The people of Israel are stubborn

48 Yahweh says, “You descendants [MTY] of Jacob,

who are also descendants of Judah and are now called the people of Israel,

Listen to me!

You make solemn promises using my name, Yahweh,

and you request that I, the God to whom you Israeli people belong, will hear you,

but you do not do it sincerely.

2 You say that you live in the holy city of Jerusalem,

and you insincerely say that you are relying on me, the God to whom you people of Israel belong,

the one who is the Commander of the armies of angels.

3 Long ago I [MTY] predicted what would happen [DOU].

And then suddenly, I caused those things to happen.

4 I knew that you people are very stubborn;

I knew that your heads are [MET] as hard as iron or brass [DOU].

5 That is why I told you those things long ago.

Long before they occurred, I announced that they would occur,

in order that when they happened you could not say

‘Our idols did it;

our statue made of wood and our idol made of metal caused them to happen.’

6 You have heard those things that I predicted

and now you have seen that they have all occurred,

so why do you not admit it [RHQ]?

Now I will tell you new things,

things that you have not known previously.

7 I am causing them to happen now;

they are not things I did long ago.

So you cannot say, ‘We already knew about those things.’

8 I will tell you about things that you have never heard about or understood before.

Even long ago you did not pay attention to me [IDM].

I know that you act very deceitfully/treacherously;

you have rebelled against me since you first became a nation [MTY].

9 But, for my own sake, in order that I will be honored,

I will not punish [MTY] you immediately

and I will not completely get rid of you.

10 I have purified you, but not the way people refine silver.

Instead, I have caused you to suffer very much to get rid of your impure behavior,

like [MET] people put metal in a very hot furnace to get rid of the impurities.

11 But for my [MTY] own sake I will delay punishing you more;

I will do it for my own sake

in order that my reputation will not be damaged [RHQ].

I will not allow any person or any idol to be honored as I deserve to be honored.”