# Isaiah 48 (New King James Version)
Israel Refined for God's Glory

##### Chapter 48
###### 1 "Hear this, O house of Jacob,  
Who are called by the name of Israel,  
And have come forth from the wellsprings of Judah;  
Who swear by the name of the Lord,  
And make mention of the God of Israel,  
_But_ not in truth or in righteousness;  

###### 2 For they call themselves after the holy city,  
And lean on the God of Israel;  
The Lord of hosts _is_ His name:

###### 3 "I have declared the former things from the beginning;  
They went forth from My mouth, and I caused them to hear it.  
Suddenly I did _them,_ and they came to pass.  

###### 4 Because I knew that you _were_ obstinate,  
And your neck _was_ an iron sinew,  
And your brow bronze,  

###### 5 Even from the beginning I have declared _it_ to you;  
Before it came to pass I proclaimed _it_ to you,  
Lest you should say, 'My idol has done them,  
And my carved image and my molded image  
Have commanded them.'

###### 6 "You have heard;  
See all this.  
And will you not declare _it?_  
I have made you hear new things from this time,  
Even hidden things, and you did not know them.  

###### 7 They are created now and not from the beginning;  
And before this day you have not heard them,  
Lest you should say, 'Of course I knew them.'  

###### 8 Surely you did not hear,  
Surely you did not know;  
Surely from long ago your ear was not opened.  
For I knew that you would deal very treacherously,  
And were called a transgressor from the womb.

###### 9 "For My name's sake I will defer My anger,  
And _for_ My praise I will restrain it from you,  
So that I do not cut you off.  

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

###### 11 For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do _it;_  
For how should _My name_ be profaned?  
And I will not give My glory to another.God's Ancient Plan to Redeem Israel

###### 12 "Listen to Me, O Jacob,  
And Israel, My called:  
I _am_ He, I _am_ the First,  
I _am_ also the Last.  

###### 13 Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth,  
And My right hand has stretched out the heavens;  
_When_ I call to them,  
They stand up together.

###### 14 "All of you, assemble yourselves, and hear!  
Who among them has declared these _things?_  
The Lord loves him;  
He shall do His pleasure on Babylon,  
And His arm _shall be against_ the Chaldeans.  

###### 15 I, _even_ I, have spoken;  
Yes, I have called him,  
I have brought him, and his way will prosper.

###### 16 "Come near to Me, hear this:  
I have not spoken in secret from the beginning;  
From the time that it was, I _was_ there.  
And now the Lord God and His Spirit  
Have sent Me."

###### 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 by the way you should go.  

###### 18 Oh, that you had heeded My commandments!  
Then your peace would have been like a river,  
And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.  

###### 19 Your descendants also would have been like the sand,  
And the offspring of your body like the grains of sand;  
His name would not have been cut off  
Nor destroyed from before Me."

###### 20 Go forth from Babylon!  
Flee from the Chaldeans!  
With a voice of singing,  
Declare, proclaim this,  
Utter it to the end of the earth;  
Say, "The Lord has redeemed  
His servant Jacob!"  

###### 21 And they did not thirst  
When He led them through the deserts;  
He caused the waters to flow from the rock for them;  
He also split the rock, and the waters gushed out.

###### 22 "_There_ _is_ no peace," says the Lord, "for the wicked."