HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 1015
ISAIAH 48
page 645
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Take heavy millstones and grind flour.
Remove your veil, and strip off
your robe.
Expose yourself to public view.*
You will be naked and burdened
with shame.
I will take vengeance against you
without pity.”
Our Redeemer, whose name is the Lord
of Heaven’s Armies,
is the Holy One of Israel.
“O beautiful Babylon, sit now in darkness
and silence.
Never again will you be known as the
queen of kingdoms.
For I was angry with my chosen people
and punished them by letting them fall
into your hands.
But you, Babylon, showed them no mercy.
You oppressed even the elderly.
You said, ‘I will reign forever as queen of
the world!’
You did not reflect on your actions
or think about their consequences.
“Listen to this, you pleasure-loving
kingdom,
living at ease and feeling secure.
You say, ‘I am the only one, and there
is no other.
I will never be a widow or lose my
children.’
Well, both these things will come upon
you in a moment:
widowhood and the loss of your children.
Yes, these calamities will come upon you,
despite all your witchcraft and magic.
“You felt secure in your wickedness.
‘No one sees me,’ you said.
But your ‘wisdom’ and ‘knowledge’ have
led you astray,
and you said, ‘I am the only one, and
there is no other.’
So disaster will overtake you,
and you won’t be able to charm it away.
Calamity will fall upon you,
and you won’t be able to buy your
way out.
A catastrophe will strike you suddenly,
one for which you are not prepared.
“Now use your magical charms!
Use the spells you have worked at all
these years!
Maybe they will do you some good.
Maybe they can make someone afraid
of you.
All the advice you receive has made you tired.
Where are all your astrologers,
47:2 Hebrew Bare your legs; pass through the rivers.
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those stargazers who make predictions
each month?
Let them stand up and save you from
what the future holds.
But they are like straw burning in a fire;
they cannot save themselves from
the flame.
You will get no help from them at all;
their hearth is no place to sit for warmth.
And all your friends,
those with whom you’ve done business
since childhood,
will go their own ways,
turning a deaf ear to your cries.
— promises —
from God
“I will be your God
throughout your lifetime.”
I SA I A H 4 6:4
God’s Stubborn People
1 “Listen to me, O family of Jacob,
you who are called by the name
of Israel
and born into the family of Judah.
Listen, you who take oaths in the name
of the Lord
and call on the God of Israel.
You don’t keep your promises,
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even though you call yourself the holy city
and talk about depending on the God
of Israel,
whose name is the Lord of Heaven’s
Armies.
3 Long ago I told you what was going to happen.
Then suddenly I took action,
and all my predictions came true.
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!’
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