The Lord Challenges the Nations

41:1 “Listen to me in silence, you coastlands!1

Let the nations find renewed strength!

Let them approach and then speak;

let us come together for debate!2

41:2 Who stirs up this one from the east?3

Who4 officially commissions him for service?5

He hands nations over to him,6

and enables him to subdue7 kings.

He makes them like dust with his sword,

like windblown straw with his bow.8

41:3 He pursues them and passes by unharmed;9

he advances with great speed.10

41:4 Who acts and carries out decrees?11

Who12 summons the successive generations from the beginning?

I, the Lord, am present at the very beginning,

and at the very end—I am the one.13

41:5 The coastlands14 see and are afraid;

the whole earth15 trembles;

they approach and come.

41:6 They help one another;16

one says to the other, ‘Be strong!’

41:7 The craftsman encourages the metalsmith,

the one who wields the hammer encourages17 the one who pounds on the anvil.

He approves the quality of the welding,18

and nails it down so it won’t fall over.”