43:1  BUT NOW [in spite of past judgments for Israel's sins], thus says the Lord, He Who created you, O Jacob, and He Who formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you [ransomed you by paying a price instead of leaving you captives]; I have called you by your name; you are Mine.

43:2  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned {or} scorched, nor will the flame kindle upon you.

43:3  For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt [to the Babylonians] for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba [a province of Ethiopia] in exchange [for your release].

43:4  Because you are precious in My sight and honored, and because I love you, I will give men in return for you and peoples in exchange for your life.

43:5  Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east [where they are dispersed] and gather you from the west.

43:6  I will say to the north, Give up! and to the south, Keep not back. Bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the ends of the earth--

43:7  Even everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for My glory, whom I have formed, whom I have made.

43:8  Bring forth the blind people who have eyes and the deaf who have ears.

43:9  Let all the nations be gathered together and let the peoples be assembled. Who among [the idolaters] could predict this [that Cyrus would be the deliverer of Israel] and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified, or let them hear and acknowledge, It is the truth.

43:10  You are My witnesses, says the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know Me, believe Me {and} remain steadfast to Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me.

43:11  I, even I, am the Lord, and besides Me there is no Savior.

43:12  I have declared [the future] and have saved [the nation in times of danger], and I have shown [that I am God]--when there was no strange and alien god among you; therefore you are My witnesses, says the Lord, that I am God.

43:13  Yes, from the time of the first existence of day {and} from this day forth I am He; and there is no one who can deliver out of My hand. I will work, and who can hinder {or} reverse it?

43:14  Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I have sent [one] to Babylon, and I will bring down all of them as fugitives, [with] all their nobles, even the Chaldeans, into the ships over which they rejoiced.

43:15  I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.

43:16  Thus says the Lord, Who makes a way through the sea and a path through the mighty waters,

43:17  Who brings forth chariot and horse, army and mighty warrior. They lie down together, they cannot rise; they are extinguished, they are quenched like a lampwick:

43:18  Do not [earnestly] remember the former things; neither consider the things of old.

43:19  Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth; do you not perceive {and} know it {and} will you not give heed to it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

43:20  The beasts of the field honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I give waters in the wilderness {and} rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen,

43:21  The people I formed for Myself, that they may set forth My praise [and they shall do it].

43:22  Yet you have not called upon Me [much less toiled for Me], O Jacob; but you have been weary of Me, O Israel!

43:23  You have not brought Me your sheep {and} goats for burnt offerings, or honored Me with your sacrifices. I have not required you to serve with an offering {or} treated you as a slave by demanding tribute or wearied you with offering incense.

43:24  You have not bought Me sweet cane with money, or satiated Me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have only burdened Me with your sins; you have wearied Me with your iniquities.

43:25  I, even I, am He Who blots out {and} cancels your transgressions, for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins.

43:26  Put Me in remembrance [remind Me of your merits]; let us plead {and} argue together. Set forth your case, that you may be justified (proved right).

43:27  Your first father [Jacob, in particular] sinned, and your teachers [the priests and the prophets--your mediators] transgressed against Me.

43:28  And so I will profane the chief ones of the sanctuary and will deliver Jacob to the curse (the ban, a solemn anathema or excommunication) and [will subject] Israel to reproaches {and} reviling.