The Bible in Basic English BBE
Good News Translation GNT
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.
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Listen to this, people of Israel, you that are descended from Judah: You swear by the name of the Lord and claim to worship the God of Israel - but you don't mean a word you say.
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.
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And yet you are proud to say that you are citizens of the holy city and that you depend on Israel's God, whose name is the Lord Almighty.
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.
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The Lord says to Israel, "Long ago I predicted what would take place; then suddenly I made it happen.
4 Because I saw that your heart was hard, and that your neck was an iron cord, and your brow brass;
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I knew that you would prove to be stubborn, as rigid as iron and unyielding as bronze.
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.
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And so I predicted your future long ago, announcing events before they took place, to keep you from claiming that your idols and images made them happen.
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.
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"All I foretold has now taken place; you have to admit my predictions were right. Now I will tell you of new things to come, events that I did not reveal before.
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.
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Only now am I making them happen; nothing like this took place in the past. If it had, you would claim that you knew all about it.
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.
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I knew that you couldn't be trusted, that you have always been known as a rebel. That is why you never heard of this at all, why no word of it ever came to your ears.
9 Because of my name I will put away my wrath, and for my praise I will keep myself from cutting you off.
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"In order that people will praise my name, I am holding my anger in check; I am keeping it back and will not destroy you.
10 See, I have been testing you for myself like silver; I have put you through the fire of trouble.
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I have tested you in the fire of suffering, as silver is refined in a furnace. But I have found that you are worthless.
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.
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What I do is done for my own sake - I will not let my name be dishonored or let anyone else share the glory that should be mine and mine alone."
12 Give ear to me, Jacob, and Israel, my loved one; I am he, I am the first and I am the last.
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The Lord says, "Listen to me, Israel, the people I have called! I am God, the first, the last, the only God!
13 Yes, by my hand was the earth placed on its base, and by my right hand the heavens were stretched out; at my word they take up their places.
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My hands made the earth's foundations and spread the heavens out. When I summon earth and sky, they come at once and present themselves.
14 Come together, all of you, and give ear; who among you has given news of these things? the Lord's loved one will do his pleasure with Babylon, and with the seed of the Chaldaeans.
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"Assemble and listen, all of you! None of the gods could predict that the man I have chosen would attack Babylon; he will do what I want him to do.
15 I, even I, have given the word; I have sent for him: I have made him come, and have given effect to his undertakings.
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I am the one who spoke and called him; I led him out and gave him success.
16 Come near to me, and give ear to this; from the start I did not keep it secret; from the time of its coming into existence I was there: and now the Lord God has sent me, and given me his spirit.
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"Now come close to me and hear what I say. From the beginning I have spoken openly and have always made my words come true." (Now the Sovereign Lord has given me his power and sent me.)
17 The Lord who takes up your cause, the Holy One of Israel, says, I am the Lord your God, who is teaching you for your profit, guiding you by the way in which you are to go.
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The holy God of Israel, the Lord who saves you, says: "I am the Lord your God, the one who wants to teach you for your own good and direct you in the way you should go.
18 If only you had given ear to my orders, then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea:
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"If only you had listened to my commands! Then blessings would have flowed for you like a stream that never goes dry. Victory would have come to you like the waves that roll on the shore.
19 Your seed would have been like the sand, and your offspring like the dust: your name would not be cut off or come to an end before me.
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Your descendants would be as numerous as grains of sand, and I would have made sure they were never destroyed."
20 Go out of Babylon, go in flight from the Chaldaeans; with the sound of song make it clear, give the news, let the word go out even to the end of the earth: say, The Lord has taken up the cause of his servant Jacob.
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Go out from Babylon, go free! Shout the news gladly; make it known everywhere: "The Lord has saved his servant Israel!"
21 They had no need of water when he was guiding them through the waste lands: he made water come out of the rock for them: the rock was parted and the waters came flowing out.
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When the Lord led his people through a hot, dry desert, they did not suffer from thirst. He made water come from a rock for them; he split the rock open, and water flowed out.
22 There is no peace, says the Lord, for the evil-doers.
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"There is no safety for sinners," says the Lord.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.