Isaiah 48

1Hear this, house of Jacob, you who bear the name Israel and sprang from the waters of Judah, you who swear by the name of the LORD and call on the God of Israel, yet without truth and without righteousness. 2For they name themselves after the holy city and lean for support on the God of Israel; the LORD of Armies is his name.

3What came first I foretold long before; it issued from my mouth, and I let it be heard. Then all at once I acted, and it took place. 4Because I knew how unyielding you are, your neck a cord of iron and your forehead bronze, 5so I announced them to you in advance; I let you hear of them before they came, so that you could never say, “My idol made them happen; my carved image and my molten god decreed them.” 6You heard it; now see the whole of it. Will you yourselves not testify to it? From now on I make new things known to you, things kept hidden that you never knew. 7Only now are they brought into being, not in days gone by; until today you never heard of them. So you cannot claim, “See, I knew that all along.” 8You have not heard and have not known; long ago your ear stayed shut. For I knew that you would surely prove faithless, and you were named “Rebel from the womb.” 9To honor my name I am slow to let my anger loose; for the sake of my praise I rein it in for your good, so that I will not cut you off. 10See, I have put you through the refiner’s fire, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction. 11For my own sake, for my own sake I act, for why should my name be dishonored? I will not give my glory to another.

12Hear me, Jacob, Israel, the one I called: I am he. I am the first; I am the last as well. 13My own hand set the earth on its foundations, and my right hand stretched the heavens wide; at my call they rise and stand together. 14All of you, gather and hear! Which of them announced these things? The one the LORD loves will carry out his purpose against Babylon, and his arm will be turned against the Chaldeans. 15It is I, I myself, who have spoken; I also summoned him. I have brought him, and he will carry his journey through to success. 16Come close to me and listen: never, from the start, have I spoken in hiding; from the moment it began, I was present. And now the Lord GOD has sent me, and his Spirit.

17The LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, says this: I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is for your good and guides you along the road you are to walk. 18If only you had heeded my commands! Then your peace would have run like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. 19Your descendants would have been as many as the sand, your own children like its grains; their name would never be cut off or wiped out from my presence. 20Go out of Babylon! Escape from the Chaldeans! Raise a joyful cry and tell it; let this be heard, sent out to the far ends of the earth. Say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!” 21They knew no thirst as he guided them through dry wastes; for them he brought water streaming out of the rock; he broke the rock open, and out poured the water. 22There is no peace, says the LORD, for the wicked.