God, to convince the people of their foreknown obstinancy, revealed his prophecies.

48:1 “Hear this, house of Jacob, you 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 righteousness

48:2 (for they call themselves of the holy city,
and stay themselves on the God of Israel; Yahweh of Armies is his name):

48:3 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 happened.

48:4 Because I knew that you are obstinate,
and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow brass;

48:5 therefore I have declared it to you from of old;
before it came to pass I showed it to you;
lest you should say,

‘My idol has done them, and my engraved image,
and my molten image, has commanded them.’

48:6 You have heard it; see all this;
and you, will you not declare it?

“I have shown you new things from this time,
even hidden things, which you have not known.

48:7 They are created now, and not from of old;
and before this day you didn’t hear them;
lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’

48:8 Yes, you didn’t hear;
yes, you didn’t know;
yes, from of old your ear was not opened:
for I knew that you did deal very treacherously,
and was called a transgressor from the womb.

He saves them for his own sake.

48:9 For my name’s sake will I defer my anger,
and for my praise will I refrain for you, that I not cut you off.

48:10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.

48:11 For my own sake, for my own sake, will I do it;
for how should my name be profaned?
and my glory I will not give to another.

He exhorts them to obedience, because of his power and providence.

48:12 “Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel my called:
I am he;
I am the first,
I also am the last.

48:13 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.

48:14 “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.

48:15 I, even I, have spoken;
yes, I have called him;
I have brought him,
and he shall make his way prosperous.

He laments their backwardness.

48:16 “Come near to me and hear this:
“From the beginning I have not spoken in secret;
from the time that it was, there am I.”
Now the Lord Yahweh has sent me, with his Spirit.

48:17 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.

48:18 Oh that you had listened to my commandments!
then your peace would have been like a river,
and your righteousness like the waves of the sea:

48:19 your seed also had been as the sand,
and the offspring of your body like its grains:
his name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.

He powerfully delivers his people out of Babylon.

48:20 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 servant Jacob.

48:21 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.

48:22 “There is no peace,” says Yahweh, “for the wicked.”