Isaiah 48

1Hear this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel and who came from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of Yahweh and invoke the God of Israel, but not in truth or in righteousness.

2For they call themselves after the holy city and lean on the God of Israel; Yahweh of Armies is his name.

3The former things I declared long ago; they went out from my mouth, and I announced them; then suddenly I acted, and they happened.

4Because I knew that you are stubborn, your neck a sinew of iron and your forehead bronze,

5I declared them to you long ago; before they happened I announced them to you, so that you could not say, “My idol did them; my carved image and my cast image commanded them.”

6You have heard it; now look at all of it. Will you not declare it? From now on I announce new things to you, hidden things that you have not known.

7They are created now, not long ago; before today you have not heard of them, so that you cannot say, “Yes, I knew them.”

8You have never heard, you have never known; from long ago your ear has not been open. For I knew that you would surely act treacherously, and that you were called a rebel from the womb.

9For the sake of my name I hold back my anger; for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, so as not to cut you off.

10See, 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 I do it; for how could my name be profaned? I will not give my glory to another.

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

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

14Assemble, all of you, and listen! Which of them has declared these things? The one Yahweh loves will carry out his purpose against Babylon, and his arm will be against the Chaldeans.

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

16Come near to me and 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 Yahweh has sent me, and his Spirit.

17This is what Yahweh says, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you what is for your good, who leads you in the way you should go.

18If only you had paid attention to my commands! 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 the Chaldeans! Declare this with a shout of joy; proclaim it; send it out to the ends of the earth; say, “Yahweh 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 water gushed out.

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