Isaiah 48:17-22

New International Reader's Version

¹⁷The Lord is the Holy One of Israel.
    He sets his people free. He says to them,
“I am the Lord your God.
    I teach you what is best for you.
    I direct you in the way you should go.
¹⁸I wish you would pay attention to my commands.
    If you did, peace would flow over you like a river.
    Godliness would sweep over you like the waves of the ocean.
¹⁹Your family would be like the sand.
    Your children after you would be as many as the grains of sand by the sea.
    It would be impossible to count them.
I would always accept the members of your family line.
    They would never disappear or be destroyed.”

²⁰People of Israel, leave Babylon!
    Hurry up and get away from the Babylonians!
Here is what I want you to announce.
    Make it known with shouts of joy.
Send the news out from one end of the earth to the other.
    Say, “The Lord has set free his servant Jacob.”
²¹They didn’t get thirsty when he led them through the deserts.
    He made water flow out of the rock for them.
He broke the rock open,
    and water came out of it.