Isaiah 48
48
Chapter 48
The Lord warns his people
1Listen to this, family of Jacob. You are called ‘Israel’, and you are Judah's descendants. #48:1 Jacob was the ancestor of the Israelite people. God gave to him the new name ‘Israel’. Judah was one of Jacob's 12 sons. You use the name of the Lord when you make promises. You pray to Israel's God. But you do not do those things honestly and fairly. 2Your people are proud to say that they live in the holy city. They trust in Israel's God, whose name is the Lord Almighty.
3The Lord says to his people,
‘I already spoke about things that would happen at a future time.
A long time ago I told you what would happen.
Then I suddenly did my work,
and I caused those things to happen!
4I did it because I know what you are like.
You refuse to obey me.
You do not want to change the way that you live.
Your neck is like iron and it will not bend!
Your head is as hard as bronze!
5So I told you about these things a long time ago.
Before they happened, I told you about them.
Then you could not say, “My idol did them.
Yes, my wooden image and my idol made of metal
decided that these things would happen.”
6You heard what I said would happen,
and now you have seen it happen.
Agree that what I say is true!
Now I will tell you about new things that will happen.
They are secret things that you do not yet know about.
7They are not things that started long ago.
I am causing them to happen now.
You did not hear about them before today.
So you cannot say, “Yes, I already knew about them.”
8You have not heard about them before.
You know nothing about them.
From long ago you refused to listen to me.
I know that you are never honest.
Since you first became a nation,
you have refused to obey me.
9Because of who I am,
I will keep my anger until later.
I will not destroy you now,
so that people will praise my name.
10Listen! I have made you pure.
But I have not done it in the way that people make silver pure.
Instead, I have sent pain and trouble to you.
That is how I make you pure.
11I do these things to show who I am.
That is why I do it!
I will not let people insult my good name.
I will not let anyone else share my glory.
12So listen to me, descendants of Jacob!
I called you to belong to me, you Israelite people.
I am the only One.
I am the first, and I am also the last.
13I created the earth with my own hand.
With my right hand, I hung up the sky like a curtain.
When I call to the stars,
they all appear in their places.
14All of you, come together and listen to me.
Not one of your idols has said
what will happen now.
I, the Lord, have chosen a friend to attack Babylon.
He will do what I want.
He will have the power to punish the Babylonians.
15Yes, that is what I have commanded.
I have called him to do this work.
I have shown him what he must do,
and he will do it!
16Come near to me! Listen to my message!
From the beginning, I have not spoken secretly.
When these things happen, I will already be there.’
Now the Almighty Lord has sent me, with the power of his Spirit. #48:16 These may be the words of Isaiah, as he brings God's message to his people. Or they may be the words of Cyrus, the king that God had chosen to punish the Babylonians.
17The Lord is your Redeemer, Israel's Holy God. He says,
‘I am the Lord your God.
I teach you what will be good for you.
I lead you along a good path in life.
18You should have obeyed my commands.
Then you would have had peace in your lives,
like a river that runs quietly.
You would have been safe and well,
like the strong waves in the sea.
19You would have had many descendants,
as much as the sand on the shore of the sea.
I would not need to destroy them.
Their family name would continue for ever.’
20Now leave Babylon as free people!
No longer serve the Babylonians!
Shout the news with joy!
Tell everyone about it, all over the world.
Tell them that the Lord has redeemed his people,
his servants, the Israelites.
21When he led them through the desert,
they did not become thirsty.
He broke open a rock for them,
so that water poured out.
They could drink as much as they needed.
22But the Lord says, ‘Wicked people will have no peace in their lives.’
Currently Selected:
Isaiah 48: EASY
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
MissionAssist 2018
Isaiah 48
48
1“Hear this, house of Jacob,
you who are called by the name of Israel,
and have come out of the waters of Judah.
You swear by Yahweh’s name,
and make mention of the God of Israel,
but not in truth, nor in righteousness—
2for they call themselves citizens of the holy city,
and rely on the God of Israel;
Yahweh of Armies is his name.
3I have declared the former things from of old.
Yes, they went out of my mouth, and I revealed them.
I did them suddenly, and they happened.
4Because I knew that you are obstinate,
and your neck is an iron sinew,
and your brow bronze;
5therefore I have declared it to you from of old;
before it came to pass I showed it to you;
lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them.
My engraved image and my molten image has commanded them.’
6You have heard it.
Now see all this.
And you, won’t you declare it?
“I have shown you new things from this time,
even hidden things, which you have not known.
7They are created now, and not from of old.
Before today, you didn’t hear them,
lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’
8Yes, you didn’t hear.
Yes, you didn’t know.
Yes, from of old your ear was not opened,
for I knew that you dealt very treacherously,
and were called a transgressor from the womb.
9For my name’s sake, I will defer my anger,
and for my praise, I hold it back for you
so that I don’t cut you off.
10Behold, I have refined you,
but not as silver.
I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.
11For my own sake,
for my own sake, I will do it;
for how would my name be profaned?
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 am also the last.
13Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth,
and my right hand has spread out the heavens.
when I call to them, they stand up together.
14“Assemble yourselves, all of you, and hear!
Who among them has declared these things?
He whom Yahweh loves will do what he likes to Babylon,
and his arm will be against the Chaldeans.
15I, even I, have spoken.
Yes, I have called him.
I have brought him
and he shall make his way prosperous.
16“Come near to me and hear this:
“From the beginning I have not spoken in secret;
from the time that it happened, I was there.”
Now the Lord Yahweh has sent me
with his Spirit.
17Yahweh,
your Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel, says:
“I am Yahweh your God,
who teaches you to profit,
who leads you by the way that you should go.
18Oh that you had listened to my commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river
and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
19Your offspring also would have been as the sand
and the descendants of your body like its grains.
His name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.”
20Leave Babylon!
Flee from the Chaldeans!
With the sound of joyful shouting announce this,
tell it even to the end of the earth;
say, “Yahweh has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
21They didn’t thirst when he led them through the deserts.
He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them.
He also split the rock and the waters gushed out.
22“There is no peace”, says Yahweh, “for the wicked.”
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
PUBLIC DOMAIN (not copyrighted)