Isaiah 41–42

The Lord versus the Nations’ Gods

41“Be silent before Me, islands! ^l

And let peoples renew their strength.

Let them approach, then let them testify;

let us come together for the trial.

²Who has stirred him up from the east? ^m

He calls righteousness to his feet. ^no

The Lord hands nations over to him, ^p

and he subdues kings.

He makes them like dust with his sword,

like wind-driven stubble with his bow.

³He pursues them, going on safely,

hardly touching the path with his feet.

⁴Who has performed and done this,

calling the generations from the beginning?

I, Yahweh, am the first,

and with the last ^q—I am He.” ^r

⁵The islands see and are afraid,

the whole earth trembles. ^s

They approach and arrive.

⁶Each one helps the other,

and says to another, “Take courage!”

⁷The craftsman encourages the metalworker; ^t

the one who flattens with the hammer

supports the one who strikes the anvil,

saying of the soldering, “It is good.”

He fastens it with nails so that it will not fall over. ^u

⁸But you, Israel, My servant, ^v

Jacob, whom I have chosen, ^w

descendant of Abraham, My friend ^x—

⁹I brought ^yyou from the ends of the earth

and called you from its farthest corners.

I said to you: You are My servant;

I have chosen you and not rejected you. ^z

¹⁰Do not fear, for I am with you; ^a

do not be afraid, for I am your God. ^b

I will strengthen you; I will help you;

I will hold on to you with My righteous right hand. ^c

¹¹Be sure that all who are enraged against you

will be ashamed and disgraced; ^d

those who contend with you

will become as nothing and will perish.

¹²You will look for those who contend with you,

but you will not find them.

Those who war against you

will become absolutely nothing.

¹³For I, Yahweh your God, ^e

hold your right hand

and say to you: Do not fear,

I will help you.

¹⁴Do not fear, you worm Jacob, ^f

you men ^gof Israel:

I will help you—

this is the Lord’s declaration.

Your Redeemer ^his the Holy One of Israel. ⁱ

¹⁵See, I will make you into a sharp threshing board,

new, with many teeth.

You will thresh mountains and pulverize them

and make hills into chaff. ^j

¹⁶You will winnow them ^k

and a wind will carry them away,

a gale will scatter them.

But you will rejoice in the Lord;

you will boast in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷The poor and the needy seek water, but there is none;

their tongues are parched with thirst.

I, Yahweh, will answer them; ^l

I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

¹⁸I will open rivers on the barren heights, ^m

and springs in the middle of the plains.

I will turn the desert into a pool of water

and dry land into springs of water. ⁿ

¹⁹I will plant cedars in the desert,

acacias, myrtles, and olive trees. ^o

I will put juniper trees in the desert,

elms and cypress trees together,

²⁰so that all may see and know,

consider and understand,

that the hand of the Lord has done this, ^p

the Holy One of Israel has created ^qit.

²¹“Submit your case,” says the Lord.

“Present your arguments,” says Jacob’s King.

²²“Let them come and tell us

what will happen. ^r

Tell us the past events,

so that we may reflect on them

and know the outcome,

or tell us the future.

²³Tell us the coming events, ^s

then we will know that you are gods.

Indeed, do something good or bad,

then we will be in awe ^tand perceive.

²⁴Look, you are nothing ^u

and your work is worthless.

Anyone who chooses you is detestable.

²⁵“I have raised up one from the north, ^vand he has come,

one from the east ^wwho invokes My ^xname. ^y

He will march over rulers as if they were mud,

like a potter who treads the clay.

²⁶Who told about this from the beginning,

so that we might know,

and from times past,

so that we might say: He is right?

No one announced it,

no one told it,

no one heard your words.

²⁷I was the first to say to Zion: ^z

Look! Here they are!

And I gave a herald of good news to Jerusalem. ^a

²⁸When I look, there is no one;

there is no counselor among them;

when I ask them, they have nothing to say. ^b

²⁹Look, all of them are a delusion; ^c

their works are nonexistent;

their images are wind and emptiness.

The Servant’s Mission

42“This ^dis My Servant; ^eI strengthen Him,

this is My Chosen One; ^fI delight in Him. ^g

I have put My Spirit on Him; ^h

He will bring justice ⁱto the nations. ^j

²He will not cry out or shout

or make His voice heard in the streets.

³He will not break a bruised reed,

and He will not put out a smoldering wick;

He will faithfully bring justice.

⁴He will not grow weak or be discouraged

until He has established justice on earth.

The islands will wait for His instruction.” ^k

⁵This is what God, Yahweh, says—

who created the heavens and stretched them out, ^l

who spread out the earth and what comes from it, ^m

who gives breath to the people on it

and life ⁿto those who walk on it ^o—

⁶“I, Yahweh, have called You

for a righteous purpose, ^pq

and I will hold You by Your hand. ^r

I will keep You and appoint You

to be a covenant for the people ^s

and a light to the nations, ^t

⁷in order to open blind eyes, ^u

to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, ^v

and those sitting in darkness from the prison house.

⁸I am Yahweh, that is My name;

I will not give My glory to another ^w

or My praise to idols.

⁹The past events have indeed happened.

Now I declare new events; ^x

I announce them to you before they occur.”

A Song of Praise

¹⁰Sing a new song to the Lord; ^y

sing His praise from the ends of the earth,

you who go down to the sea with all that fills it, ^z

you islands with your ^ainhabitants.

¹¹Let the desert and its cities shout,

the settlements where Kedar dwells cry aloud. ^b

Let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy; ^c

let them cry out from the mountaintops.

¹²Let them give glory to the Lord

and declare His praise in the islands.

¹³The Lord advances like a warrior;

He stirs up His zeal like a soldier. ^d

He shouts, He roars aloud,

He prevails over His enemies.

¹⁴“I have kept silent from ages past;

I have been quiet and restrained Myself. ^e

But now, I will groan like a woman in labor, ^f

gasping breathlessly.

¹⁵I will lay waste mountains and hills

and dry up all their vegetation.

I will turn rivers into islands

and dry up marshes. ^g

¹⁶I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; ^h

I will guide them on paths they have not known.

I will turn darkness to light in front of them ⁱ

and rough places into level ground. ^j

This is what I will do for them,

and I will not forsake them. ^k

¹⁷They will be turned back and utterly ashamed—

those who trust in idols

and say to metal-plated images:

You are our gods! ^l

Israel’s Blindness and Deafness

¹⁸“Listen, you deaf!

Look, you blind, so that you may see. ^m

¹⁹Who is blind but My servant, ⁿ

or deaf like My messenger I am sending?

Who is blind like My dedicated one, ^o

or blind like the servant of the Lord?

²⁰Though seeing many things, ^pyou do not obey.

Though his ears are open, he does not listen.” ^q

²¹The Lord was pleased, because of His righteousness,

to magnify His instruction and make it glorious.

²²But this is a people plundered and looted,

all of them trapped in holes

or imprisoned in dungeons.

They have become plunder ^r

with no one to rescue them

and loot, with no one saying, “Give it back!”

²³Who among you will pay attention to this?

Let him listen and obey in the future.

²⁴Who gave Jacob to the robber, ^s

and Israel to the plunderers?

Was it not the Lord?

Have we not sinned against Him?

They were not willing to walk in His ways,

and they would not listen to His instruction.

²⁵So He poured out on Jacob His furious anger

and the power of war.

It surrounded him with fire, but he did not know it;

it burned him, but he paid no attention. ^tu