17This is what the Lord says—

your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

“I am the Lord your God,

who teaches you what is best for you,

who directs you in the way you should go.

18If only you had paid attention to my commands,

your peace would have been like a river,

your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

19Your descendants would have been like the sand,

your children like its numberless grains;

their name would never be cut off

nor destroyed from before me.”

20Leave Babylon,

flee from the Babylonians!

Announce this with shouts of joy

and proclaim it.

Send it out to the ends of the earth;

say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.”

21They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;

he made water flow for them from the rock;

he split the rock

and water gushed out.

22“There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”