12 “Listen to me, Jacob,

and Israel, the one called by me:

I am he; I am the first,

I am also the last.h

13 My own hand founded the earth,

and my right hand spread out the heavens;i

when I summoned them,

they stood up together.

14 All of you, assemble and listen!

Who among the idolsD has declared these things?

The Lord loves him;E

he will accomplish his will against Babylon,j

and his arm will be against the Chaldeans.

15 I—I have spoken;

yes, I have called him;k

I have brought him,

and he will succeed in his mission.l

16 Approach me and listen to this.

From the beginning I have not spoken in secret;m

from the time anything existed, I was there.”

And now the Lord God

has sent me and his Spirit.n

17 This is what the Lord, your Redeemer,o the Holy One of Israelp says:

I am the Lord your God,

who teaches you for your benefit,

who leads you in the way you should go.

18 If only you had paid attention to my commands.

Then your peace would have been like a river,q

and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.r

19 Your descendants would have been as countless as the sand,s

and the offspring of your body like its grains;

their name would not be cut off

or eliminated from my presence.

20 Leave Babylon,

flee from the Chaldeans!

Declare with a shout of joy,

proclaim this,

let it go out to the end of the earth;

announce,

“The Lord has redeemed his servantt Jacob!”

21 They did not thirst

when he led them through the deserts;

he made water flow from the rock for them;u

he split the rock, and water gushed out.

22 “There is no peace for the wicked,” says the Lord.v