Isaiah 41

1Be silent before me, coastlands; let the peoples renew their strength. Let them come near; then let them speak. Together let us draw near for judgment.

2Who has stirred up one from the east, calling him in righteousness to his feet? He gives nations before him and subdues kings; he gives them like dust to his sword, like driven stubble to his bow.

3He pursues them and passes on safely, by a path his feet had not traveled.

4Who has acted and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Yahweh, am the first, and with the last ones—I am he.

5The coastlands have seen and fear; the ends of the earth tremble. They draw near and come.

6Each man helps his neighbor, and says to his brother, “Be strong!”

7The craftsman strengthens the metalworker; the one who smooths with the hammer strengthens the one who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, “It is good”; then he fastens it with nails so that it will not totter.

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

9you whom I took hold of from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, and said to you, ‘You are my servant; I have chosen you and not rejected you,’

10Do not fear, for I am with you; do not look around in dread, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; surely I will help you; surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

11Behold, all who are enraged against you will be put to shame and humiliated; they will become as nothing, and the men who contend with you will perish.

12You will seek them and not find them—those men who contend with you. The men who wage war against you will become like nothing, like nonexistence.

13For I am Yahweh your God, who takes hold of your right hand, who says to you, ‘Do not fear; I will help you.’

14Do not fear, worm Jacob, men of Israel; I myself help you, declares Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

15Behold, I have made you a new sharp threshing sledge with double edges; you will thresh the mountains and crush them, and you will make the hills like chaff.

16You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the storm will scatter them; but you will rejoice in Yahweh; in the Holy One of Israel you will boast.

17The poor and needy seek water, but there is none; their tongue is parched with thirst. I, Yahweh, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

18I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness into a pool of water, and the dry land into springs of water.

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

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

21Present your case,” says Yahweh; “bring forward your strong arguments,” says the King of Jacob.

22Let them bring them forward and tell us what will happen. Tell us the former things—what they are—that we may set our heart on them and know their outcome; or declare to us the things to come.

23Declare to us the things to come afterward, that we may know that you are gods; indeed, do good or do harm, that we may be dismayed and see together.

24Look, you are from nothing, and your work is from nonexistence; whoever chooses you is an abomination.

25I have stirred up one from the north, and he has come; from the rising of the sun he calls on my name. He will come upon rulers as upon clay, and like a potter he treads mud.

26Who declared it from the beginning, so that we might know, and beforehand, so that we might say, ‘He is right’? But there was no one declaring it, no one making it heard, no one hearing your words.

27The first says to Zion, ‘Look, here they are!’ and to Jerusalem I give a herald of good news.

28And I looked, but there was no man; among these there was no counselor, that I might ask them and they would answer a word.

29Look, all of them are nothing; their works are nothing. Their cast images are wind and emptiness.