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18 Oh, that you had listened to my commands!
    Then you would have had peace flowing like a gentle river
    and righteousness rolling over you like waves in the sea.
19 Your descendants would have been like the sands along the seashore—
    too many to count!
There would have been no need for your destruction,
    or for cutting off your family name.”

20 Yet even now, be free from your captivity!
    Leave Babylon and the Babylonians.[a]
Sing out this message!
    Shout it to the ends of the earth!
The Lord has redeemed his servants,
    the people of Israel.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. 48:20a Or the Chaldeans.
  2. 48:20b Hebrew his servant, Jacob. See note on 14:1.

18 If only you had paid attention(A) to my commands,
    your peace(B) would have been like a river,(C)
    your well-being(D) like the waves of the sea.
19 Your descendants(E) would have been like the sand,(F)
    your children like its numberless grains;(G)
their name would never be blotted out(H)
    nor destroyed from before me.”

20 Leave Babylon,
    flee(I) from the Babylonians!
Announce this with shouts of joy(J)
    and proclaim it.
Send it out to the ends of the earth;(K)
    say, “The Lord has redeemed(L) his servant Jacob.”

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