Isaiah 48:1-10

The Lord Appeals to the Exiles

48:1 Listen to this, O family of Jacob,

you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’

and are descended from Judah,

who take oaths in the name of the Lord,

and invoke the God of Israel –

but not in an honest and just manner.

48:2 Indeed, they live in the holy city;

they trust in the God of Israel,

whose name is the Lord who commands armies.

48:3 “I announced events beforehand,

I issued the decrees and made the predictions;

suddenly I acted and they came to pass.

48:4 I did this because I know how stubborn you are.

Your neck muscles are like iron

and your forehead like bronze.

48:5 I announced them to you beforehand;

before they happened, I predicted them for you,

so you could never say,

‘My image did these things,

my idol, my cast image, decreed them.’

48:6 You have heard; now look at all the evidence!

Will you not admit that what I say is true?

From this point on I am announcing to you new events

that are previously unrevealed and you do not know about.

48:7 Now they come into being, not in the past;

before today you did not hear about them,

so you could not say,

‘Yes, I know about them.’

48:8 You did not hear,

you do not know,

you were not told beforehand.

For I know that you are very deceitful;

you were labeled a rebel from birth.

48:9 For the sake of my reputation I hold back my anger;

for the sake of my prestige I restrain myself from destroying you.

48:10 Look, I have refined you, but not as silver;

I have purified you in the furnace of misery.