Read the Bible

¹ Listen to this, people of Israel,
    you that are descended from Judah:
You swear by the name of the Lord
    and claim to worship the God of Israel—
    but you don't mean a word you say.
² And yet you are proud to say
    that you are citizens of the holy city
    and that you depend on Israel's God,
    whose name is the Lord Almighty.

"Long ago I predicted what would take place;
    then suddenly I made it happen.
⁴ I knew that you would prove to be stubborn,
    as rigid as iron and unyielding as bronze.
⁵ And so I predicted your future long ago,
    announcing events before they took place,
    to keep you from claiming
    that your idols and images made them happen.

⁶ "All I foretold has now taken place;
    you have to admit my predictions were right.
Now I will tell you of new things to come,
    events that I did not reveal before.
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 dishonored
    or let anyone else share the glory
    that should be mine and mine alone."

"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 foundations
    and 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 predict
    that 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."

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 good
    and direct you in the way you should go.

¹⁸ "If only you had listened to my commands!
Then blessings would have flowed for you
    like a stream that never goes dry.
Victory would have come to you
    like 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."

^20 (b)Go out from Babylon, go free!
Shout the news gladly; make it known everywhere:
    "The Lord has saved his servant Israel!"
²¹ When the Lord led his people through a hot, dry desert,
    they did not suffer from thirst.
He made water come from a rock for them;
    he split the rock open, and water flowed out.

^22 (c)"There is no safety for sinners," says the Lord.