Isaiah 41

The Lord

41 ¹Be silent before Me, O islands,
and let the peoples renew their strength;
let them approach,
then let them speak:

People

“Let us draw near together for judgment.”

Isaiah or the Lord

²Who stirred up a righteous one from the east,
calling him to his feet?

He gives up nations before him
and made him rule over kings,

who makes them like dust with his sword,
like wind-scattered stubble with his bow.

³He subjugates them, he passes in peace,
by paths his feet have not trod.

⁴Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning?

The Lord

“I, the LORD am the first,
and with the last ones, I am He!”

⁵The islands have seen and feared;
the ends of the earth tremble.

They have drawn near,
and they have come.

⁶Everyone helps his neighbor
and to his brother says, “Be strong.”

⁷And the craftsman strengthens the smith;
the hammer wielder strengthens the anvil pounder.
He says to the soldering: “It {the idol} is good,”
And he strengthens it {the idol} with nails
so that it will not totter.

⁸And you, Israel, are My servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,

the offspring of Abraham, My friend,

⁹whom I strengthened from the ends of the earth,
and from its farthest corners called to you, saying,

“I have chosen you,
and I have not rejected you.

¹⁰Fear not, for I am with you;
do not be afraid, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you,
also, I will help you,

also, I will uphold you
with My right hand, My righteousness.

¹¹Behold, all who are angry with you will be ashamed and confounded;
those who strive against you will be as nothing and will perish.

¹²You will seek those who contend with you,
but you will not find them.

Those who war against you will be as nothing,
and as nothingness.

¹³For I, the LORD, your God, grasp your right hand.”
It is I who say to you:

“Do not fear, I am helping you.
¹⁴Do not fear, O worm of Jacob, men of Israel, I am helping you,”

Isaiah

declares the LORD
and your Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel.

The Lord

¹⁵“Behold, I make of you a threshing instrument,
a new one, having two edges;

you will thresh and crush mountains,
and you will make the hills like chaff.

¹⁶You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away,
and the tempest will scatter them.

And you will be joyful in the LORD;
you will glory in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷The poor and the needy seek water, but there is none.
Their tongue is parched with thirst.

I, the LORD, will answer them;
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

¹⁸I will open up rivers on the barren heights
and fountains in the valleys.

I will make the wilderness a pool of water
and the parched land springs of water.

¹⁹I will place in the wilderness the cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive tree;
I will set in the desert the cypress, plane, and pine trees together.”

Isaiah

²⁰So that they may see and know,
and they may consider and understand together

that the hand of the LORD has done this,
and the Holy One of Israel has created it.

The Lord

²¹“Set forth your case,”

Isaiah

says the LORD.

The Lord

“Bring forth your evidences,”

Isaiah

says the King of Jacob.

The Lord

²²“Let them [graven images] bring forth and tell us what will happen.
Tell us the former things, what they are, that our heart may consider them,

and then we may know their outcome,
or declare to us the things that are to come.

²³Tell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods;
yea, do good or do evil, that we may be frightened and see together.

²⁴Behold, you are nothing,
and your work is worthless!

He who chooses you is an abomination.”

²⁵I stirred up one from the north, and he has come,
and from the rising of the sun, he will call on My name,

and he will come on rulers as on mortar
and as the potter tramples clay.

²⁶Who declared it from the beginning, that we might know?
Or beforehand, that we might say, “He is righteous?”

Yea, there are none who declare,
yea, there are none who announce,
yea, there are none who hear your sayings.

²⁷First for Zion, behold, here they are,
and I will give to Jerusalem one who brings good tidings.

²⁸And I looked, and there is no one;
and among them [the false gods], there is no counselor,
whom I asked, that could answer a word.

²⁹Behold, they are all chaos,
their works are nothing,
their molten images are wind and emptiness.