﻿Isaiah.
Chapter 48.
“Hear this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel and have come from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the LORD and invoke the God of Israel, but not in truth or righteousness. 
For they call themselves of the holy city and rely on the God of Israel; the LORD of hosts is his name. 
I declared the former things long ago; they went out from my mouth, and I made them known. Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass. 
Because I knew you were stubborn, your neck an iron sinew and your forehead bronze, 
I declared them to you long ago; before they came to pass I made them known to you, so that you could not say, ‘My idol did them; my carved image and my cast image commanded them.’ 
You have heard; look at all of it. Will you not declare it? From now on I make you hear new things, hidden things you have not known. 
They are created now, not long ago; before today you had not heard them, so that you could not say, ‘Look, I knew them.’ 
You had not heard, you had not known, and from of old your ear had not been opened. For I knew you would act very treacherously, and you were called a rebel from the womb. 
For my name’s sake I defer my anger, and for my praise I restrain it toward you, so that I do not cut you off. 
Look, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction. 
For my own sake, for my own sake, I will act. For how could it be profaned? I will not give my glory to another. 
Listen to me, Jacob, Israel whom I have called. I am he; I am the first, and I am also the last. 
My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens. When I call to them, they stand together. 
Gather, all of you, and hear. Who among them has declared these things? The LORD loves him; he will carry out his purpose against Babylon, and his arm will be against the Chaldeans. 
I, I have spoken; I have called him. I have brought him, and his way will prosper. 
Come near to me and hear this: From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time it came to be, I was there.” And now the Lord GOD has sent me, and his Spirit. 
This is what the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, says: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you for your benefit, who leads you in the way you should go. 
If only you had paid attention to my commandments! Your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. 
Your offspring would have been like the sand, and the descendants of your body like its grains. His name would not have been cut off or destroyed from before me.” 
Go out from Babylon; flee from the Chaldeans! With a voice of joy declare it, make it known, send it out to the ends of the earth. Say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob.” 
They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts. He made water flow from the rock for them; he split the rock, and waters gushed out. 
“There is no peace for the wicked,” says the LORD. 
