4. Because I knew that you are obstinate,and your neck is an iron sinew,and your brow bronze;
5. I have even from the beginning declared it to you;before it came to pass I announced it to you,lest you should say,“My idol has done them,and my carved image and my molded image has commanded them.”
6. You have heard; see all this.And will you not declare it? I have shown 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,“Yes, I knew them.”
8. You have not heard, you have not known,indeed, from long ago your ear has not been open.For I knew that you would deal very treacherously,and that from birth you have been called a rebel.
9. For My name’s sake I will defer My anger,and for My praise I will restrain it for youso that you are not cut off.
10. See, 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 can My name be polluted?And I will not give My glory to another.
12. Listen to Me, O Jacoband Israel, whom I called:I am He;I am the First, and I am the Last.
13. My hand also has laid the foundation of the earth,and My right hand has spanned the heavens;when I call to them,they stand up together.
14. Assemble, all of you, and listen.Who among them has declared these things?The Lord has loved him;he will do His pleasure on Babylon,and His arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
15. I, even I, have spoken,and I have called him;I have brought him,and his way will prosper.
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 has sent meand His Spirit.
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 in the way you should go.