Isaiah 41
1 “Be silent before Me, O islands, and the peoples will renew [their] strength; let them draw near, then let them speak; together let us come near for judgment.
2 Who has roused one from the east? Righteousness calls him at His feet; He gives the nations before his face, and he subdues kings; he makes [them] like dust with his sword, driven away as stubble [by] his bow.
3 He pursues them, passing over in peace, a path he does not enter with his feet.
4 Who has worked and accomplished? The One calling the generations from the beginning: “I [am] YHWH, the first and the last; I [am] He!”
5 The islands have seen [it] and feared; the ends of the earth tremble. They approach and come forward:
6 Each man helps his neighbor and says to his brother, “Be strong.”
7 And the craftsman strengthens the goldsmith, the one smoothing [with] the hammer, the one striking the anvil, saying of the joining, “It [is] Good!”—And he strengthens it with nails, and it will not be toppled.
8 “And you, O Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, seed of Abraham My friend,
9 whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and called you from its corners, and said to you ‘You [are] My servant, I have chosen you and not rejected you’—
10 do not be afraid, for I [am] with you; do not look around, for I [am] your God. I have strengthened you; yes, I have helped you—yes, have I taken hold of you with the right hand of My righteousness.
11 Behold, all those burning against you, they will be ashamed and disgraced; they will be as nothing, and the men of your dispute will perish.
12 You will seek them, and will not find them, the men of your dispute will be as nothing, the men of your warfare as nothing at all.
13 For I [am] YHWH your God, taking hold of your right hand, saying to you: Do not fear; I have helped you!
14 Do not fear, O worm of Jacob, O men of Israel; I have helped you, a declaration of YHWH, And your Redeemer [is] the Holy One of Israel.
15 Behold, I am making you sharp, into a new threshing sledge, an owner of teeth; [and] you will thresh the mountains and crush [them], and you will make the hills like chaff.
16 You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the tempest will scatter them; and you will rejoice in YHWH; you will glory in the Holy One of Israel.
17 The poor and the needy seek water, and there is none; their tongues are dry with thirst. I, YHWH, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
18 I will open rivers on the barren heights, and fountains in the middle of the valleys; I will make the desert into a pool of water, and the dry land into flowing springs of water.
19 I will plant the cedar in the wilderness, and the acacia, and the myrtle, and the olive tree; I will place in the desert plain the cypress, elm, and boxwood together—
20 that they may see and know, and consider and understand together, that the hand of YHWH has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it.”
21 “Bring near your⁺ case,” says YHWH; “Put forth your⁺ arguments,” says the King of Jacob.
22 “Let them approach, and declare to us what will happen. The former [things], what [were] they? Declare [it], that we may set [it] [in] our heart and know the last things; or declare to us the coming things.
23 Declare the things to come hereafter, that we may know if you⁺ [are] gods; yes, do good or do evil, that we may look and see together.
24 Behold, you⁺ [are] nothing, and your⁺ work [is] worthless—an abomination [is] he who chooses you⁺!
25 I have roused one from the north, and he has come from the rising of the sun; he calls on My name, and he comes in against princes like [they were] mortar, and like the potter treads the clay.
26 Who has declared [this] from the beginning, that we might know, and from before the face, that we may say, ‘[He is] right? Surely, no one declared [it]; surely, no one proclaimed [it]; surely no one heard your⁺ words.
27 First to Zion—behold, behold them!—And to Jerusalem, I will give one bringing news.
28 For I looked, and [there was] no man; among them, and no one was counseling, that I might ask them, and they could answer a word.
29 Behold, all of them [are] delusion; their works [are] nothing, their molten images are wind and emptiness.