Isaiah 48

1 Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the spring of Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israel, —not in truth, nor in righteousness.

[Yahweh says], “You descendants [MTY] of Jacob, who are [also] descendants of Judah and are now called [the people of] Israel, Listen to me! You make solemn promises using my name, Yahweh, and you request that I, the God to whom you Israeli people belong, [will hear you], but you do not do it sincerely.

2 For of the holy city they call themselves, and upon the God of Israel they stay themselves, —The Lord of hosts is his name.

You say that you live in the holy city [of Jerusalem], and [you insincerely say] that you are relying on me, the God to whom you [people of] Israel belong, the one who is the Commander of the armies of angels.

3 The former things have I declared from the beginning; and out of my mouth went they forth, and I announced them: suddenly did I accomplish them, and they came to pass;

Long ago I [MTY] predicted what would happen [DOU]. And then suddenly, I caused those things to happen.

4 Because I knew that thou art obstinate, that like an iron sinew is thy neck, and thy brow of copper;

I knew that you people are very stubborn; I knew that your heads are [MET] [as hard as] iron or brass [DOU].

5 And I declared it to thee from the beginning; before yet it came to pass did I let thee hear it: lest thou should say, My idol hath done these things, and my graven image, and my molten image, have ordained them.

That is why I told you those things long ago. Long before they occurred, I announced that they would occur, in order that [when they happened] you could not say ‘Our idols did it; our statue made of wood and our idol made of metal caused them to happen.’

6 Thou hast heard it; see it all now; and you—will you not declare it? I caused thee to hear new things, from this time, even hidden things which thou hadst not known.

You have heard those things [that I predicted] and now you have seen that they have all occurred, so why do you not admit it [RHQ]? Now I will tell you new things, things that you have not known previously.

7 Now are they created, and not from the beginning; and before the day [that I announced them] thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.

I am causing them to happen now; they are not things I did long ago. So you cannot say, ‘We already knew about those things.’

8 But neither hadst thou heard it; nor didst thou know; nor had in ancient times thy ear been opened; for I knew that thou wouldst deal very treacherously, and a transgressor wast thou called from thy birth.

[I will tell you about] things that you have never heard about or understood before. Even long ago you did not pay attention to me [IDM]. I know that you act very deceitfully/treacherously; you have rebelled against me since you first became a nation [MTY].

9 For the sake of my name will I defer my anger, and because of my praise will I restrain it toward thee, so that I may not cut thee off.

But, for my own sake, in order that I will be honored, I will not punish [MTY] you immediately and I will not completely get rid of you.

10 Behold, I have refined thee, though not into silver: I have approved thee in the crucible of affliction.

I have purified you, but not the way [people refine] silver. Instead, I have caused you to suffer very much [to get rid of your impure behavior], like [MET] [people put metal in a very hot] furnace [to get rid of the impurities].

11 For my own sake will I do it: for how would [my name] be dishonored? and my glory will I not give unto another.

But for my [MTY] own sake I will delay punishing you more; I will do it for my own sake in order that my reputation will not be damaged [RHQ]. I will not allow any [person or any idol] to be honored as I [deserve to be] honored.”

12 Hearken unto me, O Jacob, and Israel, my called one; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.

“You descendants [MTY] of Jacob, you people of Israel whom I have chosen, listen to me! [Only] I am God; I am the one who begins everything and who causes everything to end.

13 My hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned out the heavens: I call unto them, they stand forward together.

I [SYN] am the one who laid the foundation of the earth. I stretched out the sky with my hand. And when I tell [the stars] to appear, they all do what I tell them.

14 Assemble yourselves, all of you, and hear: Who among them hath told these things? He whom the Lord loveth, will do his pleasure on Babylon, and [display] his arm [on] the Chaldeans.

All of you, gather together and listen to me. None of your idols has [RHQ] told this to you: I, Yahweh, have chosen [Cyrus] to assist me, and he will do to Babylon what I want him to do, and his army will get rid of [the army of] Babylonia.

15 I, even I, have spoken it, I have also called him: I have brought him, and he shall be prosperous on his way.

I have said it; I have summoned [Cyrus]. I have appointed him, and he will accomplish everything that he attempts to do.

16 Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; never from the beginning have I spoken in secret; from the time that it occurred, was I there. And now the Lord Eternal hath sent me, and his Spirit.

Come close to me and listen to what I say. Long ago [MTY] I told you plainly/clearly [LIT] [what would happen], and when those things occurred, I was [causing them to happen].” And now Yahweh the Lord and his Spirit have sent me [to give you a message].

17 Thus hath said the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, I am the Lord thy God who teach thee for thy profit, who lead thee by the way thou shouldst go.

This is what Yahweh, the one who saves you, the Holy God of [us] Israelis, says: “I am Yahweh, your God; I teach you what is important for you [to know]; I direct you and lead you to the roads that you should walk on [MET].

18 Oh that thou hadst but listened to my commandments! then would have been as a river thy peace, and thy prosperity as the waves of the sea:

I wish that you had paid attention to my commands! If you had done that, things would have gone well for you like [SIM] a river that flows gently; you would have been successful again and again, like [SIM] waves that come without ceasing.

19 And then would have been as the sand thy seed, and the offspring of thy body like the pebbles of the sea-shore; yet shall his name not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.

Your descendants would have been [as many as] [MET] the grains of sand [on the seashore] [which no one can count]. I would not have needed to get rid of you; the country of [MTY] [Israel] would not have been destroyed.”

20 Go forth out of Babylon, flee away from the Chaldeans, with the voice of singing declare, announce this, carry it forth as far as the end of the earth; say, The Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob.

[However, now I tell you], leave Babylon! Flee from [being slaves of the people of] Babylonia! Proclaim this message joyfully; send it to the most remote/distant places on the earth: Yahweh freed the people of Israel [from being slaves in Egypt].

21 And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts; waters out of the rock he let drop down for them: and he cleaved the rock, and the waters gushed out.

They were not thirsty when he led them through the desert, because he split open the rock and caused water to gush/flow out for them [to drink].

22 There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.

“But things will not go well [like that] for wicked people,” says Yahweh.