Isaiah 48:12-19

English Standard Version

The Lord's Call to Israel

¹²“Listen to me, O Jacob,
    and Israel, whom I called!
I am he; ^(A)I am the first,
    and I am the last.
¹³My hand ^(B)laid the foundation of the earth,
    and my right hand ^(C)spread out the heavens;
^(D)when I call to them,
    they stand forth together.

¹⁴“Assemble, all of you, and listen!
    ^(E)Who among them has declared these things?
The Lord loves him;
    ^(F)he shall perform his purpose on Babylon,
    and his arm shall be against ^(G)the Chaldeans.
¹⁵^(H)I, even I, have spoken and called him;
    I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.
¹⁶^(I)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 ^(J)the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit.

¹⁷Thus 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.
¹⁸^(K)Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments!
    ^(L)Then your peace would have been like a river,
    and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;
¹⁹^(M)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.”