1Listen to this, O family of Jacob, you who are called by the name 'Israel,' and are descended from Judah, who take oaths in the name of the LORD, and invoke the God of Israel--but not in an honest and just manner.
5I announced them to you beforehand; before they happened, I predicted them for you, so you could never say, 'My image did these things, my idol, my cast image, decreed them.'
6You have heard; now look at all the evidence! Will you not admit that what I say is true? From this point on I am announcing to you new events that are previously unrevealed and you do not know about.
14All of you, gather together and listen! Who among them announced these things? The LORD's ally will carry out his desire against Babylon; he will exert his power against the Babylonians.
16Approach me! Listen to this! From the very first I have not spoken in secret; when it happens, I am there." So now, the sovereign LORD has sent me, accompanied by his spirit.
17This is what the LORD, your protector, says, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you how to succeed, who leads you in the way you should go.
18If only you had obeyed my commandments, prosperity would have flowed to you like a river, deliverance would have come to you like the waves of the sea.
19Your descendants would have been as numerous as sand, and your children like its granules. Their name would not have been cut off and eliminated from my presence.
20Leave Babylon! Flee from the Babylonians! Announce it with a shout of joy! Make this known! Proclaim it throughout the earth! Say, 'The LORD protects his servant Jacob.
