Isaiah

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Chapter 48 :

God the Creator and Redeemer

Hear this, O house of Jacob,
who are called by the name of Israel,
and who came forth from the loins of Judah;
who swear by the name of the LORD,
and invoke the God of Israel,
but not in truth or right.

2 For they call themselves after the holy city,
and lean on the God of Israel;
the LORD of hosts is his name.

3 The former things I declared long ago,
they went out 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 long ago,
before they came to pass I announced them to you,
so that you would not say, My idol did them,
my carved image and my cast image commanded them.

6 You have heard; now see all this;
and will you not declare it?
From this time forward I make you hear new things,
hidden things that you have not known.

7 They are created now, not long ago;
before today you have never heard of them,
so that you could not say, I already 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 names sake I defer my anger,
for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,
so that I may not cut you off.

10 See, I have refined you, but not like silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of adversity.

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

12 Listen 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 summon them,
they stand at attention.

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 Chaldeans.

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 for your own good,
who leads you in the way you should go.

18 O that you had paid attention to my commandments!
Then your prosperity would have been like a river,
and your success 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 out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea,
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 did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
he made water flow for them from the rock;
he split open the rock and the water gushed out.

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



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