Isaiah 41

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.