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God Uses Cyrus

¹ This is what the LORD says to His anointed, to ^(C1)Cyrus king of Persia,
Whose ^(C2)right hand I have held
To ^(C3)subdue nations before him,
And I will ^(C4)ungird the loins of kings disarming them;
To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:

² "I will go before you and ^(C1)level the mountains;
I will ^(C2)shatter the doors of bronze and cut through the ^(C3)bars of iron.

³ "I will give you the ^(C1)treasures of darkness the hoarded treasures
And the hidden riches of secret places,
So that you may know that it is I,
The LORD, the God of Israel, who ^(C2)calls you (Cyrus the Great) by your name.

⁴ "For the sake of ^(C1)Jacob My servant,
And of Israel My chosen,
I have also ^(C2)called you by your name;
I have given you an honorable name
Though you have ^(C3)not known Me.

⁵ "I am the LORD, and ^(C1)there is no one else;
There is no God ^(C2)except Me.
I will ^(C3)embrace and arm you, though you have not known Me,

⁶ That ^(C1)people may know from the rising to the setting of the sun the world over
That there is ^(C2)no one except Me.
I am the LORD, and there is no other,

⁷ The One ^(C1)forming light and ^(C2)creating darkness,
Causing peace and ^(C3)creating disaster;
I am the LORD who does all these things.

God's Supreme Power

⁸ "Rain ^(C1)down, O heavens, from above,
Let the clouds pour down righteousness all the blessings of God;
Let the ^(C2)earth open up, let salvation bear fruit,
^(C3)And righteousness spring up with it;
I, the LORD, have created it.

⁹ "Woe (judgment is coming) to him who ^(C1)quarrels with his Maker—
A worthless piece of broken pottery among other broken pieces equally worthless!
Shall the ^(C2)clay say to the potter, 'What are you doing?'
Or does the thing say, 'He has no hands'? ^(VR1)

¹⁰ "Woe (judgment is coming) to him who says to a father, 'What are you fathering?'
Or to a woman, 'With what are you in labor?'"

¹¹ For the ^(C1)LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and its ^(C2)Maker says this,

"^(C3)Ask Me about the things to come concerning My ^(C4)sons,
And give Me orders concerning ^(C5)the work of My hands.

¹² "I ^(C1)made the earth and created man upon it.
My hands, ^(C2)stretched out the heavens,
And I commanded ^(C3)all their host.

¹³ "I have stirred up Cyrus and put him into action in ^(C1)righteousness to accomplish My purpose
And I will ^(C2)make all his ways smooth;
He will ^(C3)build My city and let My exiles ^(C4)go,
Without any payment or reward," says the LORD of hosts.

¹⁴ For this is what the LORD says,

"The products of ^(C1)Egypt and the merchandise of ^(C2)Cush (ancient Ethiopia)
And the Sabeans, men of stature,
Will ^(C3)come over to you and they will be yours;
They will walk behind you, in ^(C4)chains of subjection to you they will come over,
And they will ^(C5)bow down before you;
They will make supplication to you, humbly and earnestly saying,
^(F1)'Most certainly ^(C6)God is with you, and ^(C7)there is no other,
No other God besides Him.'" ^(VR1)

¹⁵ Truly, You are a God who ^(C1)hides Himself,
O God of Israel, ^(C2)Savior!

¹⁶ They will be ^(C1)put to shame and also humiliated, all of them;
They who ^(C2)make idols will go away together in humiliation.

¹⁷ Israel has been saved by the LORD
With an ^(C1)everlasting salvation;
You ^(C2)will not be put to shame or humiliated
for all eternity. ^(VR1)

¹⁸ For the LORD, who ^(C1)created the heavens ^(F1)(He is God, who ^(C2)formed the earth and made it; He established it and did not create it to be a ^(C3)wasteland, but formed it to be ^(C4)inhabited) says this,

"I am the LORD, and ^(C5)there is no one else.

¹⁹ "^(C1)I have not spoken in secret,
In a corner of a land of darkness;
I did not say to the ^(C2)descendants of Jacob,
'^(C3)Seek Me in vain with no benefit for yourselves.'
I, the LORD, ^(C4)speak righteousness the truth—trustworthy, a straightforward correlation between deeds and words,
^(C5)Declaring things that are upright. ^(VR1)

²⁰ "^(C1)Assemble yourselves and come;
Come together, you survivors of the nations!
^(C2)They are ignorant,
Who ^(C3)carry around their wooden idols in religious processions or into battle
And keep on ^(C4)praying to a god that cannot save them.

²¹ "^(C1)Declare and present your defense of idols;
Indeed, let them consult together.
^(C2)Who announced this rise of Cyrus and his conquests long before it happened?
Who declared it long ago?
Was it not I, the LORD?
And there is ^(C3)no other God besides Me,
A consistently and uncompromisingly just and righteous God and a ^(C4)Savior;
There is none except Me.

²² "^(C1)Turn to Me and ^(C2)be saved, all the ends of the earth;
For I am God, and there is no other.

²³ "^(C1)I have sworn an oath by Myself,
The ^(C2)word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness
And shall not return,
That to Me ^(C3)every knee shall bow, every tongue shall ^(C4)swear allegiance. ^(VR1)

²⁴ "It shall be said of Me, 'Only ^(C1)in the LORD are righteousness and strength.'
To Him people will come,
And ^(C2)all who were angry at Him will be put to shame. ^(VR1)

²⁵ "In the LORD all the offspring of Israel
Will be ^(C1)justified (declared free of guilt) and will ^(C2)glory in God."