New Heart English Bible

Isaiah 48

1 "Hear this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and have come forth out of 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 (for they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; the LORD of hosts is his name):

3 I have declared the former things from of old; yes, they went forth out of my mouth, and I caused them to hear it. Suddenly I did them, and they happened.

4 Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow bronze;

5 therefore I have declared it to you from of old; before it came to pass I showed it to you; lest you should say, 'My idol has done them, and my engraved image, and my molten image, has commanded them.'

6 You have heard it; see all this; and you, will you not declare it? "I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, which you have not known.

7 They are created now, and not from of old; and before this day you did not hear them; lest you should say, 'Look, I knew them.'

8 Yes, you did not hear; yes, you did not know; yes, from of old your ear was not opened: for I knew that you dealt very treacherously, and was called a transgressor from the womb.

9 For my name's sake will I defer my anger, and for my praise will I refrain for you, that I not cut you off.

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

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

12 "Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel my called: I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.

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

14 "Let all of them assemble and hear; who among them has declared these things? He whom the LORD loves shall perform his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.

15 I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him; I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.

16 "Come near to me and hear this: "From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it was, there am I." Now the LORD has sent me, with his Spirit.

17 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go.

18 But would that you had listened to 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 as the sand, and the offspring of your body like its grains; his name not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.

20 Go forth from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans; with a voice of singing declare, tell this, send it out throughout the earth. Say, 'The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob.'

21 They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them; he split the rock also, and the waters gushed out.

22 "There is no peace," says the LORD, "for the wicked."