Chapter 48

  Hear you this, house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah; who swear by the name of Yahweh, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness  

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  (for they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; Yahweh of Hosts is his name):  

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  I have declared the former things from of old; yes, they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them: suddenly I did them, and they happened.  

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  Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow brass;  

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  therefore I have declared it to you from of old; before it came to pass I showed it you; lest you should say, My idol has done them, and my engraved image, and my molten image, has commanded them.  

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  You have heard it; see all this; and you, will you not declare it? I have showed you new things from this time, even hidden things, which you have not known.  

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  They are created now, and not from of old; and before this day you didn't hear them; lest you should say, Behold, I knew them.  

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  Yes, you didn't hear; yes, you didn't know; yes, from of old your ear was not opened: for I knew that you did deal very treacherously, and was called a transgressor from the womb.  

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  For my name's sake will I defer my anger, and for my praise will I refrain for you, that I not cut you off.  

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  Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.  

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  For my own sake, for my own sake, will I do it; for how should [my name] be profaned? and my glory I will not give to another.  

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  Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel my called: I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.  

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  Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spread out the heavens: when I call to them, they stand up together.  

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  Assemble yourselves, all you, and hear; who among them has declared these things? He whom Yahweh loves shall perform his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm [shall be on] the Chaldeans.  

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  I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him; I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.  

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  Come you near to me, hear you this; from the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord Yahweh has sent me, and his Spirit.  

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  Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go.  

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  Oh that you had listened to my commandments! then had your peace been as a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea:  

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  your seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of your loins like the grains of it: his name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.  

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  Go you forth from Babylon, flee you from the Chaldeans; with a voice of singing declare you, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth: say you, Yahweh has redeemed his servant Jacob.  

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  They didn't thirst when he led them through the deserts; he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them; he split the rock also, and the waters gushed out.  

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  There is no peace, says Yahweh, to the wicked.  

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