1 Hear 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 Jehovah and make mention of the God of Israel (but not in truth nor in righteousness;
2 for they name themselves as being of the holy city, and rest themselves on the God of Israel; Jehovah of Hosts is His name):
3 I have declared the former things from the beginning, and they proceeded forth out of My mouth, and I proclaimed to them. I acted suddenly, and they came to pass,
4 because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your brow bronze.
5 I even declared it to you from the beginning. Before it happened I proclaimed it to you, lest you should say, My idol has done them, and my graven image and my molten image has commanded them.
6 You have heard; see all this. And will you not declare it? I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, and you did not know them.
7 They are created now, and not since the beginning; even before the day when you did not hear them; lest you should say, Behold, I knew them.
8 Surely you did not hear, surely you did not know; surely from long ago your ear was not opened. For I knew that you would deceive with treachery, and were called a transgressor from the womb.
9 For My names sake I will prolong My anger, and for My praise I will restrain for you, so that I do not cut you off.
10 Behold, I have refined you, but not with silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.
11 For my own sake, for My own sake I will do it; for why should My name be defiled? And I will not give My glory to another.
12 Listen to me O Jacob, and Israel My called; I am He; I am the first, I also am the last.
13 My hand also has laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand has stretched out the heavens. When I called to them, they stood up together.
14 Let all of you gather and hear. Who among them has declared these things? Jehovah has loved him; He will do as He pleases upon Babylon, and His arm shall be upon the Chaldeans.
15 I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him; I have brought him and made his way prosperous.
16 Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning. From the time it existed, I was there; and now the Lord Jehovah, and His Spirit, has sent Me.
17 Thus says Jehovah, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am Jehovah your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go.
18 Oh that you had paid attention to My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
19 Your seed also would have been like the sand, and the offspring of your womb like grains of sand; his name would not have been cut off nor destroyed from before My face.
20 Go out from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! Declare it with a resounding voice! Proclaim this; let it go forth to the ends of the earth! Say, Jehovah has redeemed His servant, Jacob!
21 And they did not thirst when He led them through the deserts; He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them; He split open the rock also, and the waters gushed out.
22 There is no peace, says Jehovah, unto the wicked.