won't ever go back on it. Everyone shall bow before me; everyone shall acknowledge me.
23 I have sworn by myself. The word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and will not be revoked, that to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath.
24 They will say about me, “Salvation and strength can only be found in the Lord.” Everyone who has fought against him will come to him and will be ashamed.
24 They will say of me, ‘There is righteousness and strength only in Yahweh.’” Even to him will men come. All those who raged against him will be disappointed.
25 But in the Lord all the descendants of Israel will be made right, and they will glory in him.
25 All the offspring of Israel will be justified in Yahweh, and will rejoice!
Cross references (25)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Jeremiah 51:20–24; Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 44:28; Psalm 73:23; Isaiah 41:13
- 2 Isaiah 40:4; Isaiah 42:16; Luke 3:5; Psalm 107:16; Jeremiah 51:30
- 3 Isaiah 48:15; Isaiah 43:1; Exodus 33:17; Exodus 33:12; Ezra 1:2
- 4 Isaiah 41:8–9; Acts 17:23; Exodus 19:5–6; Isaiah 44:1; Romans 11:7
- 5 Isaiah 44:8; Isaiah 44:6; Isaiah 46:9; Joel 2:27; 1 Kings 8:60
- 6 Malachi 1:11; Isaiah 37:20; Isaiah 45:5; Psalm 46:10; Ezekiel 38:23
- 7 Ecclesiastes 7:13–14; Amos 3:6; Psalm 75:7; Job 2:10; Isaiah 31:2
- 8 Hosea 10:12; Isaiah 61:11; Psalm 72:6; 1 Corinthians 3:6–9; Isaiah 44:3
- 9 Romans 9:20–21; Isaiah 64:8; Isaiah 10:15; Jeremiah 18:6; Isaiah 29:16
- 10 Malachi 1:6; Deuteronomy 27:16; Hebrews 12:9
- 11 Jeremiah 33:3; Isaiah 48:17; Mark 11:24; Ezekiel 36:37; Ephesians 2:10
- 12 Isaiah 42:5; Isaiah 44:24; Jeremiah 27:5; Genesis 2:1; Nehemiah 9:6
- 13 Isaiah 41:2; Isaiah 13:17; Isaiah 41:25; Isaiah 49:25; 2 Chronicles 36:22–23
- 14 Isaiah 49:23; 1 Corinthians 14:25; Jeremiah 16:19; Acts 10:25–26; Isaiah 61:5–6
- 15 Isaiah 8:17; Psalm 44:24; Isaiah 57:17; Isaiah 46:13; Psalm 77:19
- 16 Isaiah 44:9; Isaiah 44:11; Isaiah 42:17; Jeremiah 2:26–27; Isaiah 41:19
- 17 Romans 10:11; Psalm 25:3; Isaiah 54:4; 1 Peter 2:6; Joel 2:26–27
- 18 Psalm 115:16; Jeremiah 10:12; Isaiah 42:5; Isaiah 45:12; Genesis 1:2
- 19 Isaiah 48:16; Amos 5:4; Numbers 23:19–20; Jeremiah 29:13–14; Proverbs 30:5
- 20 Isaiah 43:9; Isaiah 44:17–20; Jeremiah 10:5; Isaiah 4:2; Isaiah 46:1
- 21 Isaiah 45:5; Isaiah 46:9–10; Isaiah 43:11; Titus 2:13–14; Isaiah 43:9
- 22 John 6:40; Micah 7:7; Hebrews 12:2; Numbers 21:8–9; Zechariah 12:10
- 23 Philippians 2:10; Romans 14:10–12; Isaiah 55:11; Hebrews 6:13–18; Deuteronomy 6:13
- 24 Isaiah 41:11; Philippians 4:13; Isaiah 54:17; 2 Timothy 4:17–18; John 12:32
- 25 Isaiah 41:16; Galatians 3:27–29; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Romans 8:30; Romans 9:6–8
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
And this is what has been spoken by the prophet, "I am a jealous God, making peace, and creating evil things;" thus making peace and friendship with those who repent and turn to Him, and bringing [them to] unity, but preparing for the impenitent, those who shun the light, eternal fire and outer darkness, which are evils indeed to those …
Wherefore He says to it by Isaiah, "I am the Lord that formed thee." It is indeed descended from heaven from its commencement, since its citizens during the course of this world grow by the grace of God, which cometh down from above through the laver of regeneration in the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
And again, "I," saith He, "make peace, and create evils:" For neither in this place doth He speak of wickedness, but of famines, and pestilences, things accounted evil by most men: the generality being wont to call these things evil.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
If thou findest fault with Him who saith, I am God that make peace, and create evil, explain how Jesus saith, I came not to send peace but a sword.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)