1Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who came from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right. (诗68:26; 赛43:1; 耶7:9)2For they call themselves after the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; the Lord of hosts is his name. (弥3:11)3“The former things I declared of old; they went out from my mouth, and I announced them; then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass. (赛41:26)4Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass, (出32:9)5I declared them to you from of old, before they came to pass I announced them to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol did them, my carved image and my metal image commanded them.’ (赛48:3; 耶44:15)6“You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forth I announce to you new things, hidden things that you have not known. (赛43:19)7They are created now, not long ago; before today you have never heard of them, lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’8You have never heard, you have never known, from of old your ear has not been opened. For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously, and that from before birth you were called a rebel. (赛46:8)9“For my name’s sake I defer my anger; for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. (玛3:6)10Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried[1] you in the furnace of affliction. (申4:20; 结22:18; 结22:20; 结22:22; 彼前1:7)11For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name[2] be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. (赛42:8; 赛43:25; 结20:9)
The Lord’s Call to Israel
12“Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am he; I am the first, and I am the last. (赛41:4)13My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand forth together. (诗102:25; 赛40:26; 赛51:13; 來1:10)14“Assemble, all of you, and listen! Who among them has declared these things? The Lord loves him; he shall perform his purpose on Babylon, and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans. (赛23:13; 赛41:26; 赛46:10; 赛47:1)15I, even I, have spoken and called him; I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way. (赛45:1)16Draw near to me, hear this: from the beginning I have not spoken in secret, from the time it came to be I have been there.” And now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit. (赛45:19; 赛61:1)17Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go.18Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea; (申32:29; 诗81:13; 赛66:12; 路19:42)19your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me.” (创22:17; 赛10:22; 何1:10)20Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea, declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it out to the end of the earth; say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!” (出19:4; 赛23:13; 赛35:10; 赛44:23; 赛47:1; 赛52:9; 赛52:11; 耶50:8; 耶51:6; 耶51:45; 亚2:6)21They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and the water gushed out. (出17:6; 民20:11; 申8:15; 赛35:6; 赛43:19; 赛44:3)22“There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.” (赛57:21)