Isaiah 48
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
God the Creator and Redeemer
48 Hear this, O house of Jacob,
who are called by the name of Israel
and who came forth from the loins[a] of Judah,
who swear by the name of the Lord
and invoke the God of Israel
but not in truth or right.(A)
2 For they call themselves after the holy city
and lean on the God of Israel;
the Lord of hosts is his name.(B)
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.(C)
4 Because I know that you are obstinate,
and your neck is an iron sinew
and your forehead brass,(D)
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.”(E)
6 You have heard; now see all this;
and will you not declare it?
From this time forward I tell you new things,
hidden things that you have not known.(F)
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 act very treacherously
and that from birth you were called a rebel.(G)
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.(H)
10 See, I have refined you but not like[b] silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of adversity.(I)
11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
for why should my name[c] be profaned?
My glory I will not give to another.(J)
12 Listen to me, O Jacob,
and Israel, whom I called:
I am he; I am the first,
and I am the last.(K)
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.(L)
14 Assemble, all of you, and hear!
Who among them has declared these things?
The one the Lord loves shall perform his purpose against Babylon,
and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.(M)
15 I, even I, have spoken and called him;
I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.(N)
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.(O)
17 Thus says the Lord,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you how to succeed,
who leads you in the way you should go.(P)
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;(Q)
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.(R)
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!”(S)
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.(T)
22 “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”(U)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.