Isaiah 43:14-28

God’s Mercy and Israel’s Unfaithfulness 14This is what the LORD says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “For your sake I will send to Babylon and bring down as fugitives all the Babylonians, Or Chaldeans in the ships in which they took pride.

15I am the LORD, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator, your King.”

16This is what the LORD says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters,

17who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:

18“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.

19See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

20The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen,

21the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.

22“Yet you have not called on me, Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for Or Jacob; / surely you have grown weary of me, Israel.

23You have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings, nor honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with grain offerings nor wearied you with demands for incense.

24You have not bought any fragrant calamus for me, or lavished on me the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your offenses.

25“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.

26Review the past for me, let us argue the matter together; state the case for your innocence.

27Your first father sinned; those I sent to teach you rebelled against me. 28So I disgraced the dignitaries of your temple; I consigned Jacob to destruction The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them. and Israel to scorn.