Fear Not, for I Am with You

41 nListen to me in silence, oO coastlands;

let the peoples renew their strength;

let them approach, then let them speak;

let us together draw near for judgment.

2  pWho stirred up one from the east

whom victory meets at every qstep?1

rHe gives up nations before him,

so that he tramples kings underfoot;

he makes them like dust with his sword,

slike driven stubble with his bow.

3  He pursues them and passes on safely,

by paths his feet have not trod.

4  tWho has performed and done this,

calling the generations from the beginning?

uI, the Lord, the first,

and with the last; I am he.

5  vThe coastlands have seen and are afraid;

the ends of the earth tremble;

they have drawn near and come.

6  Everyone helps his neighbor

and says to his brother, “Be strong!”

7  wThe craftsman strengthens the goldsmith,

and he who smooths with the hammer him who strikes the anvil,

saying of the soldering, “It is good”;

and they strengthen it with nails xso that it cannot be moved.

8  But you, Israel, ymy servant,

Jacob, zwhom I have chosen,

the offspring of Abraham, amy friend;

9  you whom I took from the ends of the earth,

and called bfrom its farthest corners,

saying to you, “You are ymy servant,

zI have chosen you and not cast you off”;

10  fear not, for I am with you;

be not dismayed, for I am your God;

I will strengthen you, I will help you,

I will uphold you with cmy righteous right hand.

11  dBehold, all who are incensed against you

shall be put to shame and confounded;

those who strive against you

shall be as nothing and shall perish.

12  eYou shall seek those who contend with you,

but you shall not find them;

fthose who war against you

shall be as nothing at all.

13  For I, the Lord your God,

hold your right hand;

it is I who say to you, “Fear not,

I am the one who helps you.”

14  Fear not, you gworm Jacob,

you men of Israel!

I am the one who helps you, declares the Lord;

your hRedeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

15  iBehold, I make of you a threshing sledge,

new, sharp, and having teeth;

you shall thresh jthe mountains and crush them,

and you shall make the hills like chaff;

16  kyou shall winnow them, and lthe wind shall carry them away,

and the tempest shall scatter them.

mAnd you shall rejoice in the Lord;

in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.

17  nWhen the poor and needy seek water,

and there is none,

and their tongue is parched with thirst,

I the Lord will answer them;

I the God of Israel will not forsake them.

18  oI will open rivers on the bare heights,

and fountains in the midst of the valleys.

pI will make the wilderness a pool of water,

and the dry land springs of water.

19  qI will put in the wilderness the cedar,

the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive.

I will set in the desert rthe cypress,

the plane and the pine together,

20  that they may see and know,

may consider and understand together,

that sthe hand of the Lord has done this,

the Holy One of Israel has created it.

The Futility of Idols

21  Set forth your case, says the Lord;

bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob.

22  Let them bring them, and ttell us

what is to happen.

Tell us the former things, what they are,

that we may consider them,

that we may know their outcome;

or declare to us the things to come.

23  tTell us what is to come hereafter,

that we may know that you are gods;

udo good, or do harm,

that we may be dismayed and terrified.2

24  Behold, vyou are nothing,

and your work is less than nothing;

an abomination is he who chooses you.

25  wI stirred up one from the north, and he has come,

xfrom the rising of the sun, yand he shall call upon my name;

he shall trample on rulers as on mortar,

as the potter treads clay.

26  zWho declared it from the beginning, that we might know,

and beforehand, that we might say, “He is right”?

There was none who declared it, none who proclaimed,

none who heard your words.

27  aI was the first to say3 to Zion, “Behold, here they are!”

and bI give to Jerusalem a herald of good news.

28  cBut when I look, there is no one;

among these there is no counselor

who, when I ask, gives an answer.

29  dBehold, they are all a delusion;

their works are nothing;

their metal images are empty wind.

The Humble and Contrite in Spirit

66 aThus says the Lord:

b“Heaven is my throne,

and the earth is my footstool;

what is the house that you would build for me,

and what is the place of my rest?

2  cAll these things my hand has made,

and so all these things came to be,

declares the Lord.

dBut this is the one to whom I will look:

he who is humble and contrite in spirit

and trembles at my word.

3  e“He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man;

he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck;

he who presents a grain offering, like one who offers fpig’s blood;

he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol.

gThese have chosen their own ways,

and their soul delights in their abominations;

4  hI also will choose harsh treatment for them

and bring itheir fears upon them,

jbecause when I called, no one answered,

when I spoke, they did not listen;

kbut they did what was evil in my eyes

and chose that in which I did not delight.”

5  Hear the word of the Lord,

you who tremble at his word:

“Your brothers who hate you

and cast you out for my name’s sake

have said, l‘Let the Lord be glorified,

that we may see your joy’;

but it is they who shall be put to shame.

6  “The sound of an uproar from the city!

A sound from the temple!

The sound of the Lord,

mrendering recompense to his enemies!

Rejoice with Jerusalem

7  n“Before she was in labor

she gave birth;

before her pain came upon her

she delivered a son.

8  Who has heard such a thing?

Who has seen such things?

Shall a land be born in one day?

Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment?

For nas soon as Zion was in labor

she brought forth her children.

9  Shall I bring to the point of birth and not cause to bring forth?”

says the Lord;

“shall I, who cause to bring forth, shut the womb?”

says your God.

10  o“Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her,

all you who love her;

rejoice with her in joy,

all you who mourn over her;

11  that you may nurse and be satisfied

from her consoling breast;

that you may drink deeply with delight

from her glorious abundance.”1

12  For thus says the Lord:

p“Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river,

and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream;

and qyou shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip,

and bounced upon her knees.

13  As one whom his mother comforts,

so rI will comfort you;

you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

14  You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice;

syour bones shall flourish like the grass;

and tthe hand of the Lord shall be known to his servants,

and he shall show his indignation against his enemies.

Final Judgment and Glory of the Lord

15  “For behold, uthe Lord will come in fire,

and vhis chariots like the whirlwind,

to render his anger in fury,

and his rebuke with flames of fire.

16  For wby fire xwill the Lord enter into judgment,

and by his sword, with all flesh;

and those slain by the Lord shall be many.

17 y“Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one in the midst, zeating pig’s flesh and the abomination and mice, shall come to an end together, declares the Lord.

18 “For I know2 their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming3 ato gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory, 19 and I will set a sign among them. And from them bI will send survivors to the nations, to cTarshish, dPul, and dLud, who draw the bow, to eTubal and eJavan, fto the coastlands far away, gthat have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations. 20 hAnd they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations ias an offering to the Lord, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, just as the Israelites bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord. 21 jAnd some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says the Lord.

22  “For as kthe new heavens and the new earth

that I make

shall remain before me, says the Lord,

so lshall your offspring and your name remain.

23  mFrom new moon to new moon,

and from Sabbath to Sabbath,

all flesh shall come to worship before me,

declares the Lord.

24 “And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For ntheir worm shall not die, otheir fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”