God

"For a long time I have held my peace, I have been silent, restrained myself. Now I will shriek like a woman in labor, panting and gasping for air.

I will devastate mountains and hills, wither all their vegetation, turn the rivers into islands and dry up the lakes.

The blind I will lead on a road they don't know, on roads they don't know I will lead them; I will turn darkness to light before them, and straighten their twisted paths. These are things I will do without fail.

Who is as blind as my servant, or as deaf as the messenger I send? Who is as blind as the one I rewarded, as blind as the servant of ADONAI?"

ADONAI was pleased, for his righteousness' sake, to make the Torah great and glorious.

Who gave Ya'akov to be pillaged, Isra'el to the plunderers? Didn't ADONAI, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they refused to walk, he whose Torah they did not obey?

This is why he poured on him his blazing anger as well as the fury of battle - it wrapped him in flames, yet he learned nothing; it burned him, yet he did not take it to heart.

But now this is what ADONAI says, he who created you, Ya'akov, he who formed you, Isra'el: "Don't be afraid, for I have redeemed you; I am calling you by your name; you are mine.

When you pass through water, I will be with you; when you pass through rivers, they will not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire, you will not be scorched - the flame will not burn you.

For I am ADONAI, your God, the Holy One of Isra'el, your Savior - I have given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and S'va for you.

Because I regard you as valued and honored, and because I love you. For you I will give people, nations in exchange for your life.

Don't be afraid, for I am with you. I will bring your descendants from the east, and I will gather you from the west;

I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Don't hold them back! Bring my sons from far away, and my daughters from the ends of the earth,

everyone who bears my name, whom I created for my glory - I formed him, yes, I made him.'"

"You are my witnesses," says ADONAI, "and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you can know and trust me and understand that I am he no god was produced before me, nor will any be after me.

I, yes I, am ADONAI; besides me there is no deliverer.

I have declared, saved and proclaimed - not some alien god among you. Therefore you are my witnesses," says ADONAI. "I am God.

Since days began, I have been he. No one can deliver from my hand. When I act, who can reverse it?"

Here is what ADONAI, your redeemer, the Holy One of Isra'el, says: "For your sake I have sent [an army] to Bavel and knocked down the fleeing Kasdim, all of them; their songs of triumph are now lamentations.

I am ADONAI, your Holy One, the Creator of Isra'el, your King."

Here is what ADONAI says, who made a way in the sea, a path through the raging waves;

I am doing something new; it's springing up - can't you see it? I am making a road in the desert, rivers in the wasteland.

The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; because I put water in the desert, rivers in the wasteland, for my chosen people to drink,

the people I formed for myself, so that they would proclaim my praise.

But you haven't called on me, Ya'akov; because you have grown weary of me, Isra'el.