Isaiah 48

1 Hear this, house of Jacob, who are called by the name Israel, and have come from the sperm of Judah; you who swear by the name of Yahweh and invoke the God of Israel, but not sincerely nor in a righteous manner.

[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 they call themselves people of the holy city and trust in the God of Israel. Yahweh 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 “I have declared the things from long ago; they came out from my mouth, and I made them known; then suddenly I did 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 you were obstinate, your neck muscles tight as iron, and your forehead like bronze,

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

5 therefore I declared these things to you beforehand; before they happened I informed you, so you could not say, 'My idol has done them,' or 'My carved figure and my cast metal figure has ordained these things.'

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 You heard about these things; look at all this evidence; and you, will you not admit what I said is true? From now on, I am showing you new things, hidden things that you have 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, and not from previously, they come into being, and before today you have not heard about them, so you will not be able to say, 'Yes, I knew about 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 You never heard; you did not know; these things were not unfolded to your ears beforehand. For I knew that you have been very deceitful, and that you have been a rebel from 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 I will defer my anger, and for my honor I will hold back from destroying you.

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 Look, I refined you, but not as silver; I have purified you in the furnace 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, for my own sake I will act; for how can I allow my name to be profaned? I will not give my glory to anyone else.

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 Listen to me, Jacob, and Israel, whom I called: 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 Yes, my hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand up 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 listen! Who among you has announced these things? Yahweh's ally will accomplish his purpose against Babylon. He will carry out Yahweh's will against 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, I have spoken, yes, I have summoned him, I have brought him, and he will succeed.

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

16 Come near to me, listen to this: From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; when it happens, I am there.” Now the Lord Yahweh has 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 This is what Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says, “I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you how to succeed, who leads you by the way that you should 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 If only you had obeyed my commandments! Then your peace and prosperity would have flowed like a river, and your salvation like 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 Your descendants would have been as numerous as the sand, and the children from your womb as numerous as the grains of sand; their name would not have been cut off nor blotted out 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 Come out from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! With the sound of a ringing cry announce it! Make this known, make it go out to the ends of the earth! Say, 'Yahweh has 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 They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made the water to flow out of the rock for them; he split open 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 for the wicked—says Yahweh.”

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