Isaiah 48:7

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
They have been created now, and not long ago;you have not heard of them before today,so you could not claim, ‘I already knew them!’

Hebrew Names Version
They are created now, and not from of old; and before this day you didn't hear them; lest you should say, Behold, I knew them.

King James Version
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.

English Standard Version
They are created now, not long ago; before today you have never heard of them, lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.'

New American Standard Bible
"They are created now and not long ago; And before today you have not heard them, So that you will not say, 'Behold, I knew them.'

New Century Version
These things are happening now, not long ago; you have not heard about them before today. So you cannot say, ‘We already knew about that.'

Amplified Bible
"They are created now [called into being by the prophetic word] and not long ago; And before today you have not heard of them, So that you will not say, 'Oh yes! I knew them.'

World English Bible
They are created now, and not from of old; and before this day you didn't hear them; lest you should say, Behold, I knew them.

Geneva Bible (1587)
They are created now, and not of olde, and euen before this thou heardest them not, lest thou shouldest say, Beholde, I knewe them.

Legacy Standard Bible
They are created now and not long ago;And before today you have not heard them,Lest you say, ‘Behold, I knew them.'

Berean Standard Bible
They are created now, and not long ago; you have not heard of them before today, so you cannot claim, 'I already knew them!'

Contemporary English Version
Today I am doing something new, something you cannot say you have heard before.

Complete Jewish Bible
created now, not long ago; before today, you did not hear them: so you can't say, ‘I already know about them.'

Darby Translation
they are created now, and not long ago; and before this day thou hast not heard them, lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.

Easy-to-Read Version
This is something that is happening now, not long ago. You have not heard about it before today. So you cannot say, ‘We already knew that.'

George Lamsa Translation
They are created now, and not of old; even before the day when you did not hear of them, lest you should say, Behold, I knew them.

Good News Translation
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.

Lexham English Bible
Now they are created, and not from of old, and before today, and you have not heard them so that you could not say, "Look! I knew them."

Literal Translation
They are created now, and not from then; even before today, but you did not hear them; lest you should say, See, I knew them.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And some done now not of olde time, wherof thou neuer herdest, before they were brought to passe: that thou canst not saye: I knewe of them.

American Standard Version
They are created now, and not from of old; and before this day thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.

Bible in Basic English
They have only now been effected, and not in the past: and before this day they had not come to your ears; for fear that you might say, I had knowledge of them.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
They are created now, and not from of old, and before this day thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say: 'Behold, I knew them.'

King James Version (1611)
They are created now, and not from the beginning, euen before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And some done of olde tyme, wherof thou neuer heardest before they were brought to passe, that thou canst not say, beholde I knewe of them.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Now they come to pass, and not formerly: and thou heardest not of them in former days: say not thou, Yea, I know them.

English Revised Version
They are created now, and not from of old; and before this day thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
now tho ben maad of nouyt, and not fro that tyme, and bifor the dai, and thou herdist not tho thingis; lest perauenture thou seie, Lo! Y knew tho thingis.

Update Bible Version
They are created now, and not from of old; and before this day you did not hear them; or else you will say, Look, I knew them.

Webster's Bible Translation
They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardst them not; lest thou shouldst say, Behold, I knew them.

New English Translation
Now they come into being, not in the past; before today you did not hear about them, so you could not say, ‘Yes, I know about them.'

New King James Version
They are created now and not from the beginning; And before this day you have not heard them, Lest you should say, "Of course I knew them.'

New Living Translation
They are brand new, not things from the past. So you cannot say, ‘We knew that all the time!'

New Life Bible
They are made now, not long ago. Before today you have never heard of them, or you would say, ‘See, I knew them.'

New Revised Standard
They are created now, not long ago; before today you have never heard of them, so that you could not say, "I already knew them."

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Now, are they created, and not in time past, And, before to-day, thou hadst not heard of them, - Lest thou shouldest say, Lo! I knew them!

Douay-Rheims Bible
They are created now, and not of old: and before the day, when thou heardest them not, lest thou shouldst say: Behold I knew them.

Revised Standard Version
They are created now, not long ago; before today you have never heard of them, lest you should say, 'Behold, I knew them.'

Young's Literal Translation
Now they have been produced and not from that time, Yea, before the day, and thou hast not heard them, Lest thou say, `Lo, I have known them.'

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"They are created now and not long ago; And before today you have not heard them, So that you will not say, 'Behold, I knew them.'

Contextual Overview

¹ "And now listen to this, family of Jacob, you who are called by the name Israel: Who got you started in the loins of Judah, you who use God 's name to back up your promises and pray to the God of Israel? But do you mean it? Do you live like it? You claim to be citizens of the Holy City; you act as though you lean on the God of Israel, named God -of-the-Angel-Armies. For a long time now, I've let you in on the way I work: I told you what I was going to do beforehand, then I did it and it was done, and that's that. I know you're a bunch of hardheads, obstinate and flint-faced, So I got a running start and began telling you what was going on before it even happened. That is why you can't say, ‘My god-idol did this.' ‘My favorite god-carving commanded this.' You have all this evidence confirmed by your own eyes and ears. Shouldn't you be talking about it? And that was just the beginning. I have a lot more to tell you, things you never knew existed. This isn't a variation on the same old thing. This is new, brand-new, something you'd never guess or dream up. When you hear this you won't be able to say, ‘I knew that all along.' You've never been good listeners to me. You have a history of ignoring me, A sorry track record of fickle attachments— rebels from the womb. But out of the sheer goodness of my heart, because of who I am, I keep a tight rein on my anger and hold my temper. I don't wash my hands of you. Do you see what I've done? I've refined you, but not without fire. I've tested you like silver in the furnace of affliction. Out of myself, simply because of who I am, I do what I do. I have my reputation to keep up. I'm not playing second fiddle to either gods or people.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Reciprocal: Job 32:13 - Lest Isaiah 45:20 - they Isaiah 49:7 - the Redeemer 1 Corinthians 2:7 - even

Cross-References

Genesis 35:9
God revealed himself once again to Jacob, after he had come back from Paddan Aram and blessed him: "Your name is Jacob (Heel); but that's your name no longer. From now on your name is Israel (God-Wrestler)."

