481 Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who came forth from the loins of Judah; who swear by the name of the Lord, and invoke the God of Israel, but not in truth or right. 2 For they call themselves after the holy city, and lean on the God of Israel; the Lord of hosts is his name. 3 The former things I declared long ago, they went out from my mouth and I made them known; then suddenly I did them and they came to pass. 4 Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass, 5 I declared them to you from long ago, before they came to pass I announced them to you, so that you would not say, "My idol did them, my carved image and my cast image commanded them." 6 You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forward I make you hear new things, hidden things that you have not known. 7 They are created now, not long ago; before today you have never heard of them, so that you could not say, "I already knew them." 8 You have never heard, you have never known, from of old your ear has not been opened. For I knew that you would deal very treacherously, and that from birth you were called a rebel.
9 For my name's sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, so that I may not cut you off. 10 See, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have tested you in the furnace of adversity. 11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for why should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. 12 Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called: I am He; I am the first, and I am the last. 13 My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they stand at attention. 14 Assemble, all of you, and hear! Who among them has declared these things? The Lord loves him; he shall perform his purpose on Babylon, and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans. 15 I, even I, have spoken and called him, I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.
16 Draw near to me, hear this! From the beginning I have not spoken in secret, from the time it came to be I have been there. And now the Lord God has sent me and his spirit. 17 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord your God, who teaches you for your own good, who leads you in the way you should go. 18 O that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your prosperity would have been like a river, and your success like the waves of the sea; 19 your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me. 20 Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea, declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it forth to the end of the earth; say, "The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!" 21 They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split open the rock and the water gushed out. 22 "There is no peace," says the Lord, "for the wicked."
