God, to convince the people of their foreknown obstinacy, revealed his prophecies, 1-8. He saves them for his own sake, 9-11. He exhorts them to obedience because of his power and providence, 12-15. He laments their backwardness, 16-19. He powerfully delivers his people out of Babylon, 20-22.
1 "Hear this, O house of Jacob,/
who are called by the name of Israel/
and have come forth out of the waters of Judah,/
who swear by the name of the LORD/
and make mention of the God of Israel,/
but not in truth, nor in righteousness.
2 For they call themselves of the holy city,/
and stay themselves upon the God of Israel./
The LORD of hosts is his name.
3 I have declared the former things from the beginning,/
and they went forth from my mouth/
and I proclaimed them./
I did them suddenly/
and they came to pass.
4 Because I knew that you are obstinate,/
and your neck is an iron sinew and your brow brass,
5 I have even from the beginning declared it to you./
Before it came to pass I showed it to you,/
lest you should say, 'My idol has done them,/
and my engraved image and my molten image/
has commanded them.'
6 You have heard it. See all of this./
And will you not declare it?/
I have showed you new things from this time,/
even hidden things, and you did not know them.
7 They are created now, and not from the beginning,/
even before the day when you did not hear them,/
lest you should say, 'Behold, I knew them.'
8 Indeed, you did not hear./
Indeed, you did not know./
Indeed, from that time 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 refrain for you,/
so that I do not cut you off.
10 Behold, I have refined you, but not with silver./
I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.
11 For my own sake, even for my own sake, I will do it./
For how should my name be profaned?/
And I will not give my glory to another.
12 Listen to me, O Jacob,/
and Israel my called./
I am he. I am the first./
I am also the last.
13 My hand has also laid the foundation of the earth,/
and my right hand has spanned 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 has loved him./
He will do his pleasure on Babylon,/
and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.
15 I, even I, have spoken./
Indeed, I have called him./
I have brought him,/
and he shall make his way prosperous.
16 Come near to me, hear this./
I have not spoken in secret from the beginning./
From the time that it was, there I am./
And now the Lord GOD and his Spirit has 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 that you should go.
18 O that you had listened to my commandments!/
Then your peace would have been as a river/
and your righteousness as the waves of the sea.
19 Your descendants also would have been as the sand/
and the offspring of your body like its grains./
His name should 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, tell this,/
and utter it even to the end of the earth,/
saying, "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 out of the rock for them./
He also cleaved the rock and the waters gushed out.
22 "There is no peace,"/
says the LORD, "for the wicked."
Matthew Henry Commentary - Isaiah, Chapter 48[➚]