Isaiah, 48

1. Listen to this, House of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel and issued from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of Yahweh and invoke the God of Israel, though not in good faith or uprightness;

2. for they call themselves after the holy city and rely on the God of Israel, Yahweh Sabaoth is his name.

3. Things now past I revealed long ago, they issued from my mouth, I proclaimed them; suddenly I acted and they happened.

4. For I knew you to be obstinate, your neck an iron sinew and your forehead bronze.

5. As I told you about it long before, before it happened I revealed it to you, so that you could not say, 'My statue did it, my idol, my metal image, ordained this.'

6. You have heard and seen all this, why won't you admit it? Now I am going to reveal new things to you, secrets that you do not know;

7. they have just been created, not long ago, and until today you have heard nothing about them, so that you cannot say, 'Yes, I knew about this.'

8. No, you have not heard, you have not known, for a long time your ear has not been attentive, for I knew how treacherous you were; you have been called a rebel since the womb.

9. For the sake of my name I shall defer my anger, for the sake of my honour I shall be patient with you, rather than destroy you.

10. Look, I have purchased you, but not for silver, I have chosen you out of the cauldron of affliction.

11. For my sake and my sake only shall I act, for why should my name be profaned? I will not yield my glory to another.

12. Listen to me, Jacob, Israel whom I have called: I, and none else, am the first, I am also the last.

13. My hand laid the foundations of earth and my right hand spread out the heavens. I summon them and they all present themselves together.

14. Assemble, all of you, and listen; which of them has revealed this? Yahweh loves him; he will do his pleasure on Babylon and the race of the Chaldaeans;

15. I, I have spoken, yes, I have summoned him, I have brought him, and he will succeed.

16. Come near and listen to this: from the first, I never spoke obscurely; when it happened, I was there, and now Lord Yahweh has sent me with his spirit.

17. Thus says Yahweh, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am Yahweh your God and teach you for your own good, I lead you in the way you ought to go.

18. If only you had listened to my commandments! Your prosperity would have been like a river and your saving justice like the waves of the sea.

19. Your descendants would have been numbered like the sand, your offspring as many as its grains. Their name would never be cancelled or blotted out from my presence.

20. Come out from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldaeans! Declare this with cries of joy, proclaim it, carry it to the remotest parts of earth, say, 'Yahweh has redeemed his servant Jacob.'

21. Those he led through the arid country never went thirsty; he made water flow for them from the rock, he split the rock and out streamed the water.

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