18 I wish you would pay attention to my commands. If you did, peace would flow over you like a river. Holiness would sweep over you like the waves of the ocean.
19 Your family would be like the sand. Your children after you would be as many as the grains of sand by the sea. It would be impossible to count them. I would always accept the members of your family line. They would never be cut off or destroyed."
20 People of Israel, leave Babylon! Hurry up and get away from the Babylonians! Here is what I want you to announce. Make it known with shouts of joy. Send the news out from one end of the earth to the other. Say, "The Lord has set Jacob's people free. They are his servants."
21 They didn't get thirsty when he led them through the deserts. He made water flow out of the rock for them. He broke the rock open, and water came out of it.