Rhyming Isaiah, Chapter 45

The LORD, to his anointed one, thus says,

to Cyrus, whose right hand that I have grasped,

so, all the nations, he will downwards tramp

and in his service, he makes the kings run

to open up the gateways before him,

so that their gates won’t be closed, not a one.

Before you I will go and level them,

the mountains.  I will break down all the doors

of bronze, and those of iron, all the bars.

I shall cut through them.  I will give to you 

the gifts of darkness that no one has viewed

and hoards of wealth that no one ever knew,

so that you may know that I am the LORD

who calls you by your name, I’m Is’rael’s God.

It’s for my servant Jacob, his own sake, 

and Is’rael who’s my chosen one, by name

I’ve called you, and a title, given you

despite the fact that me, you never knew.

I am the LORD, I’m utterly unique.

There is no other God except for me.

I arm you even though you don’t know me

so all may know besides me there is none.

From where it rises, in the east, the sun,

clear to the west.  It’s I who form the light,

the darkness, I create, and both alike

I make well-being and disaster too.

It’s I the LORD, all these things, what I do.

Rain righteousness, you heavens, let the skies

pour justice, so that it may upwards rise,

salvation from the earth, and righteousness

bud forth.  The LORD, I, have created this.

Woe to you who will with your Maker strive.

To make the earthenware: the potter’s right.

The clay, who fashions it, it ask him, will:

“What do you make to fire inside the kiln?”,

or will the pot tell him, “You have no skill”?

Woe to the child who to the father says,

“Begetting, why are you?” or asks her this,

the mother, “What are you in labor with?”

Thus says the LORD, the Holy One is he,

of Is’rael, and its maker, Question me,

will you about my children or command

me in the ways I’m working with my hands?

All by myself, the earth is what I made

and humankind upon it, I create.

With my own hands, the heavens, I outstretched

and all their host, they are what I direct.

It’s Cyrus, I aroused in righteousness

and, straight the way, that I’ve made all his paths

Who will rebuild my city? It is he,

and he is who, my exiles, will set free–

with neither ransom nor indemnity,

thus says the LORD of hosts, all of, words, these.

Thus says the LORD, Of Egypt, what it earns,

of Ethiopia, all of its wares,

and the Sabeans, tall of stature, who’re,

shall, over, come to you and will be yours.

They shall, you, follow and how, they in chains

shall, over, come to you, and fall prostrate.

They’ll, supplication, make to you and say,

“God is with you alone and there is not

another, all the other gods are nought.”

You are a God who surely hides himself,

the Savior who’s the God of Israel.

All of them are, to shame, put, and disgraced,

they are confounded, those, who, idols, make.

But by the LORD, it’s Is’rael who is saved,

delivering them for eternity.

Confounded, you wn’t be, nor put to shame.

How you are saved? It’s everlastingly.

For thus the LORD says, who, the heavens, made

he, who is God, the earth formed, and it, shaped,

and by himself he fixed it firm in place.

Not chaos, what it was he did create,

but as a place to be inhabited!

I am the LORD, there’s no alternative.

I did not speak in secret in a land

of darkness and this is not what I said

to Jacob’s people, “Where, me, you should seek,

in chaos.”  But the truth is what I speak.

It’s I, the LORD, who justice, does declare.

Together, gather, and yourselves, draw near,

survivors of the nations, you, who are!

They have no knowledge, those who, in parade,

their wooden idols, bear, and to them, pray.

They, to a god, pray, whom, them, cannot save.

Come forward and declare, present your case,

consult together; let them, counsel, take.

Who told this long ago, and who declared,

of old, it? Was it not I, who’s the LORD?

Besides, there is no other God than me,

no saving God, no Savior but for me.

Turn back to me and then, saved, you will be.

There, from the furthest corners of the earth,

to be saved, you just have, to me, to turn.

For I am God, another, there is not.

I have sworn by myself and from my mouth,

a word of righteousness what has gone forth,

a promise that will never, broken, be,

“To me, will bow down every bending knee,

and ev’ry tongue will swear only by me.”

Of me, they’ll say, “They’re only in the LORD,

both righteousness and strength; all those who were

incensed against him shall come, him, before

and be ashamed. Of Is’rael, the offspring

shall glory in the LORD triumphantly.

