English Standard Version

Isaiah 48:4-12 English Standard Version (ESV)

4. Because I know that you are obstinate,and your neck is an iron sinewand your forehead brass,

5. I declared them to you from of old,before they came to pass I announced them to you,lest you should say, ‘My idol did them,my carved image and my metal image commanded them.’

6. “You have heard; now see all this;and will you not declare it?From this time forth I announce to you new things,hidden things that you have not known.

7. They are created now, not long ago;before today you have never heard of them,lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’

8. You have never heard, you have never known,from of old your ear has not been opened.For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously,and that from before birth you were called a rebel.

9. “For my name’s sake I defer my anger,for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,that I may not cut you off.

10. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.

11. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.

12. “Listen to me, O Jacob,and Israel, whom I called!I am he; I am the first,and I am the last.