Isaiah 41

1“Keep silent before me, islands, and let the peoples renew their strength. then let them speak. Let’s meet together for judgment. Let them come near, 2Who called him to his foot in righteousness? He hands over nations to him, and makes him rule over kings. He gives them like the dust to his sword, like the driven stubble to his bow. Who has raised up one from the east? 3and passes by safely, Even by a way that he had not gone with his feet. He pursues them, 4calling the generations from the beginning? I, Yahweh, the first, and with the last, I am he.” Who has worked and done it, 5The ends of the earth tremble. They approach, and come. The islands have seen, and fear. 6They say to their brothers, “Be strong!” Everyone helps his neighbor. 7He who smoothes with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, “It is good”; and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter. So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith. 8Jacob whom I have chosen, * of Abraham my friend, “But you, Israel, my servant, 9You whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and called from its corners, and said to you, ‘You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you away;’ 10Don’t be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness. Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you. 11Those who strive with you will be like nothing, and shall perish. Behold, all those who are incensed against you will be disappointed and confounded. 12even those who contend with you. Those who war against you will be as nothing, as a non-existent thing. You will seek them, and won’t find them, 13saying to you, ‘Don’t be afraid. I will help you.’ For I, Yahweh your God, will hold your right hand, 14and you men of Israel. I will help you,” says Yahweh, “and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. Don’t be afraid, you worm Jacob, 15You will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and will make the hills like chaff. Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth. 16and the wind will carry them away, and the whirlwind will scatter them. You will glory in the Holy One of Israel. You will winnow them, You will rejoice in Yahweh. 17Their tongue fails for thirst. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. The poor and needy seek water, and there is none. I, Yahweh, will answer them. 18and springs in the middle of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will open rivers on the bare heights, 19I will set cypress trees, pine, and box trees together in the desert; I will put cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oil trees in the wilderness. 20that they may see, know, consider, and understand together, that Yahweh’s hand has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it. 21“Bring out your strong reasons,” says the King of Jacob. Produce your cause,” says Yahweh. 22Declare the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come. “Let them announce, and declare to us what shall happen. 23that we may know that you are gods. that we may be dismayed, and see it together. Declare the things that are to come hereafter, Yes, do good, or do evil, 24and your work is of nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination. Behold, you are of nothing, 25from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name; and he shall come on rulers as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay. “I have raised up one from the north, and he has come; 26And before, that we may say, ‘He is right?’ Surely, there is no one who shows. Surely, there is no one who hears your words. Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know? Surely, there is no one who declares. 27and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem. I am the first to say to Zion, ‘Behold, look at them;’ 28even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask of them, can answer a word. When I look, there is no man; 29Their molten images are wind and confusion. Behold, all of them, their deeds are vanity and nothing.