Hearken to me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; {p} I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.

(p) Read Isa 41:4.

Wesley's Notes

48:12 O Israel - Whom I have called out of the world to be my peculiar people.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12-15. The Almighty, who has founded heaven and earth, can, and will, restore His people.

the first . last-(Isa 41:4; 44:6).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

48:9-15 We have nothing ourselves to plead with God, why he should have mercy upon us. It is for his praise, to the honour of his mercy, to spare. His bringing men into trouble was to do them good. It was to refine them, but not as silver; not so thoroughly as men refine silver. If God should take that course, they are all dross, and, as such, might justly be put away. He takes them as refined in part only. Many have been brought home to God as chosen vessels, and a good work of grace begun in them, in the furnace of affliction. It is comfort to God's people, that God will secure his own honour, therefore work deliverance for them. And if God delivers his people, he cannot be at a loss for instruments to be employed. God has formed a plan, in which, for his own sake, and the glory of his grace, he saves all that come to Him.