Isaiah 41–63

The Lord Will Help Israel

41The Lord says, “Faraway countries, listen to me.

Let the nations become strong.

Come to me and speak;

we will meet together to decide who is right.

²“Who caused the one to come from the east?

Who gives him victories everywhere he goes?

The one who brought him gives nations over to him

and defeats kings.

He uses his sword, and kings become like dust.

He uses his bow, and they are blown away like chaff.

³He chases them and is never hurt,

going places he has never been before.

⁴Who caused this to happen?

Who has controlled history since the beginning?

I, the Lord, am the one. I was here at the beginning,

and I will be here when all things are finished.”

⁵All you faraway places, look and be afraid;

all you places far away on the earth, shake with fear.

Come close and listen to me.

⁶The workers help each other

and say to each other, “Be strong!”

⁷The craftsman encourages the goldsmith,

and the workman who smooths the metal with a hammer encourages the one who shapes the metal.

He says, “This metal work is good.”

He nails the statue to a base so it can’t fall over.

Only the Lord Can Save Us

⁸The Lord says, “People of Israel, you are my servants.

People of Jacob, I chose you.

You are from the family of my friend Abraham.

⁹I took you from places far away on the earth

and called you from a faraway country.

I said, ‘You are my servants.’

I have chosen you and have not turned against you.

¹⁰So don’t worry, because I am with you.

Don’t be afraid, because I am your God.

I will make you strong and will help you;

I will support you with my right hand that saves you.

¹¹“All those people who are angry with you

will be ashamed and disgraced.

Those who are against you

will disappear and be lost.

¹²You will look for your enemies,

but you will not find them.

Those who fought against you

will vanish completely.

¹³I am the Lord your God,

who holds your right hand,

and I tell you, ‘Don’t be afraid.

I will help you.’

¹⁴You few people of Israel who are left,

do not be afraid even though you are weak as a worm.

I myself will help you,” says the Lord.

“The one who saves you is the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵Look, I have made you like a new threshing board

with many sharp teeth.

So you will walk on mountains and crush them;

you will make the hills like chaff.

¹⁶You will throw them into the air, and the wind will carry them away;

a windstorm will scatter them.

Then you will be happy in the Lord;

you will be proud of the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷“The poor and needy people look for water,

but they can’t find any.

Their tongues are dry with thirst.

But I, the Lord, will answer their prayers;

I, the God of Israel, will not leave them to die.

¹⁸I will make rivers flow on the dry hills

and springs flow through the valleys.

I will change the desert into a lake of water

and the dry land into fountains of water.

¹⁹I will make trees grow in the desert—

cedars, acacia, myrtle, and olive trees.

I will put pine, fir, and cypress trees

growing together in the desert.

²⁰People will see these things and understand;

they will think carefully about these things and learn

that the Lord’s power did this,

that the Holy One of Israel made these things.”

The Lord Challenges False Gods

²¹The Lord says, “Present your case.”

The King of Jacob says, “Tell me your arguments.

²²Bring in your idols to tell us

what is going to happen.

Have them tell us what happened in the beginning.

Then we will think about these things,

and we will know how they will turn out.

Or tell us what will happen in the future.

²³Tell us what is coming next

so we will believe that you are gods.

Do something, whether it is good or bad,

and make us afraid.

²⁴You gods are less than nothing;

you can’t do anything.

Those who worship you should be hated.

²⁵“I have brought someone to come out of the north ⁿ

I have called by name a man from the east, and he knows me.

He walks on kings as if they were mud,

just as a potter walks on the clay.

²⁶Who told us about this before it happened?

Who told us ahead of time so we could say, ‘He was right’?

None of you told us anything;

none of you told us before it happened;

no one heard you tell about it.

²⁷I, the Lord, was the first one to tell Jerusalem that the people were coming home.

I sent a messenger to Jerusalem with the good news.

²⁸I look at the idols, but there is not one that can answer.

None of them can give advice;

none of them can answer my questions.

²⁹Look, all these idols are false.

They cannot do anything;

they are worth nothing.

The Lord’s Special Servant

42“Here is my servant, the one I support.

He is the one I chose, and I am pleased with him.

I have put my Spirit upon him,

and he will bring justice to all nations.

²He will not cry out or yell

or speak loudly in the streets.

³He will not break a crushed blade of grass

or put out even a weak flame.

He will truly bring justice;

⁴he will not lose hope or give up

until he brings justice to the world.

And people far away will trust his teachings.”

⁵God, the Lord, said these things.

He created the skies and stretched them out.