Rhyming Isaiah, Chapter 44

My servant, Jacob, listen Israel,

now, whom I’ve chosen, help you, how I will.

Thus says the LORD, he who created you,

he is the one who formed you in the womb.

O Jacob, do not fear, you, Jeshurun

whom I have chosen.  On the thirsty soil,

I will pour water and streams, how I will,

on the dry ground.  My spirit, I’ll pour out

on your descendants and my blessing on

your offspring, and then they will upwards shoot

like a green tamarisk into the sun,

like willows by the gently flowing streams.

“I am the LORD’s,” will say, this person, one,

another will be called by Jacob’s name.

Another writes the LORD’s name on his hand

and, as a surname, “Is’rael,” he will add.

Thus says the LORD, he who is Is’rael’s King,

“There is no other god except for me.

I’m his redeemer and the LORD of hosts,

I am the first and also am the last.

Who is like me?  Let him stand up and speak,

let him declare it, show his proof to me.

Who’s, from of old, announced, to come, the things?

Let him foretell events, those yet to be.

Don’t fear, take heart, and do not be afraid.

Have I not told you all this from of old

and all these things, to you, I have declared?

You are my witnesses.  Apart from me,

identify another deity!

There is no other Rock, I am unique.”

All who make idols come to nothingness,

their cherished images are profitless,

and these, against them, are their witnesses:

they, nothing, see, and nothing do they know,

their ignorance, their foolishness, it shows.

Whoever makes a god, or he who casts

an image, all his efforts, what he wastes;

no thing he does will ever come to gain.

All devotees of his are put to shame

and, only human, they’re, who, idols, make.

Let them stand up, they will be terrified

and they will all, to shame, there, be confined.

An axe, the blacksmith, o’er the charcoal makes,

and o’er the hot coals, hammers, with them, shapes.

Becoming hungry, how his strength then fails,

he drinks no water, then, becomes, he, faint.

The carpenter, he stretches out a line,

and with a stylus, how it is defined,

the wood, what he will fashion with his planes.

He carves it so it makes a human shape

with human beauty and man’s dignity.

A shrine, the place that it will occupy.

He cuts a cedar down, a holm, an oak.

Of other forests’ trees, he will lay hold,

those that the LORD plants and the rain made grow.

Some portion serves the man as fuel for fire

and some for roasting meat, that use it has.

He eats his food and he is satisfied.

He warms himself and this what he says,

“Ah, I am warm here with the fire’s hot flame.”

With half the wood, a god is what he makes.

His idol, he bows down to it and prays.

“Save me, for you, my god, are,” what he says.

They do not know nor do they comprehend.

Their eyes are closed so that they cannot see,

their clouded minds makes them not understand.

They can’t consider nor can they perceive

enough to say, “Half, I have burned for fire

to bake my bread on glowing embers’ fuel.

I roasted meat; my hunger’s now expired.
The other half of wood, for this I’ll use

it: an abomination, what I’ll make.

Before a block of wood, I’ll lie prostrate.”

He feeds on ashes, and it is astray,

that his deluded mind, to there, him, led,

and he can’t save himself, or of it say,

“Is not this thing in my hand just a fraud?”

“O Jacob, all these things, keep them in mind

and Is’rael, for who you are: servant, my.

You are my servant, whom I did create.

O Is’rael, you, I never shall forget.

All your transgressions, how them I have swept

away just like a cloud and all your sins,

I have dispersed them like the morning’s mists.

Return to me, for you, I have redeemed.”

O heavens, for the LORD has done this, sing!

The underworld, cry out with joy, aloud.

You mountain tops, for joy, now, you should shout,

the forests and in them each growing tree!

For Jacob is the one the LORD redeemed

and Is’rael, through, his glory, he’s revealed.

Thus says the LORD, whom your Redeemer is,

who formed you in the womb and ever since:

“I am the LORD, and everything, I made,

who by myself the heavens outwards spread,

alone, the earth, I hammered into shape;

the liars’ omens, all them, I frustrate

and, the diviners, into fools, I make.

What wise men say, those things I will reverse.

Their knowledge, into foolishness, I turn.

My servant’s prophecies, those, I confirm.

My envoy’s plans, successful, I will make.

It’s to Jerusalem, this, what I say,

‘Once more inhabited, how she will be.’

And Judah’s cities, ‘They, rebuilt, will be,’

and I will raise their ruins upwardly.”

