Isaiah 48

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¹“Hear this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and have come out of the waters of Judah. You swear by Yahweh’s name, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness ✦ ²(for they call themselves citizens of the holy city, and rely on the God of Israel; Yahweh of Armies is his name): ✦ ³I have declared the former things from of old; yes, they went out of my mouth, and I revealed them. I did them suddenly, and they happened. ✦ ⁴Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow brass; ✦ ⁵therefore I have declared it to you from of old; before it came to pass I showed it to you; lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them, and my engraved image, and my molten image, has commanded them.’ ✦ ⁶You have heard it; see all this. And you, won’t you declare it? “I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, which you have not known. ✦ ⁷They are created now, and not from of old; and before today you didn’t hear them; lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’ ⁸Yes, you didn’t hear; yes, you didn’t know; yes, from of old your ear was not opened: for I knew that you dealt very treacherously, and were called a transgressor from the womb. ✦ ⁹For my name’s sake, I will defer my anger, and for my praise I hold it back for you, so that I don’t cut you off. ✦ ¹⁰Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction. ✦ ¹¹For my own sake, for my own sake, I will do it; for how would my name be profaned? 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. ✦ ¹³Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spread out the heavens. when I call to them, they stand up together. ✦ ¹⁴“Assemble yourselves, all of you, and hear; who among them has declared these things? He whom Yahweh loves will do what he likes to Babylon, and his arm will be against the Chaldeans. ✦ ¹⁵I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him. I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous. ✦ ¹⁶“Come near to me and hear this: “From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it happened, I was there.” Now the Lord Yahweh has sent me, with his Spirit. ✦ ¹⁷Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: “I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go. ✦ ¹⁸Oh that you had listened to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. ✦ ¹⁹Your offspring also would have been as the sand, and the descendants of your body like its grains. His name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.” ✦ ²⁰Leave Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! With a voice of singing announce this, tell it even to the end of the earth: say, “Yahweh has redeemed his servant Jacob!” ✦ ²¹They didn’t thirst when he led them through the deserts. He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them. He split the rock also, and the waters gushed out. ✦ ²²“There is no peace”, says Yahweh, “for the wicked.” ✦

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Where this chapter connects

Ezek 20 ·10 Isa 43 ·10 Isa 48 ·8 Isa 45 ·8 Isa 44 ·7 Isa 42 ·6 Isa 46 ·6 Isa 49 ·5

Christ at the center

Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).

How Isaiah 48 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereVideoBibleProject — video overviews & word studiesBibleProject · 5–10 min · Free · evangelical
Free animated overviews of every book of the Bible, plus themes and Hebrew/Greek word studies — the best visual on-ramp to any book. (Biblical-theology, broadly evangelical, not distinctly Reformed.)
★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Seminary

★ Start hereCommentaryThe Book of Isaiah (NICOT)John N. Oswalt · Paid · evangelical
The standard evangelical commentary on Isaiah — thorough and devotionally warm.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Isaiah videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Isaiah 48YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Isaiah 48David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on IsaiahMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Isaiah 48Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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