He spread out the earth and everything on it.

He gives life to all people on earth,

to everyone who walks on the earth.

⁶The Lord says, “I, the Lord, called you to do right,

and I will hold your hand

and protect you.

You will be the sign of my agreement with the people,

a light to shine for all people.

⁷You will help the blind to see.

You will free those who are in prison,

and you will lead those who live in darkness out of their prison.

⁸“I am the Lord. That is my name.

I will not give my glory to another;

I will not let idols take the praise that should be mine.

⁹The things I said would happen have happened,

and now I tell you about new things.

Before those things happen,

I tell you about them.”

A Song of Praise to the Lord

¹⁰Sing a new song to the Lord;

sing his praise everywhere on the earth.

Praise him, you people who sail on the seas and you animals who live in them.

Praise him, you people living in faraway places.

¹¹The deserts and their cities should praise him.

The settlements of Kedar should praise him.

The people living in Sela should sing for joy;

they should shout from the mountaintops.

¹²They should give glory to the Lord.

People in faraway lands should praise him.

¹³The Lord will march out like a strong soldier;

he will be excited like a man ready to fight a war.

He will shout out the battle cry

and defeat his enemies.

¹⁴The Lord says, “For a long time I have said nothing;

I have been quiet and held myself back.

But now I will cry out

and strain like a woman giving birth to a child.

¹⁵I will destroy the hills and mountains

and dry up all their plants.

I will make the rivers become dry land

and dry up the pools of water.

¹⁶Then I will lead the blind along a way they never knew;

I will guide them along paths they have not known.

I will make the darkness become light for them,

and the rough ground smooth.

These are the things I will do;

I will not leave my people.

¹⁷But those who trust in idols,

who say to their statues,

‘You are our gods’

will be rejected in disgrace.

Israel Refused to Listen to the Lord

¹⁸“You who are deaf, hear me.

You who are blind, look and see.

¹⁹No one is more blind than my servant Israel

or more deaf than the messenger I send.

No one is more blind than the person I own

or more blind than the servant of the Lord.

²⁰Israel, you have seen much, but you have not obeyed.

You hear, but you refuse to listen.”

²¹The Lord made his teachings wonderful,

because he is good.

²²These people have been defeated and robbed.

They are trapped in pits

or locked up in prison.

Like robbers, enemies have taken them away,

and there is no one to save them.

Enemies carried them off,

and no one said, “Bring them back.”

²³Will any of you listen to this?

Will you listen carefully in the future?

²⁴Who let the people of Jacob be carried off?

Who let robbers take Israel away?

The Lord allowed this to happen,

because we sinned against him.

We did not live the way he wanted us to live

and did not obey his teaching.

²⁵So he became very angry with us

and brought terrible wars against us.

It was as if the people of Israel had fire all around them,

but they didn’t know what was happening.

It was as if they were burning,

but they didn’t pay any attention.

God Is Always with His People

43Now this is what the Lord says.

He created you, people of Jacob;

he formed you, people of Israel.

He says, “Don’t be afraid, because I have saved you.

I have called you by name, and you are mine.

²When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.

When you cross rivers, you will not drown.

When you walk through fire, you will not be burned,

nor will the flames hurt you.

³This is because I, the Lord, am your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

I gave Egypt to pay for you,

and I gave Cush and Seba to make you mine.

⁴Because you are precious to me,

because I give you honor and love you,

I will give other people in your place;

I will give other nations to save your life.

⁵Don’t be afraid, because I am with you.

I will bring your children from the east

and gather you from the west.

⁶I will tell the north: Give my people to me.

I will tell the south: Don’t keep my people in prison.

Bring my sons from far away

and my daughters from faraway places.

⁷Bring to me all the people who are mine,

whom I made for my glory,

whom I formed and made.”

Judah Is God’s Witness

⁸Bring out the people who have eyes but don’t see

and those who have ears but don’t hear.

⁹All the nations gather together,

and all the people come together.

Which of their gods said this would happen?

Which of their gods can tell what happened in the beginning?

Let them bring their witnesses to prove they were right.

Then others will say, “It is true.”

¹⁰The Lord says, “You are my witnesses

and the servant I chose.

I chose you so you would know and believe me,

so you would understand that I am the true God.

There was no God before me,

and there will be no God after me.

¹¹I myself am the Lord;

I am the only Savior.

¹²I myself have spoken to you, saved you, and told you these things.

It was not some foreign god among you.

You are my witnesses, and I am God,”

says the Lord.

¹³“I have always been God.

No one…