BOOK 23 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Isaiah 48

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Isaiah 48 Overview

The LORD confronts stubborn Israel for invoking His name without truth, explains that He foretold events so they could not credit idols, calls them to leave Babylon, and insists that there is no peace for the wicked.

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48Chapter

22Verses

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Before you read Isaiah 48

Coming from

Daughter Babylon is commanded to come down from her throne into humiliation; luxury, sorcery, self-confidence, and the boast 'I am, and none else beside me' are answered by sudden disaster no astrologer can prevent.

In this chapter

Leads into

The Servant speaks of being called from the womb to restore Jacob, yet His mission is declared too great to stop with Israel: He will be a light to the Gentiles and God’s salvation to the ends of the earth, while Zion is assured she is not forgotten.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Restoration promises do not flatter Israel. The chapter makes clear that exile and deliverance alike reveal God’s name and expose the people’s obstinacy.

The interpretive center of Isaiah 48 is the chapter’s own movement: religious identity can be outward while the heart remains stubborn. Read its poetry, signs, historical references, and later biblical connections from that center rather than treating isolated phrases as detached slogans.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Religious identity can be outward while the heart remains stubborn

Israel swears by the LORD’s name yet is described as hard-necked.

Prophecy protects God’s glory from idolatrous reinterpretation

Events are announced beforehand so Israel cannot credit carved images.

Redemption from Babylon calls for responsive obedience

The people are summoned to depart while remembering what peace would have followed from heeding God’s commands.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Exodus 32–34

The stiff-necked description recalls Israel’s earlier covenant rebellion.

Revelation 18:4

The call to come out of Babylon later reappears in Revelation’s symbolic Babylon context.

Isaiah 57:21

The statement that there is no peace for the wicked returns near the end of another major section.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not assume being called by Israel’s name guarantees faithfulness.

The chapter explicitly exposes hypocrisy within the covenant nation.

Do not turn leaving Babylon into a vague command to abandon all culture.

It first concerns actual exiles summoned from a specific imperial captivity.

Read Isaiah 48 watching for…

religious language without truth

the iron sinew and brass forehead

foretelling so idols cannot take credit

the call to leave Babylon

the final warning about no peace for the wicked

Chapter outline3 sections

1-8Israel is stubborn and has heard God’s former declarations without obeying 9-15For his name’s sake the LORD refines Israel and calls Cyrus to accomplish his purpose 16-22The Redeemer teaches the way of peace and calls his people to leave Babylon

Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness.

For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is his name.

I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.

Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;

I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.

Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them.

They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.

Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.

For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.

Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.

For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.

Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.

Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.

All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these things? The LORD hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.

I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.

Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me.

Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.

O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:

Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.

Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, The LORD hath redeemed his servant Jacob.

And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.

There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked.

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Isaiah 48:15

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