12“Listen to Me, O Jacob, even Israel whom I called;
         I am He, I am the first, I am also the last.

13“Surely My hand founded the earth,
         And My right hand spread out the heavens;
         When I call to them, they stand together.

14“Assemble, all of you, and listen!
         Who among them has declared these things?
         The LORD loves him; he will carry out His good pleasure on Babylon,
         And His arm will be against the Chaldeans.

15“I, even I, have spoken; indeed I have called him,
         I have brought him, and He will make his ways successful.

16“Come near to Me, listen to this:
         From the first I have not spoken in secret,
         From the time it took place, I was there.
         And now the Lord GOD has sent Me, and His Spirit.”

      17Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel,
         “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit,
         Who leads you in the way you should go.

18“If only you had paid attention to My commandments!
         Then your well-being would have been like a river,
         And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

19“Your descendants would have been like the sand,
         And your offspring like its grains;
         Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from My presence.”

20Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans!
         Declare with the sound of joyful shouting, proclaim this,
         Send it out to the end of the earth;
         Say, “The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob.”

21They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts.
         He made the water flow out of the rock for them;
         He split the rock and the water gushed forth.

22“There is no peace for the wicked,” says the LORD.

NASB ©1995