Isaiah 47-48

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

⁵ Sit in silence, and go into darkness,
    O daughter of the Chalde′ans;
for you shall no more be called
    the mistress of kingdoms.
⁶ I was angry with my people,
    I profaned my heritage;
I gave them into your hand,
    you showed them no mercy;
on the aged you made your yoke
    exceedingly heavy.
⁷ You said, “I shall be mistress for ever,”
    so that you did not lay these things to heart
    or remember their end.

⁸ Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures,
    who sit securely,
who say in your heart,
    “I am, and there is no one besides me;
I shall not sit as a widow
    or know the loss of children”:
⁹ These two things shall come to you
    in a moment, in one day;
the loss of children and widowhood
    shall come upon you in full measure,
in spite of your many sorceries
    and the great power of your enchantments.

¹⁰ You felt secure in your wickedness,
    you said, “No one sees me”;
your wisdom and your knowledge
    led you astray,
and you said in your heart,
    “I am, and there is no one besides me.”
¹¹ But evil shall come upon you,
    for which you cannot atone;
disaster shall fall upon you,
    which you will not be able to expiate;
and ruin shall come on you suddenly,
    of which you know nothing.

¹² Stand fast in your enchantments
    and your many sorceries,
    with which you have labored from your youth;
perhaps you may be able to succeed,
    perhaps you may inspire terror.
¹³ You are wearied with your many counsels;
    let them stand forth and save you,
those who divide the heavens,
    who gaze at the stars,
who at the new moons predict
    what^[a] shall befall you.

¹⁴ Behold, they are like stubble,
    the fire consumes them;
they cannot deliver themselves
    from the power of the flame.
No coal for warming oneself is this,
    no fire to sit before!
¹⁵ Such to you are those with whom you have labored,
    who have trafficked with you from your youth;
they wander about each in his own direction;
    there is no one to save you.

³ “The former things I declared of old,
    they went forth from my mouth and I made them known;
    then suddenly I did them and they came to pass.
⁴ Because I know that you are obstinate,
    and your neck is an iron sinew
    and your forehead brass,
⁵ I declared them to you from of old,
    before they came to pass I announced them to you,
lest you should say, ‘My idol did them,
    my graven image and my molten image commanded them.’

⁶ “You have heard; now see all this;
    and will you not declare it?
From this time forth I make you hear new things,
    hidden things which you have not known.
⁷ They are created now, not long ago;
    before today you have never heard of them,
    lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’
⁸ You have never heard, you have never known,
    from of old your ear has not been opened.
For I knew that you would deal very treacherously,
    and that from birth you were called a rebel.

⁹ “For my name’s sake I defer my anger,
    for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,
    that I may not cut you off.
¹⁰ Behold, I have refined you, but not like^[c] silver;
    I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.
¹¹ For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
    for how should my name^[d] be profaned?
    My glory I will not give to another.

¹² “Hearken to me, O Jacob,
    and Israel, whom I called!
I am He, I am the first,
    and I am the last.
¹³ My hand laid the foundation of the earth,
    and my right hand spread out the heavens;
when I call to them,
    they stand forth together.

¹⁴ “Assemble, all of you, and hear!
    who among them has declared these things?
The Lord loves him;
    he shall perform his purpose on Babylon,
    and his arm shall be against the Chalde′ans.
¹⁵ I, even I, have spoken and called him,
    I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.
¹⁶ Draw near to me, hear this:
    from the beginning I have not spoken in secret,
    from the time it came to be I have been there.”
And now the Lord God has sent me and 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 in the way you should go.
¹⁸ O that you had hearkened to my commandments!
    Then your peace would have been like a river,
    and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;
¹⁹ your offspring would have been like the sand,
    and your descendants like its grains;
their name would never be cut off
    or destroyed from before me.”

²⁰ Go forth from Babylon, flee from Chalde′a,
    declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it,
send it forth to the end of the earth;
    say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
²¹ They thirsted not when he led them through the deserts;
    he made water flow for them from the rock;
    he cleft the rock and the water gushed out.
²² “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”