Israel's obstinacy

1Hear this, O house of Jacob,

who are called by the name of Israel,

and who came forth from the loins48.1 Cn: Heb waters of Judah;

who swear by the name of the LORD,

and confess the God of Israel,

but not in truth or right.

2For they call themselves after the holy city,

and stay themselves on the God of Israel;

the LORD of hosts is his name.

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.

4Because I know that you are obstinate,

and your neck is an iron sinew

and your forehead brass,

5I 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.

7They are created now, not long ago;

before today you have never heard of them,

lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’

8You 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.

10Behold, I have refined you, but not like48.10 Cn: Heb with silver;

I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.

11For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,

for how should my name48.11 Gk Old Latin: Heb lacks my name be profaned?

My glory I will not give to another.

1248.12: Is 44.6; Rev 1.17; 2.8; 22.13.“Hearken to me, O Jacob,

and Israel, whom I called!

I am He, I am the first,

and I am the last.

13My 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.

15I, even I, have spoken and called him,

I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.

16Draw 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.

17Thus 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.

18O 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;

19your 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.”

20Go 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!”

21They 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.”