In vv. 3-8, then, God claims to have changed His treatment of His people, in order to meet and to prevent the various faults of their character. Some things He told to them, long before, so that they might not attribute the occurrence of these to their idols. But other things He sprang upon them, without predictions, and in an altogether novel shape, so that they might not say of these things, in their familiarity with them, We knew of them ourselves. A people who were at one time so stubborn, and at another so slippery, were evidently a people who deserved nothing at God's hand. Yet He goes on to say, vv. 9-11, that He will treat them with forbearance, if not for their sake, yet for His own: _For the sake of My Name I defer Mine anger, and for My praise_--or _renown_, or _reputation_, as we would say of a man--_I will refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off. Behold I have smelted thee, but not as silver: I have tested thee in the furnace of affliction. For Mine own sake, for Mine own sake, I am working;--for how was My Name being profaned!_[121]--_and My glory to another I will not give._ Then he gathers up the sum of what He has been saying in a final appeal. _Hearken unto Me, O Jacob, and Israel My Called: I am He; I am First, yea, I am Last. Yea, My hand hath founded Earth,_[122] _and My right hand hath spread Heaven; when I call unto them they stand together._ _Be gathered, all of you, and hearken, Who among them_--that is, the Gentiles--_hath published these things_?--that is, such things as the following, the prophecy given in the next clause of the verse: _Whom Jehovah loveth shall perform His pleasure on Babylon, and his arm_ shall be on _the Chaldeans_. This was the sum of what Jehovah promised long ago;[123] not Cyrus' name, not that a Gentile, a Persian, should deliver God's people, for these are among the new things which were not published beforehand, at which the traditional Israelites were offended,--but this general fiat of God's sovereignty, _that whomever Jehovah loves_, or _likes, he shall perform His pleasure on Babylon. I, even I, have spoken_--this, in ver. 14_b_, was My speaking. _Yea, I have called him; I have brought him, and he will make his way to prosper._ Again emphasize the change of tense. Cyrus is already called, but, while the prophet speaks, he has not yet reached his goal in the capture of Babylon. Some ambassador from the Lord, whether the prophet or the Servant of Jehovah, now takes up the parable, and, after presenting himself, addresses a final exhortation to Israel, summing up the moral meaning of the Exile. _Draw near to me, hear this; not from aforetime in secret have I spoken; from the time that it was, there am I: and now my Lord, Jehovah, hath sent me with His Spirit._[124]