Isaiah 41

1 Keep silence before me, islands; and let the peoples renew [their] strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us draw near together to judgment.

Hold a feast to me, ye islands: for the princes shall renew [their] strength: let them draw nigh and speak together: then let them declare judgment.

2 Who raised up from the east him whom righteousness calleth to its foot? He gave the nations before him, and caused him to have dominion over kings; he gave them as dust to his sword, as driven stubble to his bow.

Who raised up righteousness from the east, [and] called it to his feet, so that it should go? shall appoint [it] an adversary of Gentiles, and shall dismay kings, and bury their swords in the earth, and cast forth their bows and arrows as sticks?

3 He pursued them, he passed on in safety, by a way he had never come with his feet.

And he shall pursue them; the way of his feet shall proceed in peace.

4 Who hath wrought and done [it], calling the generations from the beginning? I, Jehovah, the first; and with the last, I [am] HE.

Who has wrought and done these things? he has called it who called it from the generations of old; I God, the first and to [all] futurity, I AM.

5 The isles saw [it], and feared; the ends of the earth trembled: they drew near, and came.

The nations saw, and feared; the ends of the earth drew nigh, and came together,

6 They helped every one his neighbour, and [each] said to his brother, Take courage.

every one judging for his neighbor and [that] to assist his brother: and one will say,

7 And the artizan encouraged the founder, he that smootheth [with] the hammer him that smiteth on the anvil, saying of the soldering, It is good; and he fasteneth it with nails, that it be not moved.

The artificer has become strong, and the coppersmith that smites with the hammer, [and] forges also: sometimes he will say, It is a piece well joined: they have fastened them with nails; they will fix them, and they shall not be moved.

8 But thou, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend

But thou, Israel, art my servant Jacob, and he whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraam, whom I have loved:

9 — thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called from the extremities thereof, and to whom I said, Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee and not rejected thee,

whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and from the high places of it I have called thee, and said to thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and I have not forsaken thee.

10 — Fear not, for I [am] with thee; be not dismayed, for I [am] thy God: I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

Fear not; for I am with thee: wander not; for I am thy God, who have strengthened thee; and I have helped thee, and have established thee with my just right hand.

11 Lo, all that are incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded; they that strive with thee shall be as nothing, and shall perish.

Behold, all thine adversaries shall be ashamed and confounded; for they shall be as if they were not: and all thine opponents shall perish.

12 Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them — them that contend with thee; they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.

Thou shalt seek them, and thou shalt not find the men who shall insolently rage against thee: for they shall be as if they were not, and they that war against thee shall not be.

13 For I, Jehovah, thy God, hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.

For I am thy God, who holdeth thy right hand, who saith to thee,

14 Fear not, thou worm Jacob, ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith Jehovah, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

Fear not, Jacob, [and thou] Israel few in number; I have helped thee, saith thy God, he that redeems thee, O Israel.

15 Behold, I have made of thee a new sharp threshing instrument having double teeth: thou shalt thresh and beat small the mountains, and shalt make the hills as chaff;

Behold, I have made thee as new saw-shaped threshing wheels of a waggon; and thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat the hills to powder, and make [them] as chaff:

16 thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them; and thou shalt rejoice in Jehovah, thou shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.

and thou shalt winnow [them], and the wind shall carry them away, and a tempest shall scatter them: but thou shalt rejoice in the holy ones of Israel.

17 The afflicted and the needy seek water, and there is none; their tongue faileth for thirst: I, Jehovah, will answer them, [I], the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

And the poor and the needy shall exult; for [when] they shall seek water, and there shall be none, [and] their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord God, I the God of Israel will hear, and will not forsake them:

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

but I will open rivers on the mountains, and fountains in the midst of plains: I will make the desert pools of water, and a thirsty land watercourses.

19 I will give in the wilderness the cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oleaster; I will set in the desert the cypress, pine, and box-tree together;

I will plant in the dry land the cedar and box, the myrtle and cypress, and white poplar:

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

that they may see, and know, and perceive, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord has wrought these [works], and the Holy One of Israel has displayed [them].

21 Produce your cause, saith Jehovah; bring forward your arguments, saith the King of Jacob.

Your judgment draws nigh, saith the Lord God; your counsels have drawn nigh, saith the King of Jacob.

22 Let them bring them forward, and declare to us what shall happen: shew the former things, what they are, that we may give attention to them, and know the end of them; — or let us hear things to come:

Let them draw nigh, and declare to you what things shall come to pass; or tell [us] what things were of old, and we will apply [our] understanding, and we shall know what are the last and the future things:

23 declare the things that are to happen hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods; yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be astonished, and behold it together.

tell us, declare ye to us the things that are coming on at the last [time], and we shall know that ye are gods: do good, and do evil, and we shall wonder, and see at the same time

24 Behold, ye are less than nothing, and your work is of nought; an abomination is he that chooseth you. ...

whence ye are, and whence is your works: they have chosen you an abomination out of the earth.

25 I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come, — from the rising of the sun, he who will call upon my name; and he shall come upon princes as on mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay.

But I have raised up him that [comes] from the north, and him that [comes] from the rising of the sun: they shall be called by my name: let the princes come, and as potter's clay, and as a potter treading clay, so shall ye be trodden down.

26 Who hath declared [it] from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, [It is] right? Indeed, there is none that declareth; no, none that sheweth; no, none that heareth your words.

For who will declare the things from the beginning, that we may know also the former things, and we will say that they are true? there is no one that speaks beforehand, nor anyone that hears your words.

27 The first, [I said] to Zion, Behold, behold them! and to Jerusalem, I will give one that bringeth glad tidings.

I will give dominion to Sion, and will comfort Jerusalem by the way.

28 And I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, — and there was no counsellor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word.

For from among the nations, behold, [there was] no one; and of their idols there was none to declare [anything]: and if I should ask them, Whence are ye? they could not answer me.

29 Behold, they are all vanity, their works are nought, their molten images are wind and emptiness.

For [these] are your makers, [as ye think], and they that cause you to err in vain.