Isaiah 48

Listen to this, family of Jacob, you who are called by the name Israel, and who came from the line of Judah. You make promises using the LORD's name and you speak of the God of Israel, but not truthfully and not honestly.

1Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness.

NoteJacob was the ancestor whose name was changed to Israel; "house of Jacob" and "Israel" both mean his descendants, the nation. Judah was one of the twelve tribes descended from him, and by Isaiah's day the southern kingdom around Jerusalem, the survivors this chapter addresses, was simply called Judah. "LORD" printed in capitals stands in for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew letters often written Yahweh, which readers avoided pronouncing aloud. To "swear by the name" is to stake a promise on that name, calling God as guarantor.

2You call yourselves citizens of the holy city and you lean on the God of Israel for support. His name is the LORD of hosts.

2For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is his name.

NoteThe holy city is Jerusalem, where the temple stood; claiming to be its citizens was a claim to the standing that went with it. "LORD of hosts" is a military title (the hosts are armies, both Israel's and the heavenly ones) roughly "the LORD who commands the armies."

3Long ago I told what was going to happen. The words came out of my mouth, and I announced them. Then all at once I acted, and those things came true.

3I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.

Note"The former things" is a set phrase in these chapters of Isaiah: earlier announcements that have already come true, offered as evidence. It is set against "new things" in verse 6, which have not happened yet.

4I did that because I knew how stubborn you are. Your neck is stiff like iron, and your forehead is hard like bronze.

4Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;

NoteBoth images are ordinary Hebrew insults. A stiff neck is an ox that will not turn when the yoke pulls; a hard forehead is a face that will not blush, that is, someone past shame.

5So I told you long ago. Before it happened, I announced it to you. That way you could not say, "My idol did this. My carved statue and my metal image ordered it."

5I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.

NoteTwo standard ways of making an image of a god: carving it from wood or stone, and casting it by pouring molten metal into a mold. The point of naming both is to cover every kind of idol.

6You have heard all this; now look at all of it. Will you not admit it is true? From now on I am telling you new things, hidden things you did not know.

6Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them.

7They are being created now, not long ago. Before today you had never heard of them. So you cannot say, "Look, I already knew about that."

7They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.

8You never heard them. You never understood them. For a long time now your ear has not been open. I knew you would act very falsely, and that you have been called a rebel since birth.

8Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.

Note"Your ear has not been open" is an idiom for refusing to take something in, not for deafness. The Hebrew of this line is compressed and can also be read as "I did not open your ear", translations differ. "A rebel since birth" refers to the nation's whole history from its beginning, not to an individual's childhood.

9For the sake of my own name I will hold my anger back. For the sake of my own praise I will keep it back from you, so that I do not cut you off.

9For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.

Note"For the sake of my name" means for the sake of his reputation among the watching nations, since a god was judged by what happened to his people. To "cut off" is a standard idiom for wiping out a family or nation so that no descendants remain.

10Look, I have refined you, but not the way silver is refined. I have chosen you in the furnace of suffering.

10Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.

NoteRefining means melting metal in a furnace so the impurities separate out. The Hebrew of "but not with silver" is disputed: it may mean "not as thoroughly as silver is refined," or "not producing silver," or "not for the price of silver." The image of the furnace of affliction is exile and disaster treated as a smelting fire.

11For my own sake, yes, for my own sake, I will act. Why should my name be dragged down? I will not hand my glory over to anyone else.

11For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "dragged down" is the one used for defiling something sacred. "Glory" here is public honor or credit, the concern is that another god be given the credit for what happens.

12Listen to me, Jacob, and Israel, the people I called. I am he. I am the first, and I am also the last.

12Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.

13My own hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens. When I call to them, they stand up together.

13Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.

NoteSpreading out the heavens pictures stretching a tent-cloth over its poles. "They stand up together" pictures earth and sky as servants who rise to attention when their master summons them.

14All of you, gather and listen. Which of them announced these things ahead of time? The LORD has loved him. He will carry out what the LORD wants against Babylon, and his arm will strike the Chaldeans.

14All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these things? The LORD hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.

Note"Which of them" means which of the idols and their gods, who are being cross-examined like witnesses in a trial through these chapters. The unnamed "him" whom the LORD loves and calls is generally taken to be Cyrus, the Persian king who conquered Babylon in 539 BC and let the exiles go home; Isaiah names him at 44:28 and 45:1. The Hebrew is ambiguous enough that some read the phrase as a title, "the one the LORD loves," and a few take the figure to be Israel instead. Chaldeans is another name for the Babylonians, after the people whose dynasty then ruled Babylon.

15I, I myself, have spoken. Yes, I have called him. I have brought him here, and he will succeed in what he sets out to do.

15I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.

16Come near to me and listen to this. From the beginning I have not spoken in secret. From the time it happened, I have been there. And now the Lord GOD has sent me, and his Spirit as well.

16Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me.

NoteThe speaker changes in mid-verse without warning: through the chapter it is God speaking, and here someone says he has been sent by God. Who this "me" is (the prophet, or the servant figure of the surrounding chapters) is left unresolved in the Hebrew. "Lord GOD" with GOD in capitals renders a double name, roughly "my Master, Yahweh."

17This is what the LORD says, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is good for you, who leads you in the way you should go.

17Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.

NoteA redeemer, in Hebrew law, was the nearest male relative, whose duty it was to buy a family member out of slavery, buy back land the family had lost, or avenge a killing. Calling God "your Redeemer" borrows that family obligation. "The Holy One of Israel" is Isaiah's characteristic title for God, used dozens of times in this book and almost nowhere else.

18If only you had paid attention to my commands! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your right living like the waves of the sea.

18O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:

Note"Peace" translates shalom, which is wider than the absence of war: safety, health, prosperity, everything being as it should be. A river and the sea's waves are images of steady, inexhaustible supply in a country where most streams dried up for half the year.

19Your descendants would have been as many as the sand, and the children born to you as many as its grains. Their name would never have been cut off or wiped out from in front of me.

19Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.

NoteDescendants as countless as sand echoes the promise made to Abraham in Genesis. For a name to be "cut off" is for a family line to die out entirely, which in this culture meant being forgotten as well as ended.

20Leave Babylon! Run from the Chaldeans! Announce it with a shout of joy. Tell it, and send the word out to the ends of the earth. Say, "The LORD has set his servant Jacob free."

20Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, The LORD hath redeemed his servant Jacob.

NoteJudah's leading families had been deported to Babylon after Jerusalem fell in 586 BC; this is a summons to walk out when the moment comes. Chaldeans is another name for the Babylonians. "Redeemed" is the same legal word as in verse 17: bought back, the price paid by a kinsman.

21They were not thirsty when he led them through the deserts. He made water flow out of the rock for them. He split the rock open, and the water gushed out.

21And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.

NoteThis recalls the escape from Egypt, when according to Exodus 17 and Numbers 20 water came out of a rock for the people in the desert. The return from Babylon is being described as a second such journey.

22There is no peace, says the LORD, for the wicked.

22There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked.