Isaiah 41–64

Chapter 41

Israel Encouraged

¹“^aCoastlands, listen to Me ^bin silence,

And let the peoples ^cgain new strength;

^dLet them come forward, then let them speak;

^eLet us come together for judgment.

²“^aWho has aroused one from the east

Whom He ^bcalls in righteousness to His ¹feet?

He ^cdelivers up nations before him

And subdues kings.

He makes them like ^ddust with his sword,

As the wind-driven ^echaff with his bow.

³“He pursues them, passing on in safety,

By a way he had not been ¹traversing with his feet.

⁴“^aWho has performed and accomplished it,

Calling forth the generations from the beginning?

‘^bI, the Lord, am the first, and with the last. ^cI am He.’ ”

⁵The ^acoastlands have seen and are afraid;

The ^bends of the earth tremble;

They have drawn near and have come.

⁶Each one helps his neighbor

And says to his brother, “Be strong!”

⁷So the ^acraftsman encourages the ^bsmelter,

And he who smooths metal with the hammer encourages him who beats the anvil,

Saying of the soldering, “It is good”;

And he fastens it with nails,

^cSo that it will not totter.

⁸“But you, Israel, ^aMy servant,

Jacob whom I have chosen,

Descendant of ^bAbraham My ^cfriend,

⁹You whom I have ^1ataken from the ends of the earth,

And called from its ^bremotest parts

And said to you, ‘You are ^cMy servant,

I have ^dchosen you and not rejected you.

¹⁰‘Do not ^afear, for I am with you;

Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you, surely ^bI will help you,

Surely I will uphold you with My righteous ^cright hand.’

¹¹“Behold, ^aall those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored;

^bThose who contend with you will be as nothing and will perish.

¹²“^aYou will seek those who quarrel with you, but will not find them,

Those who war with you will be as nothing and non-existent.

¹³“For I am the Lord your God, ^awho upholds your right hand,

Who says to you, ‘^bDo not fear, I will help you.’

¹⁴“Do not fear, you ^aworm Jacob, you men of Israel;

I will help you,” declares the Lord, “¹and ^byour Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵“Behold, I have made you a new, sharp threshing sledge with double edges;

^aYou will thresh the ^bmountains and pulverize them,

And will make the hills like chaff.

¹⁶“You will ^awinnow them, and the wind will carry them away,

And the storm will scatter them;

But you will ^brejoice in the Lord,

You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷“The ¹afflicted and needy are seeking ^awater, but there is none,

And their tongue is parched with thirst;

I, the Lord, ^bwill answer them Myself,

As the God of Israel I ^cwill not forsake them.

¹⁸“I will open ^arivers on the bare heights

And springs in the midst of the valleys;

I will make ^bthe wilderness a pool of water

And the dry land fountains of water.

¹⁹“I will put the cedar in the wilderness,

The acacia and the ^amyrtle and the ¹olive tree;

I will place the juniper in the desert

Together with the box tree and the cypress,

²⁰That ^athey may see and recognize,

And consider and gain insight as well,

That the ^bhand of the Lord has done this,

And the Holy One of Israel has created it.

²¹“¹Present your case,” the Lord says.

“Bring forward your strong arguments,”

The ^aKing of Jacob says.

^22aLet them bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place;

As for the ^bformer events, declare what they were,

That we may consider them and know their outcome.

Or announce to us what is coming;

^23aDeclare the things that are going to come afterward,

That we may know that you are gods;

Indeed, ^bdo good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together.

²⁴Behold, ^ayou are of ¹no account,

And ^byour work amounts to nothing;

He who chooses you is an ^cabomination.

²⁵“I have aroused ^aone from the north, and he has come;

From the rising of the sun he will call on My name;

And he will come upon rulers as upon ^bmortar,

Even as the potter treads clay.”

²⁶Who has ^adeclared this from the beginning, that we might know?

Or from former times, that we may say, “He is right!”?

Surely there was ^bno one who declared,

Surely there was no one who proclaimed,

Surely there was no one who heard your words.

²⁷“^aFormerly I said to Zion, ‘Behold, here they are.’

And to Jerusalem, ‘I will give a ^bmessenger of good news.’

²⁸“But ^awhen I look, there is no one,

And there is no ^bcounselor ¹among them

Who, if I ask, can ^cgive an answer.

²⁹“Behold, all of them are ¹false;

Their ^aworks are ^bworthless,

Their molten images are ^cwind and emptiness.

Chapter 42

God’s Promise concerning His Servant

¹“^aBehold, My ^bServant, whom I ¹uphold;

My ^cchosen one in whom My ^dsoul delights.

I have put My ^eSpirit upon Him;

He will bring forth ^fjustice to the ²nations.

²“He will not cry out or raise His voice,

Nor make His voice heard in the street.

³“A bruised reed He will not break

And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish;

He will faithfully bring forth ^ajustice.

⁴“He will not be ^adisheartened or crushed

Until He has established justice in the earth;

And the ^bcoastlands will wait expectantly for His ¹law.”

