For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed, “To an Unknown God.” Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.
who says to Cyrus, ‘My shepherd, he will fulfil all my pleasure’ and says to Jerusalem, ‘She will be rebuilt,’ and of the temple, ‘Its foundation will be laid.’
This is what the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: Because of you, I will send an army to Babylon and bring all of them as fugitives, even the Chaldeans in the ships in which they rejoice.
At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world.
Now this is what the Lord says – the one who created you, Jacob, and the one who formed you, Israel – ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine.