Isaiah 48

1 The hypocrisie of the Jewes is reproved. 11 The Lord alone will be worshipped. 20 Of their deliverance out of Babylon.
1.Hear ye this, ô house of Jaakób, which are acalled by the name of Israél, and are come out of bthe waters of Judáh: which swear by the Name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israél, but not in truth, nor in righteousness.
2.For they are called of the holy city, and stay them selves cupon the God of Israél, whose Name is the Lord of hostes.
3.I have declared the former things of old, and they went out of my mouth, and I shewed dthem: I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.
4.Because I knewe, that ethou art obstinate, and thy neck is an yron sinew, and thy brow brass,
5.Therefore I have declared it to thee of old: before it came to pass, I shewed fit thee, lest thou shuldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my carved image, and my molten image hath commanded them.
6.Thou hast heard, behold all this, and will not ye gdeclare it? I have shewed thee new things, even now, and hid things, which thou knewest not.
7.They are created now, and not of old, and even before this thou heardest them not, lest thou shuldest say, Behold, I hknewe them.
8.Yet thou heardest them not, neither didest know them, neither yet was thine ear opened of old: for I knewe that thou woldest grievously transgress: therefore have I called thee a transgressor from the iwomb.
9.For my Name’s sake will I differ my wrath, and for my praise will I refrain it from thee, kthat I cut thee not off.
10.Behold, I have fined thee, but inot as silver: I have mchosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
11.For mine own sake, for mine own sake will I do it: for how shulde my Name nbe polluted? osurely I will not give my glory unto another.
12.Hear me, ô Jakkób and Israél, my called, pI am, I am the first, and I am the last.
13.Surely mine hand hath layed the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call them, qthey stand up together.
14.All you, assemble your selves, and hear: which among them hath declared these things? The Lord hath loved rhim: he will do his will in Babél, and his arm shalbe against the Chaldeans.
15.I, even I have spoken it, and I have called him: I have brought him, and his way shal prosper.
16.Come near unto me: hear ye this: I have not spoken it in secret from the sbeginning: from the time that the thing was, I was there, and now the Lord God and his spirit hath tsent me.
17.Thus saith the Lord thy redeemer, the Holie one of Israél, I am the Lord thy God, which teach thee uto profit, and lead thee by the way, that thou shuldest go.
18.Oh that thou hadest hearkened to my commandments, then had thy prosperity been as the flood, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.
19.Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the fruit of thy body like the gravel thereof · his xname should not have been cut off nor destroyed before me.
20.yGo ye out of Babel flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of joy: tell and declare this: shewe it forth to the end of the earth: say ye, The Lord hath redeemed his servant Jaakób.
21.And they zwere not thirsty: he led them through the wilderness he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them · for he clave the rock, and the water gushed out.
22.There is no apeace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.

Notes

1-a.
He detests their hypocrisy, which vaunted themselves to be Israelites and were not so in deed.
1-b.
Meaning, the fountain and stock.
2-c.
They make a show, as though they would have none other God.
3-d.
He shows that they could not accuse him in anything, forasmuch as he had performed whatsoever he had promised.
4-e.
I have done for you more then I promised, that your stubbornness and impudency might have been overcome.
5-f.
How you should be delivered out of Babylon.
6-g.
Will he not acknowledge this my benefit and declare it unto others?
7-h.
Showing that man’s arrogancy is the cause why God does not declare all things at once, lest they should attribute this knowledge to their own wisdom.
8-i.
From the time that I brought you out of Egypt, for that deliverance was as the birth of the Church.
9-k.
As it was my free mercy that I did choose you, so is it my free mercy that must save you.
10-l.
For I had respect to your weakness and infirmity for in silver there is some pureness, but in us there is nothing, but dross.
10-m.
I took you out of the furnace where you should have been consumed.
11-n.
God joins the salvation of his with his own honour, so that they can not perish, but his glory should be diminished, as Deut. 32.27.
11-o.
Read Ch. 42.8.
12-p.
Read, 41.4.
13-q.
To obey me, and to do whatsoever I command them.
14-r.
Meaning, Cyrus, whom he had chosen to destroy Babylon.
16-s.
Since the time I declared myself to your fathers.
16-t.
Isaiah the Prophet speeks for himself, and to assure them of these things.
17-u.
What things shall do you good.
19-x.
That is, the prosperous estate of Israel.
20-y.
After that he had forewarned them of their captivity, and of the cause thereof, he showed them the great joy, that shall come of their deliverance.
21-z.
He shows that it shall be as easy to deliver them, as he did their fathers out of Egypt.
22-a.
Thus, he speak that the wicked hypocrites should not abuse God’s promise, in whom was neither faith nor repentance, as Ch. 57.21.