12. I have declared [the future] and have saved [the nation in times of danger], and I have shown [that I am God]–when there was no strange and alien god among you; therefore you are My witnesses, says the Lord, that I am God.
13. Yes, from the time of the first existence of day and from this day forth I am He; and there is no one who can deliver out of My hand. I will work, and who can hinder or reverse it?
14. Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I have sent [one] to Babylon, and I will bring down all of them as fugitives, [with] all their nobles, even the Chaldeans, into the ships over which they rejoiced.
15. I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.
16. Thus says the Lord, Who makes a way through the sea and a path through the mighty waters,
17. Who brings forth chariot and horse, army and mighty warrior. They lie down together, they cannot rise; they are extinguished, they are quenched like a lampwick:
18. Do not [earnestly] remember the former things; neither consider the things of old.
19. Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth; do you not perceive and know it and will you not give heed to it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
20. The beasts of the field honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen, [Isa. 41:17, 18; 48:21.]
21. The people I formed for Myself, that they may set forth My praise [and they shall do it].
22. Yet you have not called upon Me [much less toiled for Me], O Jacob; but you have been weary of Me, O Israel!
23. You have not brought Me your sheep and goats for burnt offerings, or honored Me with your sacrifices. I have not required you to serve with an offering or treated you as a slave by demanding tribute or wearied you with offering incense.