The Book of the Prophet Isaiah 48 Reasonings, admonitions, and promises of God to Israel

 The Book of the Prophet Isaiah 48

Reasonings, admonitions, and promises of God to Israel

1 Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, who came forth from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth nor in righteousness.

2 And even from the holy city they take their name and rely on the God of Israel; the Lord of hosts is his name.

3 The former things I declared from ancient times; yes, my mouth spoke them, and I made them heard; I acted hastily, and they passed away.

4 For I knew that you were stubborn, and your neck an iron sinew, and your forehead bronze.

5 Therefore I have declared it to you from the beginning, and I made you hear it before it happened, so that you would not say, “My idol did these things, or my carved image, or my cast image commanded them.”

6 You have heard it; consider well all this; shall I not declare it? From now on I will tell you new and hidden things, which you have never known.

7 Now they are created, and not from then on, and before this day you did not hear them, so that you may not say, “Behold, I already knew them.”

8 You neither heard them nor did you know them, nor was your ear opened from then on, for I knew that you would act very treacherously, and that you were a transgressor from the womb.

9 For the sake of my name I will delay my anger, and for the sake of my praise I will restrain myself, so that I do not cut you off.

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

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

12 Give ear to me, Jacob, and Israel, whom I have called; I am he, I am the first, I am also the last.

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

14 Assemble yourselves, all of you, and hear: Who among them has declared these things? The Lord loved him, and he will execute his will against Babylon, and his arm will be against the Chaldeans.

15 I, even I, have said it: I have called him, and I will bring him, and I will make his way prosperous.

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

17 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is profitable and guides you in the way you should go.

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

19 Your descendants would have been like the sand, and those who proceed from your loins like its grains; their name would never be cut off nor destroyed from my face.

20 Go out from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans. And declare with a joyful voice; proclaim this, and carry it to the end of the earth; say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.”

21 And they did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; He made water flow from the rock for them; he split the rocks, and the water gushed out.

22 But there is no peace for the wicked, says the Lord.