| Isaiah
(Yeshayahu) 43
This is what the LORD says- your Redeemer, the
Holy One of Israel: "For your sake I will
send to Babylon and bring down as fugitives
all the Babylonians, in the ships in which they
took pride. 15 I am the LORD , your Holy One,
Israel's Creator, your King."
This
is what the LORD says- he who made a way through
the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who
drew out the chariots and horses, the army and
reinforcements together, and they lay there,
never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out
like a wick:
"Forget the former things; do not dwell
on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now
it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am
making a way in the desert and streams in the
wasteland. The wild animals honor me, the jackals
and the owls, because I provide water in the
desert and streams in the wasteland, to give
drink to my people, my chosen, the people I
formed for myself that they may proclaim my
praise.
"Yet
you have not called upon me, O Jacob, you have
not wearied yourselves for me, O Israel. You
have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings,
nor honored me with your sacrifices. I have
not burdened you with grain offerings nor wearied
you with demands for incense. You have not bought
any fragrant calamus for me, or lavished on
me the fat of your sacrifices. But you have
burdened me with your sins and wearied me with
your offenses.
"I,
even I, am he who blots out your transgressions,
for my own sake, and remembers your sins no
more. Review the past for me, let us argue the
matter together; state the case for your innocence.
Your first father sinned; your spokesmen rebelled
against me. So I will disgrace the dignitaries
of your temple, and I will consign Jacob to
destruction and Israel to scorn.
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