Yahweh Frees Israel

12 “Listen to me, Jacob,

and Israel, ⌊whom I called⌋:p

I am he. I am the first;

also I am the last.

13 Indeed, my hand founded the earth,

and my right hand spread out the heavens;

when I summonq them, they stand in position together.

14 Assemble, all of you, and hear!

Who among them declared these things?

Yahweh loves him;

he shall performr his wish against Babylon

and his arm against ⌊the Chaldeans⌋.s

15 I, I myself, I have spoken!

Indeed, I have called him.

I have brought him,

and he will be successful in his way.

16 Draw near to me; hear this! I have not spoken in secrecy from the ⌊beginning⌋;t

from the time ⌊it came to be⌋,u there I have been;

And now the Lord Yahweh has sent me and his Spirit.”

17 Thus says Yahweh, your redeemer, the holy one of Israel:

“I am Yahweh your God, ⌊who teaches⌋v you to profit,

leads you in the way you should go.

18 O that you had listened attentively to my commandments!

Thenw your prosperity would have been like a river,

and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

19 And your offspring would have been like the sand,

and the descendants of your ⌊body⌋x like its grains.y

It would not be cut off,

and its name would not be destroyed from my presence.”

20 Go out from Babylon!

Flee from Chaldea!

Proclaimz it with a shouta of rejoicing; proclaimb this!

⌊Send it forth⌋c to the end of the earth;

say, “Yahweh has redeemed his servant Jacob!”

21 And when he led them through the deserts, they were not thirsty;

he made water flow from the rock for them,

and he split the rock,

and the water gushed out.

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