Isaiah 48:16-22

48:16 Approach me! Listen to this!

From the very first I have not spoken in secret;

when it happens, ¹  I am there.”

So now, the sovereign Lord has sent me, accompanied by his spirit. ² 

48:17 This is what the Lord, your protector, ³  says,

the Holy One of Israel: ⁴ 

“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 ⁵  commandments,

prosperity would have flowed to you like a river, ⁶ 

deliverance would have come to you like the waves of the sea. ⁷ 

48:19 Your descendants would have been as numerous as sand, ⁸ 

and your children ⁹  like its granules.

Their name would not have been cut off

and eliminated from my presence. ¹⁰ 

48:20 Leave Babylon!

Flee from the Babylonians!

Announce it with a shout of joy!

Make this known!

Proclaim it throughout the earth! ¹¹ 

Say, ‘The Lord protects ¹²  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.’ ¹³ 

48:22 There will be no prosperity for the wicked,” says the Lord.

[48:16]  ¹ tn Heb “from the time of its occurring.”

[48:16]  ² sn The speaker here is not identified specifically, but he is probably Cyrus, the Lord’s “ally” mentioned in vv. 14-15.

[48:17]  ³ tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[48:17]  ⁴ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[48:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “paid attention to” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “had listened to.”

[48:18]  ⁶ 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.

[48:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.” צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah) probably refers here to divine deliverance from enemies. See v. 19.

[48:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “like sand”; NCV “as many as the grains of sand.”

[48:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the issue from your inner parts.”

[48:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and his name would not be cut off and would not be destroyed from before me.”

[48:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to the end of the earth” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV).

[48:20]  ¹² tn Heb “redeems.” See the note at 41:14.

[48:21]  ¹³ 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).