⁵Thus says God the Lord,

Who ^acreated the heavens and ^bstretched them out,

Who spread out the ^cearth and its ¹offspring,

Who ^dgives breath to the people on it

And spirit to those who walk in it,

⁶“I am the Lord, I have ^acalled You in righteousness,

I will also ^bhold You by the hand and ^cwatch over You,

And I will appoint You as a ^dcovenant to the people,

As a ^elight to the nations,

⁷To ^aopen blind eyes,

To ^bbring out prisoners from the dungeon

And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.

⁸“^aI am the Lord, that is ^bMy name;

I will not give My ^cglory to another,

Nor My praise to ¹graven images.

⁹“Behold, the ^aformer things have come to pass,

Now I declare ^bnew things;

Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.”

¹⁰Sing to the Lord a ^anew song,

Sing His praise from the ^bend of the earth!

^cYou who go down to the sea, and ^dall that is in it.

You ^eislands, and those who dwell on them.

¹¹Let the ^awilderness and its cities lift up their voices,

The settlements where ^bKedar inhabits.

Let the inhabitants of ^cSela sing aloud,

Let them shout for joy from the tops of the ^dmountains.

¹²Let them ^agive glory to the Lord

And declare His praise in the ^bcoastlands.

^13aThe Lord will go forth like a warrior,

He will arouse His ^bzeal like a man of war.

He will utter a shout, yes, He will raise a war cry.

He will ^cprevail against His enemies.

The Blindness of the People

¹⁴“^aI have kept silent for a long time,

I have kept still and restrained Myself.

Now like a woman in labor I will groan,

I will both gasp and pant.

¹⁵“I will ^alay waste the mountains and hills

And wither all their vegetation;

I will ^bmake the rivers into coastlands

And dry up the ponds.

¹⁶“I will ^alead the blind by a way they do not know,

In paths they do not know I will guide them.

I will ^bmake darkness into light before them

And ^crugged places into plains.

These are the things I will do,

And I will ^dnot leave them undone.”

¹⁷They will be turned back and be ^autterly put to shame,

Who trust in ¹idols,

Who say to molten images,

“You are our gods.”

^18aHear, you deaf!

And look, you blind, that you may see.

¹⁹Who is blind but My ^aservant,

Or so deaf as My ^bmessenger whom I send?

Who is so blind as he that is ^1cat peace with Me,

Or so blind as the servant of the Lord?

^20aYou have seen many things, but you do not observe them;

Your ears are open, but none hears.

²¹The Lord was pleased for His righteousness’ sake

To make the law ^agreat and glorious.

²²But this is a people plundered and despoiled;

All of them are ^atrapped in ¹caves,

Or are ^bhidden away in prisons;

They have become a prey with none to deliver them,

And a spoil, with none to say, “Give them back!”

²³Who among you will give ear to this?

Who will give heed and listen hereafter?

²⁴Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to plunderers?

Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned,

And in whose ways they ^awere not willing to walk,

And whose law they did not ^bobey?

²⁵So He poured out on him the heat of His anger

And the ^afierceness of battle;

And it set him aflame all around,

Yet he did not recognize it;

And it burned him, but he ^1bpaid no attention.

Chapter 43

Israel Redeemed

¹But now, thus says the Lord, your ^aCreator, O Jacob,

And He who ^bformed you, O Israel,

“Do not ^cfear, for I have ^dredeemed you;

I have ^ecalled you by name; you are ^fMine!

²“When you ^apass through the waters, ^bI will be with you;

And through the rivers, they will not overflow you.

When you ^cwalk through the fire, you will not be scorched,

Nor will the flame burn you.

³“For ^aI am the Lord your God,

The Holy One of Israel, your ^bSavior;

I have given Egypt as your ransom,

^1cCush and Seba in your place.

⁴“Since you are ^aprecious in My sight,

Since you are ^bhonored and I ^clove you,

I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life.

⁵“Do not fear, for ^aI am with you;

I will bring ^byour offspring from the east,

And ^cgather you from the west.

⁶“I will say to the ^anorth, ‘Give them up!’

And to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’

Bring My ^bsons from afar

And My daughters from the ^cends of the earth,

⁷Everyone who is ^acalled by My name,

And whom I have ^bcreated for My ^cglory,

^dWhom I have formed, even whom I have made.”

Israel Is God’s Witness

⁸Bring out the people who are ^ablind, even though they have eyes,

And the deaf, even though they have ears.

⁹All the nations have ^agathered together

So that the peoples may be assembled.

Who among them can ^bdeclare this

And proclaim to us the former things?

Let them present ^ctheir witnesses ^dthat they may be justified,

Or let them hear and say, “It is true.”

¹⁰“You are ^aMy witnesses,” declares the Lord,

“And ^bMy servant whom I have chosen,

So that you may know and believe Me

And understand that ^cI am He.

^dBefore Me there was no God formed,

And there will be none after Me.

¹¹“I, even I, am the Lord,

And there is no ^asavior ^bbesides Me.

¹²“It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed,

And there was no ^astrange god among you;

So you are My witnesses,” declares the Lord,

“And I am God.

¹³“Even ^1afrom…