Isaiah 48

New King James Version

³ “I have ^(D)declared the former things from the beginning;
They went forth from My mouth, and I caused them to hear it.
Suddenly I did them, ^(E)and they came to pass.
⁴ Because I knew that you were ^[a]obstinate,
And ^(F)your neck was an iron sinew,
And your brow bronze,
⁵ Even from the beginning I have declared it to you;
Before it came to pass I proclaimed it to you,
Lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them,
And my carved image and my molded image
Have commanded them.’

⁶ “You have heard;
See all this.
And will you not declare it?
I have made you hear new things from this time,
Even hidden things, and you did not know them.
⁷ They are created now and not from the beginning;
And before this day you have not heard them,
Lest you should say, ‘Of course I knew them.’
⁸ Surely you did not hear,
Surely you did not know;
Surely from long ago your ear was not opened.
For I knew that you would deal very treacherously,
And were called ^(G)a transgressor from the womb.

⁹ “For^(H) My name’s sake ^(I)I will ^[b]defer My anger,
And for My praise I will restrain it from you,
So that I do not cut you off.
¹⁰ Behold, ^(J)I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have tested you in the ^(K)furnace of affliction.
¹¹ For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it;
For ^(L)how should My name be profaned?
And ^(M)I will not give My glory to another.

¹⁴ “All of you, assemble yourselves, and hear!
Who among them has declared these things?
^(R)The Lord loves him;
^(S)He shall do His pleasure on Babylon,
And His arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
¹⁵ I, even I, have spoken;
Yes, ^(T)I have called him,
I have brought him, and his way will prosper.

¹⁶ “Come near to Me, hear this:
^(U)I have not spoken in secret from the beginning;
From the time that it was, I was there.
And now ^(V)the Lord God and His Spirit
^[c]Have sent Me.”

¹⁷ Thus says ^(W)the Lord, your Redeemer,
The Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God,
Who teaches you to profit,
^(X)Who leads you by the way you should go.
^18 (Y)Oh, that you had heeded My commandments!
^(Z)Then your peace would have been like a river,
And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
^19 (AA)Your descendants also would have been like the sand,
And the offspring of your body like the grains of sand;
His name would not have been cut off
Nor destroyed from before Me.”

^20 (AB)Go forth from Babylon!
Flee from the Chaldeans!
With a voice of singing,
Declare, proclaim this,
Utter it to the end of the earth;
Say, “The Lord has ^(AC)redeemed
His servant Jacob!”
²¹ And they ^(AD)did not thirst
When He led them through the deserts;
He ^(AE)caused the waters to flow from the rock for them;
He also split the rock, and the waters gushed out.

²² “There^(AF) is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”