Isaiah 48

1“Hear this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and have come out of the waters of Judah. and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness You swear by Yahweh’s name, 2and rely on the God of Israel; Yahweh of Armies is his name): (for they call themselves citizens of the holy city, 3yes, they went out of my mouth, and I revealed them. I did them suddenly, and they happened. I have declared the former things from of old; 4and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow brass; Because I knew that you are obstinate, 5before 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.’ therefore I have declared it to you from of old; 6see all this. And you, won’t you declare it? even hidden things, which you have not known. You have heard it; “I have shown you new things from this time, 7and before today you didn’t hear them; lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’ They are created now, and not from of old; 8yes, you didn’t know; yes, from of old your ear was not opened: and were called a transgressor from the womb. Yes, you didn’t hear; for I knew that you dealt very treacherously, 9and for my praise I hold it back for you, so that I don’t cut you off. For my name’s sake, I will defer my anger, 10but not as silver. I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction. Behold, I have refined you, 11for my own sake, I will do it; I will not give my glory to another. For my own sake, for how would my name be profaned? 12and Israel my called: I am the first, I am also the last. “Listen to me, O Jacob, I am he; 13and my right hand has spread out the heavens. when I call to them, they stand up together. Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth, 14who among them has declared these things? and his arm will be against the Chaldeans. “Assemble yourselves, all of you, and hear; He whom Yahweh loves will do what he likes to Babylon, 15yes, I have called him. and he shall make his way prosperous. I, even I, have spoken; I have brought him, 16from the time that it happened, I was there.” with his Spirit. “From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; Now the Lord Yahweh has sent me, “Come near to me and hear this: 17your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go. Yahweh, “I am Yahweh your God, 18Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Oh that you had listened to my commandments! 19and the descendants of your body like its grains. His name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.” Your offspring * also would have been as the sand, 20Flee from the Chaldeans! tell it even to the end of the earth: say, “Yahweh has redeemed his servant Jacob!” Leave Babylon! With a voice of singing announce this, 21He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them. He split the rock also, and the waters gushed out. They didn’t thirst when he led them through the deserts. 22“There is no peace”, says Yahweh, “for the wicked.”