7. Only now am I making them happen;nothing like this took place in the past.If it had, you would claim that you knew all about it.
8. I knew that you couldn't be trusted,that you have always been known as a rebel.That is why you never heard of this at all,why no word of it ever came to your ears.
9. “In order that people will praise my name,I am holding my anger in check;I am keeping it back and will not destroy you.
10. I have tested you in the fire of suffering,as silver is refined in a furnace.But I have found that you are worthless.
11. What I do is done for my own sake —I will not let my name be dishonouredor let anyone else share the glorythat should be mine and mine alone.”
12. The Lord says,“Listen to me, Israel, the people I have called!I am God, the first, the last, the only God!
13. My hands made the earth's foundationsand spread the heavens out.When I summon earth and sky,they come at once and present themselves.
14. “Assemble and listen, all of you!None of the gods could predictthat the man I have chosen would attack Babylon;he will do what I want him to do.
15. I am the one who spoke and called him;I led him out and gave him success.
16. “Now come close to me and hear what I say.From the beginning I have spoken openly,and have always made my words come true.”(Now the Sovereign Lord has given me his power and sent me.)
17. The holy God of Israel,the Lord who saves you, says:“I am the Lord your God,the one who wants to teach you for your own goodand direct you in the way you should go.
18. “If only you had listened to my commands!Then blessings would have flowed for youlike a stream that never goes dry!Victory would have come to youlike the waves that roll on the shore.
19. Your descendants would be as numerous as grains of sand,and I would have made sure they were never destroyed.”