8. Pour down, you heavens above,and let the clouds flow with righteousness.Let the earth open for salvation to bear fruit;let righteousness sprout as well.I, the Lord, have created these things.
9. Doom to the one who argues with the potter,as if he were just another clay pot!Does the clay say to the potter, "What are you making?"or "Your work has no handles"?
10. Doom to one who says to a father,"What have you fathered?"and to a woman,"With what are you in labor?"
11. The Lord, the holy one of Israel and its maker, says:Are you questioning me about my own children?Are you telling me what to do with the work of my hands?
12. I myself made the earth,and created humans upon it.My own hands stretched out the heavens.I commanded all their forces.
13. I have a right to awaken Cyrus;I will smooth all his paths.He will build my cityand set my exiles free,not for a price and not for a bribe,says the Lord of heavenly forces.
14. The Lord says:Egypt will grow weary, Cush will be sold,and the tall Sabeans will cross over to you.They will be yours, and after you they will go.In chains they will come;to you they will bow down.They will plead with you:"Truly God is with you;there’s no other, no other God."
15. Surely you are a god who hides himself,Israel’s God and savior.
16. They will all be shamed and disgraced;the makers of idols will end up disgraced together.
17. Israel has been saved by the Lord of everlasting salvation.You won’t be shamed,and you won’t be disgraced forever and always.
18. For this is what the Lord said, who created the heavens,who is God,who formed the earth and made it,who established it,who didn’t create it a wasteland but formed it as a habitation:I, the Lord, and none other!
19. I didn’t speak in secretor in some land of darkness;I didn’t say to the offspring of Jacob,"Seek me in chaos."I am the Lord, the one who speaks truth,who announces what is correct.
20. Gather and come,draw near together,fugitives of the nations!Those who carry their wooden idols don’t know;those who pray to a god who won’t save.
21. Announce! Approach! Confer together!Who proclaimed this from the beginning, announced it from long ago?Wasn’t it I, the Lord?There’s no other God except me,a righteous God and a savior;there’s none besides me!
22. Turn to me and be saved,all you ends of the earth,for I am God, and there’s no other.
23. I have sworn a solemn pledge;a word has left my mouth;it is reliable and won’t fail.Surely every knee will bowand every tongue will confess;
24. they will say, "Righteousness and strength come only from the Lord.All who are angry with him will come to shame.
25. All the Israeliteswill be victorious and rejoice."