Scriptures

New Living Translation (NLT)

Isaiah 48
⁴ For I know how stubborn and obstinate you are. Your necks are as unbending as iron. Your heads are as hard as bronze.
⁵ That is why I told you what would happen; I told you beforehand what I was going to do. Then you could never say, ‘My idols did it. My wooden image and metal god commanded it to happen!’
⁶ You have heard my predictions and seen them fulfilled, but you refuse to admit it. Now I will tell you new things, secrets you have not yet heard.
⁷ They are brand new, not things from the past. So you cannot say, ‘We knew that all the time!’
⁸ “Yes, I will tell you of things that are entirely new, things you never heard of before. For I know so well what traitors you are. You have been rebels from birth.
⁹ Yet for my own sake and for the honor of my name, I will hold back my anger and not wipe you out.
¹⁰ I have refined you, but not as silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering.
¹¹ I will rescue you for my sake— yes, for my own sake! I will not let my reputation be tarnished, and I will not share my glory with idols!
¹² “Listen to me, O family of Jacob, Israel my chosen one! I alone am God, the First and the Last.
¹³ It was my hand that laid the foundations of the earth, my right hand that spread out the heavens above. When I call out the stars, they all appear in order.”
¹⁴ Have any of your idols ever told you this? Come, all of you, and listen: The LORD has chosen Cyrus as his ally. He will use him to put an end to the empire of Babylon and to destroy the Babylonian armies.