Genesis 48:19
But his father wouldn't do it. He said, "I know, my son; but I know what I'm doing. He also will develop into a people, and he also will be great. But his younger brother will be even greater and his descendants will enrich nations." Then he blessed them both: Israel will use your names to give blessings: May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh. In that he made it explicit: he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh.

1 Samuel 1:1
There once was a man who lived in Ramathaim. He was descended from the old Zuph family in the Ephraim hills. His name was Elkanah. (He was connected with the Zuphs from Ephraim through his father Jeroham, his grandfather Elihu, and his great-grandfather Tohu.) He had two wives. The first was Hannah; the second was Peninnah. Peninnah had children; Hannah did not.

1 Samuel 17:12
Enter David. He was the son of Jesse the Ephrathite from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse, the father of eight sons, was himself too old to join Saul's army. Jesse's three oldest sons had followed Saul to war. The names of the three sons who had joined up with Saul were Eliab, the firstborn; next, Abinadab; and third, Shammah. David was the youngest son. While his three oldest brothers went to war with Saul, David went back and forth from attending to Saul to tending his father's sheep in Bethlehem.

Micah 5:2
But you, Bethlehem, David's country, the runt of the litter— From you will come the leader who will shepherd-rule Israel. He'll be no upstart, no pretender. His family tree is ancient and distinguished. Meanwhile, Israel will be in foster homes until the birth pangs are over and the child is born, And the scattered brothers come back home to the family of Israel. He will stand tall in his shepherd-rule by God 's strength, centered in the majesty of God -Revealed. And the people will have a good and safe home, for the whole world will hold him in respect— Peacemaker of the world!

Gill's Notes on the Bible

They are created now, and not from the beginning,.... Not that they were now done or brought into being, for as yet Cyrus was not born; though the raising of him up, and holding his right hand, and his executing the counsel of God, are spoken of as if they were already done, because of the certainty of them, Isaiah 45:1. Aben Ezra interprets "created" by "decreed"; though these were not now decreed by God; for no new decrees are made by him; but those which were made by him of old were now revealed and made manifest by prophecy, which is the sense of the phrase; so Kimchi observes,

"the time when they went out of the mouth of God is the time of their creation.''

Thus in like manner the incarnation of Christ, his sufferings and death, and salvation by him, things decreed from eternity, are spoken of in this prophecy as if actually done, because of the clear manifestation and certainty of them:

even before the day when thou heardest them not; they were in the breast of God, kept and reserved in his mind, and therefore are before called hidden things, before the Israelites heard anything of them; as were the things respecting Christ, and salvation by him; which were not only in God, who created all things by Christ, but were revealed before the Israelites had any knowledge of them, even to Adam and Eve, immediately after their fall; and were spoken of by all the holy prophets from the beginning of the world:

lest thou shouldest say, behold, I knew them; lest they should ascribe their present knowledge of them to their own sagacity and penetration; as if they were not obliged to a divine revelation, but of themselves had got the secret, and became acquainted with these things.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

They are created now - The Septuagint renders this, Νῦν γίνεται nun ginetai - ‘Done now;’ and many expositors interpret it in the sense that they are now brought into light, as if they were created. Aben Ezra renders it, ‘They are decreed and determined by me.’ Rosenmuller supposes that it refers to the revelation, or making known those things. Lowth renders it, ‘They are produced now, and not of old.’ Noyes, ‘It is revealed now, and not long ago.’ But the sense is probably this: God is saying that they did not foresee them, nor were they able to conjecture them by the contemplation of any natural causes. There were no natural causes in operation at the time the predictions were made, respecting the destruction of Babylon, by which it could be conjectured that that event would take place; and when the event occurred, it was as if it had been created anew. It was the result of Almighty power and energy, and was to be traced to him alone. The sense is, that it could no more be predicted, at the time when the prophecy was uttered, from the operation of any natural causes, than an act of creation could be predicted, which depended on the exercise of the divine will alone. It was a case which God only could understand, in the same way as he alone could understand the purposes and the time of his own act of creating the world.

And not from the beginning - The events have not been so formed from the beginning that they could be predicted by the operation of natural causes, and by political sagacity.

Even before the day when thou heardest them not - The sense of this probably, ‘and before this day thou hast not heard of them;’ that is, these predictions pertain to new events, and are not to be found in antecedent prophecies. The prophet did not speak now of the deliverance from Egypt, and of the blessings of the promised land, which had constituted the burden of many of the former prophecies, but he spoke of a new thing; of the deliverance from Babylon, and of events which they could by no natural sagacity anticipate, so that they could claim that they knew them.

Lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them - The taking of Babylon by Cyrus, and the deliverance of the exiles from their bondage, are events which can be foreseen only by God. Yet the prophet says that he had declared these events, which thus lay entirely beyond the power of human conjecture, long before they occurred, so that they could not possibly pretend that they knew them by any natural sagacity, or that an idol had effected this.