'Beginning' in the Bible

“Then I will restore your judges as at the first,And your counselors as at the beginning;Afterward you will be called the city of righteousness,The faithful city.”

Which sends ambassadors by the sea,Even in vessels of papyrus on the surface of the waters.Go, swift messengers, to a nation [of people] tall and smooth (clean shaven),To a people feared far and wide,A powerful and oppressive nationWhose land the rivers divide.

At that time a gift of homage will be brought to the Lord of hostsFrom a people tall and smooth (clean shaven),From a people feared far and wide,A powerful and oppressive nation,Whose land the rivers divide—To the place [of worship] of the name of the Lord of hosts, to Mount Zion [in Jerusalem].

Do you [who worship idols] not know? Have you not heard?Has it not been told to you from the beginning?Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth [the omnipotence of God and the stupidity of bowing to idols]?

“Who has performed and done this,Calling forth [and guiding the destinies of] the generations [of the nations] from the beginning?‘I, the Lord—the first, and with the last [existing before history began, the ever-present, unchanging God]—I am He.’”

Who [among the idols] has declared this from the beginning, so that we could know?Or from earlier times, so that we could say, “He is [unquestionably] right!”?In fact, there was no one who declared it,Indeed, there was no one who proclaimed it;There was no one at all who heard you speak [for you pagan gods are speechless].

Declaring the end and the result from the beginning,And from ancient times the things which have not [yet] been done,Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,And I will do all that pleases Me and fulfills My purpose,’

“I have declared the former things [which happened to Israel] in times past;They went forth from My mouth and I proclaimed them;Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.

“Come near to Me, listen to this:From the beginning I have not spoken in secret,From the time that it happened, I was there.And now the Lord God has sent Me, and His [Holy] Spirit.”