Isaiah 48

Revised Geneva Translation

48 “Hear this, O House of Jacob, which is called by the name of Israel and has come out of the waters of Judah, who swears by the Name of the LORD and makes mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth or in righteousness.

² “For they are called ‘of the holy city’, and lean upon the God of Israel, whose Name is the LORD of Hosts.

³ “I declared the former things long ago. And they went out of My Mouth, and I showed them. I did them suddenly and they came to pass.

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 the beginning. Before it came to pass, I showed it to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them. And my carved image and my molten image has commanded them.’

⁶ “You have seen and heard all this, and will you not declare it? I have shown you new things, even now, and hidden things which you did not know.

⁷ “They are created now, and not from the beginning. And even before this, you did not hear them, lest you should say, ‘See, I knew them.’

⁸ “Yet, you did not hear them or know them, nor was your ear even opened long ago. For I knew that you would grievously transgress. Therefore I have called you a transgressor from the womb.

⁹ “For My Name’s sake, will I defer My wrath. And for My praise, I will restrain it from you, so that I do not cut you off.

¹⁰ “Behold, 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 I will do it. For how can My Name be polluted? Surely I will not give My Glory to another.

¹² “Hear me, O Jacob and Israel, My called. I Am, I Am the First, and I Am the Last.

¹³ “Surely My Hand has laid the foundation of the Earth. And My right Hand has spanned the heavens. When I call them, they stand up together.

¹⁴ “All you, assemble yourselves and hear. Who among them has declared these things? The LORD has loved him. He will do His will in Babel, and His Arm shall be against the Chaldeans.

¹⁵ “I, even I, have spoken it. And I have called him. I have brought him. And his way shall prosper.

¹⁶ “Come near to Me. Hear this! I have not spoken it in secret from the beginning. From the time that the thing was, I was there, and now the Lord God and His Spirit have sent Me!”

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

¹⁸ “Oh, that you had listened to My Commandments! Then your peace would have been as a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea.

¹⁹ “Also, your seed would have been as the sand, and the fruit of your body like its gravel. His name would not have been cut off or destroyed before Me.

²⁰ “Go out from Babel. Flee from the Chaldeans with a voice of joy! Tell and declare this. Show it forth to the end of the Earth. Say, ‘The LORD has redeemed His servant, Jacob!

²¹ ‘And they were not thirsty! He led them through the wilderness! He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them! For He split the rock and the water gushed out!’

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