Isaiah 42:23-25

The Voice

²³Is there anyone who understands? Who, out of all of you, will pay attention,
understand, and take note concerning what’s to come?

God is the one who lies behind these events. He makes it possible for His people to be defeated and taken away.

²⁴Wasn’t it the Lord, because we turned our backs,
    who gave up Jacob’s descendants, Israel, for robbery and plunder?
We refused to live as God would have us live. We did not heed
    the instruction that God gave us through Moses so long ago.
²⁵That’s why God sent all fury against Jacob
    in the shape of war, and we were burned.
    We experienced all this;
Yet we didn’t get it. God’s people did not take it to heart.