Scriptures

New King James Version (NKJV)

Isaiah 48
⁷ They are created now and not from the beginning; And before this day you have not heard them, Lest you should say, ’Of course I knew them.’
⁸ Surely you did not hear, Surely you did not know; Surely from long ago your ear was not opened. For I knew that you would deal 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 restrain it from you, So that I do not cut you off.
¹⁰ Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
¹¹ For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it; For how should My name be profaned? And I will not give My glory 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 Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, And My right hand has stretched out the heavens; When I call to them, They stand up together.
¹⁴ "All of you, assemble yourselves, and hear! Who among them has declared these things? The Lord loves him; He shall do His pleasure on Babylon, And His arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
¹⁵ I, even I, have spoken; Yes, I have called him, I have brought him, and his way will prosper.
¹⁶ "Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord God and His Spirit Have sent Me."
¹⁷ Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel: "I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you by the way you should go.