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Isaiah 48, RSV

48:1 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 confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right.

48:2 For they call themselves after the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; the LORD of hosts is his name.

48:3 "The former things I declared of old, they went forth from my mouth and I made them known; then suddenly I did them and they came to pass.

48:4 Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass,

48:5 I declared them to you from of old, before they came to pass I announced them to you, lest you should say, `My idol did them, my graven image and my molten image commanded them.'

48:6 "You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forth I make you hear new things, hidden things which you have not known.

48:7 They are created now, not long ago; before today you have never heard of them, lest you should say, `Behold, I knew them.'

48:8 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.

48:9 "For my name's sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off.

48:10 Behold, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.

48:11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.

48:12 "Hearken to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am He, I am the first, and I am the last.

48:13 My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand forth together.

48:14 "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 Chalde'ans.

48:15 I, even I, have spoken and called him, I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.

48:16 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.

48:17 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go.

48:18 O that you had hearkened to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;

48:19 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."

48:20 Go forth from Babylon, flee from Chalde'a, 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!"

48:21 They thirsted not when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he cleft the rock and the water gushed out.

48:22 "There is no peace," says the LORD, "for the wicked."

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