The people of Israel should leave Babylon because that city will be destroyed

12 “You descendants [MTY] of Jacob, you people of Israel whom I have chosen,

listen to me!

Only I am God;

I am the one who begins everything and who causes everything to end.

13 I [SYN] am the one who laid the foundation of the earth.

I stretched out the sky with my hand.

And when I tell the stars to appear,

they all do what I tell them.

14 All of you, gather together and listen to me.

None of your idols has [RHQ] told this to you:

I, Yahweh, have chosen Cyrus to assist me,

and he will do to Babylon what I want him to do,

and his army will get rid of the army of Babylonia.

15 I have said it;

I have summoned Cyrus.

I have appointed him,

and he will accomplish everything that he attempts to do.

16 Come close to me and listen to what I say.

Long ago [MTY] I told you plainly/clearly [LIT] what would happen,

and when those things occurred, I was causing them to happen.”

And now Yahweh the Lord and his Spirit have sent me to give you a message.

17 This is what Yahweh, the one who saves you, the Holy God of us Israelis, says:

“I am Yahweh, your God;

I teach you what is important for you to know;

I direct you and lead you to the roads that you should walk on [MET].

18 I wish that you had paid attention to my commands!

If you had done that, things would have gone well for you

like [SIM] a river that flows gently;

you would have been successful again and again,

like [SIM] waves that come without ceasing.

19 Your descendants would have been as many as [MET] the grains of sand on the seashore

which no one can count.

I would not have needed to get rid of you;

the country of [MTY] Israel would not have been destroyed.”

20 However, now I tell you,

leave Babylon!

Flee from being slaves of the people of Babylonia!

Proclaim this message joyfully;

send it to the most remote/distant places on the earth:

Yahweh freed the people of Israel from being slaves in Egypt.

21 They were not thirsty when he led them through the desert,

because he split open the rock

and caused water to gush/flow out for them to drink.

22 “But things will not go well like that for wicked people,” says Yahweh.