Hear this, you house of Jacob,
you who call yourselves by the name of Israel,
who came forth from the waters of Judah,
who swear by the name of the Lord
and invoke the God of Israel,
but not in true righteousness.
² Yes, they name themselves after the Holy City,
and they lean on the God of Israel—
the Lord of Armies is his name.
³ Things that took place long ago,
I announced before they happened.
From my mouth the announcement went out.
I made these things known.
Then suddenly I acted, and they came about.
⁴ I did this because I know that you are stubborn.
Your neck is as stiff as iron,
and your forehead is as hard as bronze.
⁵ I declared this to you long ago.
Before it came about, I announced it to you,
to prevent you from saying, “My false god did it.
My wooden idol and my metal image commanded it.”
⁶ You heard all this.
Now look at the facts.
Won’t you admit that I am right?

From now on I will also announce new things to you,
hidden things that you never knew.
⁷ These things are being created right now, not long ago.
You have not heard of them before today,
so you cannot say, “Oh, I already knew that!”
⁸ No, you have never heard them.
You certainly never knew them.
Your ear was not open, even back then.
Yes, I knew that you would be extremely unfaithful.
You were called a rebel before you were born.

⁹ For my name’s sake, I am slow to express my anger.
So that I will be praised, I will hold it back from you.
As a result, you are not cut off.

¹⁰ You see, I refined you, but not in the same way silver is refined.
I tested you in the furnace of affliction.
¹¹ For my own sake, for my own sake, I will act.
Why should my name be defiled?
My glory I will not give to another.

¹² Listen to me, Jacob.
Listen to me, Israel, whom I called.
I am he. I am the first.
I am also the last.
¹³ It was my hand that laid the foundation of the earth,
and my right hand spread out the heavens.
I summon them and they stand together.
¹⁴ Gather together, all of you, and listen.
Who among them announced these things?

I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you how to succeed,
who leads you in the way you should walk.
¹⁸ If only you would have listened carefully to my commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river,
and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
¹⁹ Your descendants^[a] would have been like sand,
and the children from your body like grains of sand.
Their name would never have been cut off or destroyed
    from my presence.

²⁰ Get out of Babylon. Flee from Chaldea.
With a joyful voice declare and announce this.
Send it out to the end of the earth.
Say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.”
²¹ They did not suffer thirst in the desolate places
    through which he led them.
He made water flow for them from a rock.
He split open a rock, and water gushed out.

²² There is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked.