“Thus says Yahweh!
Your Redeemer!
The Holy One of Israel!
‘I am Yahweh your God!
I teach you for your own good.
I lead you in the way you should go.
O that you had paid attention
To my commandments!
Then your prosperity would have been
Like a river.
Your success would have been
Like the waves of the sea.
Your offspring would have been
Like the sand.
Your descendants would have been
Like its grains.
Their name would never be cut off.
They would never have been destroyed
From before me.’”
Second Isaiah explains what Yahweh would have done had the Israelites followed his commandments. Yahweh said that he was the redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, their God. He had taught them how to live on the right path by following his commandments. However, they did not pay attention to him. They could have had prosperity and success like the rivers and the sea waves. They could have had offspring and descendants like the many grains of sand. They would have never been cut off or destroyed if they had only followed Yahweh’s teaching commands.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 