God’s Ancient Plan to Redeem Israel

12 “Listen to Me, O Jacob,

And Israel, My called:

I am He, nI am the oFirst,

I am also the Last.

13 Indeed pMy hand has laid the foundation of the earth,

And My right hand has stretched out the heavens;

When qI call to them,

They stand up together.

14 “All of you, assemble yourselves, and hear!

Who among them has declared these things?

rThe Lord loves him;

sHe shall do His pleasure on Babylon,

And His arm shall be against the Chaldeans.

15 I, even I, have spoken;

Yes, tI have called him,

I have brought him, and his way will prosper.

16 “Come near to Me, hear this:

uI have not spoken in secret from the beginning;

From the time that it was, I was there.

And now vthe Lord God and His Spirit

3Have sent Me.”

17 Thus says wthe Lord, your Redeemer,

The Holy One of Israel:

“I am the Lord your God,

Who teaches you to profit,

xWho leads you by the way you should go.

18 yOh, that you had heeded My commandments!

zThen your peace would have been like a river,

And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

19 aYour descendants also would have been like the sand,

And the offspring of your body like the grains of sand;

His name would not have been cut off

Nor destroyed from before Me.”

20 bGo forth from Babylon!

Flee from the Chaldeans!

With a voice of singing,

Declare, proclaim this,

Utter it to the end of the earth;

Say, “The Lord has credeemed

His servant Jacob!”

21 And they ddid not thirst

When He led them through the deserts;

He ecaused the waters to flow from the rock for them;

He also split the rock, and the waters gushed out.

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