9. But for my own sake I will be patient.People will praise me for not becoming angryand destroying you.
10. I have made you pure, but not by fire, as silver is made pure.I have purified you by giving you troubles.
11. I do this for myself, for my own sake.I will not let people speak evil against me,and I will not let some god take my glory.
12. “People of Jacob, listen to me.People of Israel, I have called you to be my people.I am God;I am the beginning and the end.
13. I made the earth with my own hands.With my right hand I spread out the skies.When I call them,they come together before me.”
14. All of you, come together and listen.None of the gods said these things would happen.The Lord has chosen someoneto attack the Babylonians;he will carry out his wishes against Babylon.
15. “I have spoken; I have called him.I have brought him, and I will make him successful.
16. Come to me and listen to this.From the beginning I have spoken openly.From the time it began, I was there.”Now, the Lord Godhas sent me with his Spirit.
17. This is what the Lord, who saves you,the Holy One of Israel, says:“I am the Lord your God,who teaches you to do what is good,who leads you in the way you should go.
18. If you had obeyed me,you would have had peace like a full-flowing river.Good things would have flowed to you like the waves of the sea.
19. You would have had many children,as many as the grains of sand.They would never have died outnor been destroyed.”
20. My people, leave Babylon!Run from the Babylonians!Tell this news with shouts of joy to the people;spread it everywhere on earth.Say, “The Lord has saved his servants, the people of Jacob.”
21. They did not become thirsty when he led them through the deserts.He made water flow from a rock for them.He split the rock,and water flowed out.
22. “There is no peace for evil people,” says the Lord.