Isaiah 48

1 Hear this, O house of Jacob! Ye that are called by the name of Israel; Ye that have come forth from the fountain of Judah; Ye that swear by the name of Jehovah, And praise the God of Israel, But not in truth and sincerity!

Listen to this, descendants of Jacob, called by the name of Israel, and who come from the lineage of Judah. Listen, you people who swear by the name of the Lord, or who invoke the God of Israel, but not truly or sincerely.

2 For they call themselves of the holy city, And stay themselves on the God of Israel, Whose name is Jehovah of hosts: —

You say you're from the “Holy City,” and claim you're trusting in the God of Israel, whose name is the Lord Almighty.

3 What hath happened I declared to you long ago; From my mouth it proceeded, and I made it known; On a sudden I effected it, and it came to pass.

I predicted long ago what was going to happen—I said it and let people know. Then suddenly I decided to act, and it all came true.

4 Because I knew that thou art obstinate, And that thy neck is a bar of iron, And that thy brow is brass,

I know how stubborn you are, with necks as unbending as iron and foreheads as hard as bronze.

5 I declared it to thee long ago; Before it came to pass, I made it known to thee; Lest thou shouldst say, My idol effected it, And my graven image, and my molten image ordained it.

I predicted these things to you long ago, before they happened. I explained them to you so that you couldn't say “My idol did this,” or “My image and my metal god ordered this to happen.”

6 Thou hast heard it; now see it all! And will ye not confess it? From this time I make you hear a new thing, Even a hidden thing, which thou hast not known.

You've heard all I predicted, and seen it happen. Won't you admit it? Now I'm going to tell you new things, secrets you don't know anything about.

7 It is produced now, and not long ago; Before this day thou hast not heard of it, Lest thou shouldst say, Behold, I knew it.

These are brand-new, not something from the past. Before today you won't have heard anything about them, so you can't say, “Oh yes, I know about that.”

8 Yea, thou heardest it not; yea, thou knewest it not; Yea, it was not disclosed to thee long ago; For I knew that thou wast wholly faithless, And wast called rebellious from thy birth.

No, you've never heard that, and you've never known that! Nobody's told you about that before! I know how deviously you operate—you're called “rebels from birth”!

9 For the sake of my name I will defer my anger, And for the sake of my praise I will restrain it from thee, That I may not utterly cut thee off.

But because of my nature I am delaying my punishment; and because of my reputation, I'm not going to destroy you.

10 Behold, I have melted thee, and found no silver; I have tried thee in the furnace of affliction.

Look how I've refined you, but not like silver—I chose you in the furnace of trouble.

11 For mine own sake will I do it; For how would my name be blasphemed? And my glory will I not give to another.

The reason I'm doing this is because of who I am, yes, because of my very nature. I won't let my reputation be damaged—I won't let anyone else have it.

12 Hearken to me, O Jacob, And Israel, whom I have called! I am He, I am the first, and I the last.

Listen to me, Jacon, and Israel, the one I called. Only I am God. I am the first, and I am the last.

13 Yea, my hand hath founded the earth, And my right hand hath spread out the heavens; I called them; they stood forth together.

I laid the foundations of the earth with my own hands; I personally spread out the heavens. When I call the stars, they all take their positions.

14 Assemble yourselves, all of you, and hear! Who among you hath declared these things? He whom Jehovah loveth will execute his pleasure upon Babylon, And his power upon the Chaldaeans.

Everyone gather round and listen. Which of your “gods” told you anything like this? The one the Lord loves will carry out the Lord's wishes against Babylon—he will attack the Babylonians.

15 I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him; I have brought him, and his way shall be prosperous.

I myself have spoken. I have called him to do this, and he will be successful in what he does.

16 Draw near to me, and hear ye this! I spake not in secret from the beginning; And since it began to be, I have been there; And now hath the Lord Jehovah sent me with his spirit.

Come close to me, and listen to this. From the very beginning I haven't spoken in secret; I am always there right when it happens. Now the Lord God and his Spirit has sent me to tell you this:

17 Thus saith Jehovah, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am Jehovah, thy God, who teacheth thee what will profit thee; Who leadeth thee in the way thou shouldst go.

This is what the Lord says, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, I am the Lord your God. I am the one who teaches you what is good for you, who leads you along the way you should go.

18 O that thou wouldst hearken to my commandments! Then shall thy peace be as a river, And thy prosperity as the waves of the sea;

If you had only listened carefully to what I told you! Then your blessings would have flowed like a river, and goodness would have washed over you like the waves of the sea.

19 Then shall thy posterity be as the sand, And the fruit of thy body as the offspring of the sea; Thy name shall not be cut off, nor destroyed before me.

Your children, your descendants, would have been like all those grains of sand. They wouldn't have had to be destroyed, wiped out before me.

20 Come ye forth from Babylon, flee ye from the land of the Chaldaeans with the voice of joy! Publish ye this, and make it known; Let it resound to the ends of the earth! Say: “Jehovah hath redeemed his servant Jacob;

Leave Babylon! Run away from Babylonia with happy shouts! Let everyone know, telling the whole earth, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!”

21 They thirst not in the deserts through which he leadeth them; Waters from the rock he causeth to flow for them; He cleaveth the rock, and the waters gush forth.

They weren't thirsty when he led them through the desert—he made water come out of the rock for them. He split the rock open and water poured out.

22 There is no peace, saith Jehovah, for the wicked.”

The wicked have no peace, says the Lord.