48:17 This is what the Lord, your protector, 1 says,
the Holy One of Israel: 2
“I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you how to succeed,
who leads you in the way you should go.
48:18 If only you had obeyed my 3 commandments,
prosperity would have flowed to you like a river, 4
deliverance would have come to you like the waves of the sea. 5
48:19 Your descendants would have been as numerous as sand, 6
and your children 7 like its granules.
Their name would not have been cut off
and eliminated from my presence. 8
48:20 Leave Babylon!
Flee from the Babylonians!
Announce it with a shout of joy!
Make this known!
Proclaim it throughout the earth! 9
Say, ‘The Lord protects 10 his servant Jacob.
48:21 They do not thirst as he leads them through dry regions;
he makes water flow out of a rock for them;
he splits open a rock and water flows out.’ 11
48:22 There will be no prosperity for the wicked,” says the Lord.
1 tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
2 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
3 tn Heb “paid attention to” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “had listened to.”
4 tn Heb “like a river your peace would have been.” שָׁלוֹם (shalom) probably refers here to the peace and prosperity which God promised in return for obedience to the covenant.
5 tn Heb “and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.” צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah) probably refers here to divine deliverance from enemies. See v. 19.
6 tn Heb “like sand”; NCV “as many as the grains of sand.”
7 tn Heb “and the issue from your inner parts.”
8 tn Heb “and his name would not be cut off and would not be destroyed from before me.”
9 tn Heb “to the end of the earth” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV).
10 tn Heb “redeems.” See the note at 41:14.
11 sn The translation above (present tense) assumes that this verse describes God’s provision for returning Babylonian exiles (see v. 20; 35:6; 49:10) in terms reminiscent of the Exodus from Egypt (see Exod 17:6).