Isaiah 48

1 Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and have come forth out of the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but 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 they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; 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 I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth from my mouth, and I showed them; I did them suddenly, 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, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;

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

5 I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I showed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, My idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded 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, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have showed ye new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them.

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 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.

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 Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thy ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.

[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 my name’s sake will I defer my anger, and for my praise will I restrain it for thee, that I cut thee not 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, but not with silver; I have chosen thee 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, even for my own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be profaned? and I will not give my glory to 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 to me, O Jacob and Israel, my 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 My hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath 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 All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; who 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.

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; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.

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 to 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.

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 saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God who teacheth thee to profit, who leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest 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 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:

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 Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy body like its gravel; his name should not have been 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 ye forth from 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.

[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: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he split the rock also, 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, to the wicked.

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