Isaiah 48:12-49:7

English Standard Version Anglicised

¹² “Listen to me, O Jacob,
    and Israel, whom I called!
I am he; ^(A)I am the first,
    and I am the last.
¹³ My 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.
¹⁷ Thus 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.”
^20 (N)Go out from Babylon, flee from ^(O)Chaldea,
    declare this ^(P)with a shout of joy, proclaim it,
send it out to the end of the earth;
    say, ^(Q)“The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!”
^21 (R)They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
    ^(S)he made water flow for them from the rock;
    he split the rock and the water gushed out.
^22 (T)“There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”

49 Listen to me, ^(U)O coastlands,
    and give attention, you peoples ^(V)from afar.
^(W)The Lord called me from the womb,
    from the body of my mother he named my name.
^2 (X)He made my mouth like a sharp sword;
    ^(Y)in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow;
    in his quiver he hid me away.
³ And he said to me, “You are my servant,
    Israel, ^(Z)in whom I will be glorified.”^[a]
4 (AA)But I said, “I have laboured in vain;
    I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my right is with the Lord,
    and my recompense with my God.”
^5 (AB)And now the Lord says,
    he ^(AC)who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him;
    and that Israel might be gathered to him—
for ^(AD)I am honoured in the eyes of the Lord,
    and my God has become my strength—
⁶ he says:
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
    to raise up the tribes of Jacob
    and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
^(AE)I will make you ^(AF)as a light for the nations,
    that ^(AG)my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
⁷ Thus says the Lord,
    ^(AH)the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
^(AI)to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation,
    the servant of rulers:
^(AJ)“Kings shall see and arise;
    princes, and they shall prostrate themselves;
because of the Lord, who is faithful,
    the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”