Isaiah 48:1-11 - Yahweh Refines Stubborn Israel

¹ Give ear to this, O family of Jacob, you who are named by the name of Israel, and have come out of the body of Judah; who take oaths by the name of the Lord, and make use of the name of the God of Israel, but not truly and not in good faith. ² For they say that they are of the holy town, and put their faith in the God of Israel: the Lord of armies is his name. ³ I gave word in the past of the things which came about; they came from my mouth, and I made them clear: suddenly I did them, and they came about. ⁴ Because I saw that your heart was hard, and that your neck was an iron cord, and your brow brass; ⁵ For this reason I made it clear to you in the past, before it came I gave you word of it: for fear that you might say, My god did these things, and my pictured and metal images made them come about. ⁶ All this has come to your ears and you have seen it; will you not give witness to it? I am now making clear new things, even secret things, of which you had no knowledge. ⁷ They have only now been effected, and not in the past: and before this day they had not come to your ears; for fear that you might say, I had knowledge of them. ⁸ Truly you had no word of them, no knowledge of them; no news of them in the past had come to your ears; because I saw how false was your behaviour, and that your heart was turned against me from your earliest days. ⁹ Because of my name I will put away my wrath, and for my praise I will keep myself from cutting you off. ¹⁰ See, I have been testing you for myself like silver; I have put you through the fire of trouble. ¹¹ For myself, even because of my name, I will do it; for I will not let my name be shamed; and my glory I will not give to another.