CHAP. XLVIII.

HEAR this, O house of Jacob;

Ye that are called by the name of Israel :
Ye that flow from the fountain of Judah;
Ye that swear by the name of JEHOVAH,
And publicly acknowledge the God of Israel;
But not in sincerity, nor in truth :

2 Who take their name from the Holy City,
And make the God of Israel their support;
JEHOVAH God of hosts is his name:

3 The former things I shewed unto you from the first; And from my mouth they proceeded, and I declared them:

On a sudden I effected them, and they came to pass. 4 Because I knew, that thou wast obstinate,

And that thy neck was a sinew of iron,

And that thy front was brass:

5 Therefore I shewed them unto thee from the first; Before they should come to pass, I made thee hear

them :

Lest thou shouldst say, Mine idol hath caused them; And my graven and my molten image hath directed them.

6 Thou didst hear it beforehand; behold, the whole is accomplished:

And will ye not openly acknowledge this?

From this time I make thee hear new things,
Kept secret hitherto, and of which thou hast no know-
ledge:

7 They are produced now, and not of old;

And before this day thou hast not heard them:
Lest thou shouldst say, Lo! I knew them.

8 Yea, thou hast not heard, thou hast not known,
Yea, from the first thine ear was not opened to re-
ceive them:

For I knew, that thou wouldst certainly deal falsely,

And that Apostate was thy name from thy birth. 9 For the sake of my name I will defer mine anger; And for the sake of my praise I will restrain it from thee,

That I may not utterly cut thee off.

10 Behold, I have purified thee in the fire, but not as silver;

I have tried thee in the furnace of affliction.

11 For mine own sake will I do it; for how would name be blasphemed?

12

And my glory I will not give to another.

Hearken unto me, O Jacob my servant;
And Israel, whom I have called.

I am He; I am the first, and I am the last : 13 Yea my hand hath founded the earth;

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16

my

And my right hand hath spanned the heavens:
I summon them; they present themselves together.
Gather yourselves together all of you, and hear:
Who among you hath predicted these things?
He, whom JEHOVAH hath loved, will execute
His will on Babylon, and his power on the Chal-
deans.

15 I, even I, have spoken; yea I have called him :
I have brought him, and his way shall prosper.
Draw near unto me, and hear ye this:
From the beginning I have not spoken in secret:
Before the time when it began to exist, I had de-
creed it.

17

And now the Lord JEHOVAH hath sent me, and his

Spirit.

Thus saith JEHOVAH;

Thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

I am JEHOVAH, thy God;

Who teacheth thee what will tend to thy profit; Who directeth thee in the way wherein thou shouldst go.

18. O that thou hadst attended to my commands!

Then had thy prosperity been like the river;

And thy blessedness, as the floods of the sea: 19 And thy seed had been as the sand;

20

And the issue of thy bowels, like that of the bowels thereof:

Thy name should not be cut off, nor destroyed from before me.

Come ye forth from Babylon; flee ye from the land of the Chaldeans with the voice of joy : Publish ye this, and make it heard; utter it forth even to the end of the earth :

Say ye, JEHOVAH hath redeemed his servant Jacob; 21 They thirsted not in the deserts, through which he made them go;

Waters from the rock he caused to flow for them;

Yea he clave the rock, and forth gushed the waters. 22 There is no peace, saith JEHOVAH, to the wicked.

CHAP. XLIX.

1 HEARKEN unto me, O ye distant lands; And ye peoples, attend from afar.

JEHOVAH from the womb hath called me;

From the bowels of my mother hath he mentioned

my name.

2 And he hath made my mouth a sharp sword;

In the shadow of his hand he hath concealed me :
Yea he hath made me a polished shaft;

He hath laid me up in store in his quiver:

3 And he hath said unto me, Thou art my servant; Israel, in whom I will be glorified.

4 And I said: I have laboured in vain ;

For nought, and for vanity, I have spent my strength: Nevertheless my cause is with JEHOVAH, And the reward of my work with my God. 5 And now thus saith JEHOVAH,

(Who formed me from the womb to be his servant, To bring back again Jacob unto him,

And that Israel unto him may be gathered:

Therefore am I glorious in the eyes of JEHOVAH, And my God is my strength):

6 It is a small thing for thee, that thou shouldst be

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8

To raise up the cions of Jacob,

And to restore the branches of Israel:

I will even give thee for a light to the nations,
To be my salvation to the end of the earth.

Thus saith JEHOVAH,

The Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One;

my

To him, whose person is despised, whom the nations

hold in abhorrence;

To the subject of rulers:

Kings shall see him, and rise up;

Princes, and they shall worship him:

For the sake of JEHOVAH, who is faithful;

Of the Holy One of Israel, for he hath chosen thee.
Thus saith JEHOVAH:

In the season of acceptance have I heard thee,
And in the day of salvation have I helped thee;
And I will preserve thee, and give thee for a cove-
nant of the people;

To restore the land, to give possession of the desolate heritages.

9 Saying to the bounden, Go forth;

And to those that are in darkness, Appear:

They shall feed beside the ways,

And on all the eminences shall be their pasture. 10. They shall not hunger, neither shall they thirst; Neither shall the glowing heat, or the sun, smite them:

For he, that hath compassion on them, shall lead them;

And shall guide them to the bursting springs of

water.

11 And I will make all my mountains an even way; And my causeways shall be raised on high.

12 Lo! these shall come from afar;

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14

And lo! these from the north and the west;
And these from the land of Sinim.

Sing aloud, O ye heavens; and rejoice, O earth:
Ye mountains, burst forth into song:

For JEHOVAH hath comforted his people,
And will have compassion on his afflicted.

But Sion saith: JEHOVAH hath forsaken me;
And my Lord hath forgotten me.

15 Can a woman forget her sucking infant;

That she should have no tenderness for the son of

her womb?

Even these may forget;

But I will not forget thee.

16 Behold, on the palms of my hands have I delineated thee:

Thy walls are for ever in my sight.

17 They, that destroyed thee, shall soon become thy builders;

And they, that laid thee waste, shall become thine offspring.

18 Lift up thine eyes around, and see;

All these are gathered together, they come to thec.
As I live, saith JEHOVAH,

Surely thou shalt clothe thyself with them all, as
with a rich dress;

And bind them about thee, as a bride her jewels. 19 For thy waste, and thy desolate places,

And thy land laid in ruins ;

Even now it shall be straitened with inhabitants;