‘Be dry,’ is what I say to waters, deep.

I make them dry, where they once flowed, your streams.

Who says of Cyrus, ‘Shepherd, my, he is,

and he shall carry out my purposes.

So that Jerusalem may be rebuilt,

the temple’s, laid, foundations, be, they will.’”

Rhyming Isaiah, Chapter 43

But Jacob, now, thus says the LORD, he who

created you, o Is’rael, who formed you:

Fear not for it is you whom I’ve redeemed;

I have called you by name and you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, at that time,

I will be with you and, and the river’s streams

will not o’erwhelm you; when you walk through fire,

you won’t be burned, and scorched, you will not be

by the hot flames.  For I’m your God, said he,

I am the Holy One of Israel,

your Savior, as your ransom, give, I will,

all, Egypt, Seba, Ethiopia,

them in exchange for you. It is because

you’re precious in my sigh and honored too,

and simply put, that fact, that I love you.

I, people, give them in return for you,

the nations, for your life, giv’n in exchange.

Don’t fear for I am with you every day.

Your offspring, I will bring them from the east,

and from the west, I’ll gather you; ‘Release

them,’ this, what I am saying to the north,

and to the south, ‘Don’t interrupt their course’;

bring all my sons from far away, that source,

and daughters, my, from the ends of the earth,

bring all, to whom are, by my name, referred,

all whom I have created, all I’ve formed,

whom I made, it’s my glory, what they’re for.

The people who are blind, now bring them here,

the people who are deaf yet still have ears!

Together, all the nations, gather, let,

the peoples, to assemble, them, permit.

Amongst them who declares things in the past,

and who interprets all the former things?

So that the people hear them prove their case,

let them, their witnesses, now forward bring

and let them hear and say, “That is the truth.”

The LORD declares, ‘My witnesses are you,

you are my servant, you, the one I’ve chos’n,

so that you will believe me and you’ll know

and put your trust in me and you’ll confirm

I am the LORD.  Before me, none was formed,

no other god, nor ever shall there be

another one that might come after me.

I am the LORD and I alone am he

who is your Savior. I declared and saved,

and made it known, it was no god, one strange

among you, and you are my witnesses,

the LORD says.  I’m God in the future tense.

I am He.  There is no one else who can

deliver anybody from my hand.

I work and no one, me, can countermand.

These are the LORD’s words, who’s, Redeemer, your,

the Holy One of Is’rael: your sake, for.

I will to Babylon, an army, send,

and I will break down all the prison’s bars,

then the Chaledeans’ joy at once will end,

and, into lamentation, it will turn.

I am the LORD who is your Holy One

of Is’rael, the Creator, and your King

who makes a way that passes through the sea,

through mighty waters, paths you can walk on,

who leads the chariots and horsemen out

together with an army that’s elite

to their destruction, they lie down in rout

and never will they rise back on their feet,

they were extinguished, like a wick, snuffed out.

Stop dwelling on the past, the former things.

I am about to do a thing that’s new,

it will unfold and it will forward spring,

is it not something that’s within your view?

It’s through the wilderness, I’ll make a way

and rivers in the land that now is waste.

The animals who’re wild will honor me,

the jackals, wolves, the owls, and ostriches,

for I give water in the wilderness

and rivers in the wastes where they can drink.

My chosen people, for myself, I made

so they announce, and can proclaim my praise.

Yet Jacob, you do not upon me call,

but weary, in my service, Israel,

is how you grew. You haven’t brought them whole,

your sheep for offerings you have withheld,

nor, with your sacrifices, honored me.

I have not burdened you with offerings

or wearied you with frankincense demands,

you have not bought me aromatic reeds

or offered me your sacrifices’ fat.

But rather, with your sins, you’ve burdened me.

You’ve wearied me with your iniquities.

I, I am he, for my sake, who blots out

all your transgressions and, your sins, I’ll not

remember them.  Accuse me, make your case

at trial; make your pleadings so you may

be proved as innocent.  Your ancestor,

your first one sinned, and your interpreters

transgressed against me.  Therefore I profaned

the princes at the sanctuary’s gates,

why, Jacob, I, to scorn, there, I confined,

and Is’rael, how I left to be reviled.

Dolbear’s Law

The crickets’ chirping tells the temperature.