Page:JPS-1917-Universal.djvu/555

---

And of the cities of Judah: 'They shall be built,

And I will raise up the waste places thereof';

²⁷That saith to the deep: 'Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers';

²⁸That saith of Cyrus: 'He is My shepherd,

And shall perform all My pleasure';

Even saying of Jerusalem: 'She shall be built';

And to the temple: 'My foundation shall be laid.'

 

45Thus saith the Lord to His anointed,

To Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden,

To subdue nations before him,

And to loose the loins of kings;

To open the doors before him,

And that the gates may not be shut:

²I will go before thee,

And make the crooked places straight;

I will break in pieces the doors of brass,

And cut in sunder the bars of iron;

³And I will give thee the treasures of darkness,

And hidden riches of secret places,

That thou mayest know that I am the Lord,

Who call thee by thy name, even the God of Israel.

⁴For the sake of Jacob My servant,

And Israel Mine elect,

I have called thee by thy name,

I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known Me.

⁵I am the Lord, and there is none else,

Beside Me there is no God;

I have girded thee, though thou hast not known Me;

⁶That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west,

That there is none beside Me;

I am the Lord; and there is none else;

⁷I form the light, and create darkness;

I make peace, and create evil;

I am the Lord, that doeth all these things.

 

⁸Drop down, ye heavens, from above,

And let the skies pour down righteousness;

Let the earth open, that they may bring forth salvation,

And let her cause righteousness to spring up together;

I the Lord have created it.

 

⁹Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker,

As a potsherd with the potsherds of the earth!

Shall the clay say to him that fashioned it: 'What makest thou?'

Or: 'Thy work, it hath no hands'?

¹⁰Woe unto him that saith unto his father.' Wherefore begettest thou?'

Or to a woman: 'Wherefore travailest thou?'

 

¹¹Thus saith the Lord,

The Holy One of Israel, and his Maker:

Ask Me of the things that are to come;

Concerning My sons, and concerning the work of My hands, command ye Me.

¹²I, even I, have made the earth,

And created man upon it;

I, even My hands, have stretched out the heavens,

And all their host have I commanded.

533