Isaiah - Chapter 41

¹ Coasts and islands, fall silent before me, and let the peoples renew their strength, let them come forward and speak; let us assemble for judgement.

² 'Who has raised from the east him whom saving justice summons in its train, him to whom Yahweh delivers up the nations and subjects kings, him who reduces them to dust with his sword, and to driven stubble with his bow,

³ him who pursues them and advances unhindered, his feet scarcely touching the road?

⁴ Who has acted thus, who has done this? He who calls each generation from the beginning: I, Yahweh, who am the first and till the last I shall still be there.'

⁵ The coasts and islands have seen and taken fright, the remotest parts of earth are trembling: they are approaching, they are here!

⁶ People help one another, they say to each other, 'Take heart!'

⁷ The woodworker encourages the smelter, the polisher encourages the hammerer, saying of the soldering, 'It is sound'; and he fastens it with nails to keep it steady.

⁸ But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham my friend,

⁹ whom I have taken to myself, from the remotest parts of the earth and summoned from countries far away, to whom I have said, 'You are my servant, I have chosen you, I have not rejected you,'

¹⁰ do not be afraid, for I am with you; do not be alarmed, for I am your God. I give you strength, truly I help you, truly I hold you firm with my saving right hand.

¹¹ Look, all those who rage against you will be put to shame and humiliated; those who picked quarrels with you will be reduced to nothing and will perish.

¹² You will look for them but will not find them, those who used to fight you; they will be destroyed and brought to nothing, those who made war on you.

¹³ For I, Yahweh, your God, I grasp you by your right hand; I tell you, 'Do not be afraid, I shall help you.'

¹⁴ Do not be afraid, Jacob, you worm! You little handful of Israel! I shall help you, declares Yahweh; your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵ Look, I am making you into a threshing-sledge, new, with double teeth; you will thresh and beat the mountains to dust and reduce the hills to straw.

¹⁶ You will winnow them and the wind will carry them off, the gale will scatter them; whereas you will rejoice in Yahweh, will glory in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷ The oppressed and needy search for water, and there is none, their tongue is parched with thirst. I, Yahweh, shall answer them, I, the God of Israel, shall not abandon them.

¹⁸ I shall open up rivers on barren heights and water-holes down in the ravines; I shall turn the desert into a lake and dry ground into springs of water.

¹⁹ I shall plant the desert with cedar trees, acacias, myrtles and olives; in the wastelands I shall put cypress trees, plane trees and box trees side by side;

²⁰ so that people may see and know, so that they may all observe and understand that the hand of Yahweh has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.

²¹ 'Present your case,' says Yahweh, 'Produce your arguments,' says Jacob's king.

²² 'Let them produce and reveal to us what is going to happen. What happened in the past? Reveal it so that we can consider it and know what the outcome will be. Or tell us about the future,

²³ reveal what is to happen next, and then we shall know that you are gods. At least, do something, be it good or bad, so that we may feel alarm and fear.

²⁴ Look, you are less than nothingness, and what you do is less than nothing; to choose you is an outrage.'

²⁵ I have raised him from the north and he has come, from the east he has been summoned by name. He tramples on rulers like mud, like a potter treading clay.

²⁶ Who revealed this from the beginning for us to know, and in the past for us to say, 'That is right'? No one in fact revealed it, no one proclaimed it, no one has heard you speak.

²⁷ First-fruits of Zion, look, here they come! I send a messenger to Jerusalem,

²⁸ and I look -- no one, not a single counsellor among them who, if I asked, could give an answer.

²⁹ Taken altogether they are nothingness, what they do is nothing, their statues, wind and emptiness.

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