Isaiah 48

¹"Hear this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and have come forth out of the waters of Judah; who swear by the name of Yahweh, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness

²(for they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; Yahweh of Armies is his name):

³I have declared the former things from of old; yes, they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them: suddenly I did them, and they happened.

⁴Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow brass;

⁵therefore I have declared it to you from of old; before it came to pass I showed it to you; lest you should say, 'My idol has done them, and my engraved image, and my molten image, has commanded them.'

⁶You have heard it; see all this; and you, will you not declare it? "I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, which you have not known.

⁷They are created now, and not from of old; and before this day you didn't hear them; lest you should say, 'Behold, I knew them.'

⁸Yes, you didn't hear; yes, you didn't know; yes, from of old your ear was not opened: for I knew that you did deal very treacherously, and was called a transgressor from the womb.

⁹For my name's sake will I defer my anger, and for my praise will I refrain for you, that I not cut you off.

¹⁰Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.

¹¹For my own sake, for my own sake, will I do it; for how should [my name] be profaned? and my glory I will not give to another.

¹²"Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel my called: I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.

¹³Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spread out the heavens: when I call to them, they stand up together.

¹⁴"Assemble yourselves, all you, and hear; who among them has declared these things? He whom Yahweh loves shall perform his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm [shall be on] the Chaldeans.

¹⁵I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him; I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.

¹⁶"Come near to me and hear this: "From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it was, there am I." Now the Lord Yahweh has sent me, with his Spirit.

¹⁷Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go.

¹⁸Oh that you had listened to my commandments! then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea:

¹⁹your seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of your body like its grains: his name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.

²⁰Go forth from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans; with a voice of singing declare, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth: say, Yahweh has redeemed his servant Jacob.

²¹They didn't thirst when he led them through the deserts; he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them; he split the rock also, and the waters gushed out.

²²"There is no peace," says Yahweh, "for the wicked."