Israel freed

¹² ‘Listen to me, Jacob,
    Israel, whom I have called:
I am he;
    I am the first and I am the last.
¹³ My own hand laid the foundations of the earth,
    and my right hand spread out the heavens;
when I summon them,
    they all stand up together.

¹⁴ ‘Come together, all of you, and listen:
    which of the idols has foretold these things?
The Lord’s chosen ally
    will carry out his purpose against Babylon;
    his arm will be against the Babylonians.
¹⁵ I, even I, have spoken;
    yes, I have called him.
I will bring him,
    and he will succeed in his mission.

¹⁶ ‘Come near me and listen to this:

‘From the first announcement I have not spoken in secret;
    at the time it happens, I am there.’

And now the Sovereign Lord has sent me,
    endowed with his Spirit.

¹⁷ This is what the Lord says –
    your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
‘I am the Lord your God,
    who teaches you what is best for you,
    who directs you in the way you should go.
¹⁸ If only you had paid attention to my commands,
    your peace would have been like a river,
    your well-being like the waves of the sea.
¹⁹ Your descendants would have been like the sand,
    your children like its numberless grains;
their name would never be blotted out
    nor destroyed from before me.’

²⁰ Leave Babylon,
    flee from the Babylonians!
Announce this with shouts of joy
    and proclaim it.
Send it out to the ends of the earth;
    say, ‘The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.’
²¹ They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
    he made water flow for them from the rock;
he split the rock
    and water gushed out.

²² ‘There is no peace,’ says the Lord, ‘for the wicked.’