[48:1] 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.
[48:2] 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.
[48:3] The Lord says to Israel, “Long ago I predicted what would take place; then suddenly I made it happen.
[48:4] I knew that you would prove to be stubborn, as rigid as iron and unyielding as bronze.
[48:5] 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.
[48:6] “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.
[48:7] 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.
[48:8] 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.
[48:9] “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.
[48:10] I have tested you in the fire of suffering, as silver is refined in a furnace. But I have found that you are worthless.
[48:11] 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.”