Isaiah

The book of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 48, New English Translation and King James Version

Chapter 48 New English Translation

The LORD Appeals to the Exiles

   1 Listen to this, O family of Jacob, you who are called by the name 'Israel,' and are descended from Judah, who take oaths in the name of the LORD, and invoke the God of Israel - but not in an honest and just manner.
   2 Indeed, they live in the holy city; they trust in the God of Israel, whose name is the LORD who commands armies.
   3 "I announced events beforehand, I issued the decrees and made the predictions; suddenly I acted and they came to pass.
   4 I did this because I know how stubborn you are. Your neck muscles are like iron and your forehead like bronze.
   5 I announced them to you beforehand; before they happened, I predicted them for you, so you could never say, 'My image did these things, my idol, my cast image, decreed them.'
   6 You have heard; now look at all the evidence! Will you not admit that what I say is true? From this point on I am announcing to you new events that are previously unrevealed and you do not know about.
   7 Now they come into being, not in the past; before today you did not hear about them, so you could not say, 'Yes, I know about them.'
   8 You did not hear, you do not know, you were not told beforehand. For I know that you are very deceitful; you were labeled a rebel from birth.
   9 For the sake of my reputation I hold back my anger; for the sake of my prestige I restrain myself from destroying you.
   10 Look, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have purified you in the furnace of misery.
   11 For my sake alone I will act, for how can I allow my name to be defiled? I will not share my glory with anyone else!
   12 Listen to me, O Jacob, Israel, whom I summoned! I am the one; I am present at the very beginning and at the very end.
   13 Yes, my hand founded the earth; my right hand spread out the sky. I summon them; they stand together.
   14 All of you, gather together and listen! Who among them announced these things? The LORD's ally will carry out his desire against Babylon; he will exert his power against the Babylonians.
   15 I, I have spoken - yes, I have summoned him; I lead him and he will succeed.
   16 Approach me! Listen to this! From the very first I have not spoken in secret; when it happens, I am there." So now, the sovereign LORD has sent me, accompanied by his spirit.
   17 This is what the LORD, your protector, says, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you how to succeed, who leads you in the way you should go.
   18 If only you had obeyed my commandments, prosperity would have flowed to you like a river, deliverance would have come to you like the waves of the sea.
   19 Your descendants would have been as numerous as sand, and your children like its granules. Their name would not have been cut off and eliminated from my presence.
   20 Leave Babylon! Flee from the Babylonians! Announce it with a shout of joy! Make this known! Proclaim it throughout the earth! Say, 'The LORD protects his servant Jacob.
   21 They do not thirst as he leads them through dry regions; he makes water flow out of a rock for them; he splits open a rock and water flows out.'
   22 There will be no prosperity for the wicked," says the LORD.

King James Version

   1 Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness.
   2 For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is his name.
   3 I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.
   4 Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;
   5 I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.
   6 Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them.
   7 They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.
   8 Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.
   9 ¶ For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.
   10 Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
   11 For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.
   12 ¶ Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.
   13 Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.
   14 All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these things? The LORD hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.
   15 I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.
   16 ¶ Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me.
   17 Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.
   18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:
   19 Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.
   20 ¶ Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, The LORD hath redeemed his servant Jacob.
   21 And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.
   22 There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked.