Read the Bible

¹ Hear you this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and have come forth out of the waters of Judah; who swear by the name of Yahweh, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness² (for they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; Yahweh of hosts is his name):³ I have declared the former things from of old; yes, they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them: suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.⁴ Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow bronze;⁵ therefore I have declared it to you from of old; before it came to pass I showed it you; or else you will say, My idol has done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, has commanded them.⁶ You have heard it; look at all this; and you, will you not declare it? I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, which you haven't known.⁷ They are created now, and not from of old; and before this day you did not hear them; or else you will say, Look, I knew them.⁸ Yes, you didn't hear; yes, you didn't know; yes, from of old your ear wasn't opened: for I knew that you dealt very treacherously, and were called a transgressor from the womb.

⁹ For my name's sake I will defer my anger, and for my praise I will refrain for you, that I don't cut you off.¹⁰ Look, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.¹¹ For my own sake, for my own sake, I will do it; for how should I be profaned? and my glory I will not give to another.¹² Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel my called: I am he; I am the first, I am also the last.¹³ Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spread out the heavens: when I call to them, they stand up together.¹⁴ Assemble yourselves, all you, and hear; who among them has declared these things? He whom Yahweh loves shall perform his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm [shall be on] the Chaldeans.¹⁵ I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him; I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.

¹⁶ Come near to me, hear this; from the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it was, there I am: and now the Lord Yahweh has sent me, and his Spirit.¹⁷ Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go.¹⁸ Oh that you would have listened to my commandments! then your peace would have been as a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea:¹⁹ your seed also would have been as the sand, and the offspring from inside you like the grains thereof: his name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.²⁰ Go forth from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans; with a voice of singing declare, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth: say, Yahweh has redeemed his slave Jacob.²¹ And they didn't thirst when he led them through the deserts; he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them; he split the rock also, and the waters gushed out.²² There is no peace, says Yahweh, to the wicked.