8. But even in the past you didn’t listen. You didn’t learn anything. You never listen to what I say. I have always known that you would turn against me. You have rebelled against me from the time you were born.
9. “But I will be patient. I will do this for myself. People will praise me for not becoming angry and destroying you. You will praise me for waiting.
10. “Look, I will make you pure, but not in the way you make silver pure. I will make you pure by giving you troubles.
11. I will do this for myself—for me! I will not let you treat me as if I am not important. I will not let some false god take my glory and praise.
12. “Jacob, listen to me! Israel, I called you to be my people. So listen to me! I am the Beginning, and I am the End.
13. I made the earth with my own hands. My right hand made the sky. And if I call them, they will come to stand before me.
14. “All of you, come here and listen to me. Did any of the false gods say these things would happen? No! The Lord’S friend will do what he wants to Babylon and the Chaldeans.
15. “I told you that I would call him. I will lead him, and I will make him succeed.
16. Come here and listen to me! I was there when Babylon began as a nation. And from the beginning, I spoke clearly so that people could know what I said.” Now, the Lord GOD sends me and his Spirit to tell you these things.
17. The Lord, the Savior, the Holy One of Israel, says, “I am the Lord your God. I teach you for your own good. I lead you in the way you should go.
18. If you had obeyed me, then peace would have come to you like a full flowing river. Good things would have come to you again and again, like the waves of the sea.