Reading I
Isa 45:6c-8, 18, 21c-25
That they may know who are from the rising of the sun, and they who are from the west, that there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is none else:
I form the light, and create darkness, I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord that do all these things.
Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just: let the earth be opened, and bud forth a saviour: and let justice spring up together: I the Lord have created him.
For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth, and made it, the very maker thereof: he did not create it in vain: he formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord, and there is no other.
Tell ye, and come, and consult together: who hath declared this from the beginning, who hath foretold this from that time? Have not I the Lord, and there is no God else besides me? A just God and a saviour, there is none besides me.
Be converted to me, and you shall be saved, all ye ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is no other.
I have sworn by myself, the word of justice shall go out of my mouth, and shall not return:
For every knee shall be bowed to me, and every tongue shall swear.
Therefore shall he say: In the Lord are my justices and empire: they shall come to him, and all that resist him shall be confounded.
