Isaiah 48

¹Hear this , O house of Jacob , who are called by the name of Israel , and who came from the waters of Judah , who swear by the name of the Lord and confess the God of Israel , but not in truth or right .

²For they call themselves after the holy city , and stay themselves on the God of Israel ; the Lord of hosts is his name .

³The former things I declared of old ; they went out from my mouth , and I announced them; then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass .

⁴Because I know that you are obstinate , and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass ,

⁵I declared them to you from of old , before they came to pass I announced them to you, lest you should say , My idol did them, my carved image and my metal image commanded them.

⁶You have heard ; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forth I announce to you new things , hidden things that you have not known .

⁷They are created now , not long ago ; before today you have never heard of them, lest you should say , Behold , I knew them.

⁸You have never heard , you have never known , from of old your ear has not been opened . For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously , and that from before birth you were called a rebel .

⁹For my name’s sake I defer my anger , for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off .

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

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

¹²Listen to me, O Jacob , and Israel , whom I called ! I am he; I am the first , and I am the last .

¹³My hand laid the foundation of the earth , and my right hand spread out the heavens ; when I call to them, they stand forth together .

¹⁴Assemble , all of you, and listen ! Who among them has declared these things ? The Lord loves him; he shall perform his purpose on Babylon , and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans .

¹⁵I , even I , have spoken and called him; I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way .

¹⁶Draw near to me, hear this : from the beginning I have not spoken in secret , from the time it came to be I have been there . And now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit .

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

¹⁸Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments ! Then your peace would have been like a river , and your righteousness like the waves of the sea ;

¹⁹your offspring would have been like the sand , and your descendants like its grains ; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me.

²⁰Go out from Babylon , flee from Chaldea , declare this with a shout of joy , proclaim it, send it out to the end of the earth ; say , The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob !

²¹They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts ; he made water flow for them from the rock ; he split the rock and the water gushed out .

²²There is no peace , says the Lord, for the wicked .