International Standard Version
Isaiah 48
1 “Listen to this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and who have come forth from Judah’s loins; a you who swear oaths in the name of the LORD and invoke the God of Israel— but not in truth, nor in good faith.
2 For they name themselves after the holy city, and rely on the God of Israel— the LORD of the Heavenly Armies is his name.
3 I foretold the former things long ago; it b went forth from my mouth, and I disclosed them; Suddenly, I acted, and they came to pass.
4 Because I knew c that you are obstinate, and because your neck is an iron sinew, and your forehead is bronze,
5 I told you these things long ago; I announced them to you before they happened so that you couldn’t say, ‘My idol did them; my d carved image or metal idol ordained them.’
6 “You have heard—now look at them all! How e can you not admit them? From now on, I’ll make you hear new things, hidden things that you have not known.
7 They are created now, and not long ago; you didn’t hear them before today, so you cannot say, ‘Yes, I knew them.’
8 And f neither had you heard, nor did you understand, nor did you open g your ear long ago. h Indeed, I knew that i you would act very deceitfully, and they would call j you a rebel from birth.
9 I defer my anger for my name’s sake, and as my first act k I’m restraining it for you, so as not to cut you off.
10 Look, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have purified l you in the furnace of affliction.
11 For my own sake—Yes, for my own sake!—I’m doing it; indeed, how can I be profaned? m Furthermore, I won’t give my glory to another.”
12 “Listen to these things, n Jacob, and Israel, whom I have called. I am the One: I am the first, I am even o the last.
13 Moreover, my hands laid p the earth’s foundation, and my right hand spread out the heavens. I call out to them, and q they stand up together.
14 Let all of them come together and listen: r Who is there among them that could declare s these things? “The LORD loves me, t and he will accomplish u my purpose v against Babylon; his arm w will be against the Chaldeans.
15 I—Yes, I!—have spoken; indeed, I’ve called and x I’ve brought him, and he will make his path successful. y
16 Draw near to me, and z listen to this: ‘From the beginning I haven’t spoken in secret; at aa the time it happened, I was there.’ And now the LORD God, and his Spirit, has sent me. bb
17 “This is what the LORD says, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you how to succeed, who directs you cc in the path by which dd you should go.
18 Now ee if only you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your success like the waves of the sea.
19 Your descendants would’ve been like the sand, and your offspring ff like its numberless grains. Their name wouldn’t have been cut off or annihilated out of my reach.
20 “Go out from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans! With happy shouts, announce and gg proclaim this hh to the ends ii of the earth: Say, ‘The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!’
21 They didn’t thirst when he led him jj through the desolate places. He made water gush kk from a rock for them; he split open the rock, and water gushed out.
22 “But ll there is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.”