41 aKeep silence before me, O bislands;

And clet the people renew their strength:

Let them come near; then let them speak:

Let us come near together to judgment.

2  dWho raised up †the righteous man efrom the east,

Called him fto his foot,

ffGave the nations before him, and gmade him rule over kings?

He hgave them as the dust to his sword,

And as idriven stubble to his bow.

3  He pursued them, and passed †safely;

Even by the way that he had not gone with his feet.

4  kWho hath wrought and done it,

Calling the generations from the beginning?

I the Lord, lthe first,

And with the last; mI am he.

5  nThe isles saw it, and feared;

The ends of the earth were afraid,

Drew near, and came.

6  They helped every one his neighbour;

And every one said to his brother, †Be of good courage.

7  oSo the carpenter encouraged the ||goldsmith,

And he that smootheth with the hammer ||him that smote the anvil,

||Saying, It is ready for the sodering:

And he fastened it with nails, pthat it should not be moved.

8  But thou, qIsrael, art rmy servant,

Jacob rrwhom I have chosen,

The seed of sAbraham my friend.

9  Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth,

And called thee from tthe chief men thereof,

And said unto thee, rThou art my servant;

I rrhave chosen thee, and not cast thee away.

10  uFear thou not; vfor I am with thee:

wBe not dismayed; for I am thy God:

vI will strengthen thee; yea, uI will help thee;

Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

11  Behold, all xthey that were incensed against thee shall be xashamed and confounded:

yThey shall be as nothing; and †they that strive with thee shall perish.

12  Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even †them that contended with thee:

†They that war against thee shall be zas nothing, and zas a thing of nought.

13  For I the Lord thy God zzwill hold thy right hand,

Saying unto thee, uFear not; uI will help thee.

14  uFear not, athou worm Jacob, and ye ||men of Israel;

aI will help thee, saith the Lord,

And bthy redeemer, cthe Holy One of Israel.

15  Behold, dI will make thee a new esharp fthreshing instrument having †teeth:

dThou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small,

And shalt make the hills as chaff.

16  Thou shalt gfan them, and the wind shall carry them away,

And the whirlwind shall scatter them:

And thou shalt rejoice in the Lord,

And hshalt glory in cthe Holy One of Israel.

17  When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none,

And their tongue ifaileth for thirst,

I the Lord will hear them,

I kthe God of Israel will not forsake them.

18  lI will open rivers in mhigh places,

And fountains in the midst of nthe valleys:

oI will make the pwilderness a pool of water,

And opthe dry land springs of water.

19  ppI will plant in the wilderness the cedar, qthe shittah tree, and the myrtle, and rthe oil tree;

I will set in the desert sthe fir tree, and sthe pine, and the box tree together:

20  tThat they may see, and know, and uconsider, and understand together,

That the hand of the Lord hath done this,

And the Holy One of Israel hath created it.

21  †Produce your cause, saith the Lord;

Bring forth your vstrong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.

22  wLet them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen:

Let them shew xthe former things, what they be,

That we may †consider them, and know the latter end of them;

Or declare us things for to come.

23  yShew the things that are to come yyhereafter,

zThat we may know that ye are gods:

Yea, ado good, or do evil,

That we may bbe dismayed, and behold it together.

24  Behold, cye are ||of nothing, and your work ||of nought:

An abomination is he that chooseth you.

25  dI have raised up one efrom the north, and he shall come:

dFrom the rising of the sun fshall he call upon my name:

And he shall come upon princes as upon morter,

And as the potter treadeth clay.

26  gWho hath declared from the beginning, that we may know?

And beforetime, that we may say, He is righteous?

Yea, there is none that sheweth, yea, there is none that declareth,

Yea, there is none that heareth your words.

27  hThe first ishall say to Zion, Behold, behold them:

And I will give to Jerusalem ione that bringeth good tidings.

28  kFor I beheld, and there was no man;

Even among them, and there was no counseller,

That, when I asked of them, could †answer a word.

29  lBehold, they are all vanity; their works are mnothing:

Their molten images are wind and confusion.