5 The Lord promiseth comfort and that he will assemble his Church of divers nations 9 The Vanitie of idoles. 17 The beastliness fo idolaters.
1.Yet now hear, ô Jaakób my servant, and Israél, whom I have chosen.
2.Thus saith the Lord, that made thee, and formed athee from the wombe: he will help thee. Fear not, ô Jaakób, my servant, and thou righteous, bwhom I have chosen.
3.For I will powre water upon cthe thirstie, and floods upon the dry ground: I will powre my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy buds,
4.And they dshal grow as among the grass, and as the willows by the river of waters.
5.One shal say, I am the Lord’s: another eshal be called by the name of Jaakób: and another shal subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and name him self by the name of Israél.
6.Thus saith the Lord the King of Israél and his redeemer, the Lord of hostes, fI am the first, and I am the last, and without me is there no God.
7.And who is like me, that shal gcall, and shal declare it, and set hit in order before me, since I appointed the iancient people? and what is at hand, and what things are to come? let kthem shewe unto them.
8.Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee of olde, and have declared it? lyou are even my witnesses, whether there be a God beside me, and that there is no God that I know not.
9.All they that make an image, are vanity, and mtheir delectable things shal nothing profit: and they are their own witnesses, nthat they see nor know: therefore they shalbe confounded.
10.Who hath made oa god, or molten an image, that is pprofitable for nothing?
11.Behold, all that are of the qfellowship thereof, shalbe confounded: for the workmen them selves are men: let them all be gathered together, and rstand up, yet they shal fear, and be confounded together.
12.The smith taketh an instrument, and worketh in the coals, and facioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with the strength of his arms: yea, he is an shungred, and his strength faileth: he drinketh no water, and is faint.
13.The carpenter stretcheth out a line · he facioneth it with a red thread, he planeth it, and he purtreieth it with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, and according to the beautie of a man that it maie remain in tan house.
14.He will hewe him down cedres, and take the pine tre and the oke, and taketh courage among the trees of the forest · he planteth a fyrre tre, and the rain doeth nourish it.
15.And man burneth thereof: for he will take thereof and uwarm himself, he also kindleth it and baketh bread, yet he maketh a god, and worshipeth it: he maketh it an idol and boweth unto it.
16.He burneth the half thereof even in the fire, and upon the half thereof he xeateth flesh: he rosteth the roste and is satisfied: also he warmeth him self and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have been at the fire.
17.And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his idol: he boweth unto it and worshipeth and praieth unto it, and saith, Deliver me: for thou art my god.
18.They have not knowen, nor understand: yfor God hath shut their eyes that they can not see, and their hearts, that they can not understand.
19.And none ^considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burnt half of it, even in the fire, and have baked bread also upon the coals thereof: I have rosted flesh, and eaten it, and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I bow to the stock of a tre.
20.He fedeth zof ashes: a seduced heart hath deceived him, that he can not deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lye in my right hand?
21.aRemember these (ô Jaakób and Israél) for thou art my servant: I have formed thee: thou art my servant: ô Israél forget me not.
22.I have put away thy transgressions like a cloud, and thy sinnes, as a mist: turn unto me, for I have redeemed thee.
23.bRejoyce, ye heavens: for the Lord hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: brast forth into praises, ye mountains, ô forest and every tre therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Jaakób and wilbe glorified in Israél.
24.Thus saith the Lord thy redeemer and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord, that made all things, that spread out the heavens alone, and stretched out the earth by my self.
25.I destroy the ctokens of the soethsaiers and make them that conjecture, fools, and turn the wise men backward, and make their knowledge foolishness.
26.¶ He confirmeth the word of his dservant and performeth the counsel of his messengers, saying to Jerusalém, Thou shalt be inhabited: and to the cities of Judáh, ye shalbe built up, and I will repair the decayed places thereof.
27.He saith to the edeep, Be dry and I will dry up thy floods.
28.He saith to fCyrus, Thou art my shepherd: and he shal reform all my desire, saying also to Jerusalém, Thou shalt be built: and to the Temple, Thy foundation shalbe surely layed.
That is, the idolaters seeing their idols blind, must needs be witness- es of their own blindness, and feeling that they are not able to help them, must confess that they have no power.
Whereby appears their blasphemie, which call images the books of the laity, seeing that they are not only here called unprofitable, but Ch. 41.24, abominable and Jere. calls them the work of errors Jer. 10.15, Habak. a lying teacher 2.18.
He sets forth the obstinacy and malice of the idolaters, which though they see by daily experience that their idols are no better then the rest of the matter whereof they are made, yet they refuse the one part and make a god of the other, as the papists make their cake, god and the rest of their idols,
The Prophet gives here an answer to all them that wonder how it is possible that any should be so blind to commit such abomination, saying, that God has blinded their eyes, and hardened their hearts.
Showing that man’s heart is most inclined to idolatry, and therefore he warns his people by these examples, that they should not cleave to any but to the living God when they should be among the idolaters.
He arms them against the soothsayers of Babylon, which would have born them in hand, that they knew by the stars that God would not deliver them, and that Babylon should stand.