CHAPTER 41
1Be still for me, you coastlands,
and let nations renew their vigor.
Let them draw near, then let them speak.
Together let us come to trial.
2Who has stirred up victory from the east
called it to His feet?
He sets down before Him nations
and holds sway over kings,
turns their sword into dust,
like driven chaff their bow.
3He pursues them, moves on safe and sound,
He touches no path with His feet.
4Who has enacted and done it,
calling the generations from the first?—
“I the LORD am the first,
and with the last ones it is I.”
5The coastlands have seen and feared,
the ends of the earth have trembled,
they have drawn near and have come.
6[Each man helps his fellow
and to his brother says, “Be strong.”
7And the craftsman strengthens the smith,
the hammer wielder—the anvil pounder.
He says to the glue, “It is good,”
and strengthens it with nails that it not totter.]
8As for you, O Israel, My servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
seed of Abraham My friend,
9whom I took up from the ends of the earth
and called forth from its nobles
and said to you, “You are My servant,
I have chosen you and have not despised you.
10Do not fear, for I am with you,
do not be frightened, for I am your God.
I have sustained you, also have helped you,
also have stayed you up with My triumphant right hand.
11Look, they shall be shamed and disgraced,
all who are incensed against you,
they shall be as naught and shall perish,
those who contend with you.
12You shall seek them and shall not find them,
those who battle with you.
They shall be as naught and as nothing,
those who war against you.
13For I am the LORD your God,
holding your right hand,
saying to you, Do not fear,
I am helping you.
14Do not fear, O worm of Jacob,
men of Israel.
I am helping you, says the LORD,
and your Redeemer, Israel’s Holy One.
15Look, I have made you a threshing board
You shall thresh mountains and grind them to dust,
and turn hills into chaff.
16You shall winnow them—the wind shall bear them off,
and the storm shall scatter them.
But you shall be glad in the LORD,
in Israel’s Holy One you shall exult.
17The poor and the needy seek water and there is none,
their tongues are parched with thirst.
I the LORD will answer them,
God of Israel, I will not forsake them.
18I will open rivers on the peaks
and wellsprings in the valleys.
I will turn desert into ponds of water
and parched land into water sources.
19I will put cedars in the desert,
acacia and myrtle and wild olive tree.
I will put cypress in the wilderness,
20So they may see and know
and take to heart and grasp together,
that the hand of the LORD has done this,
and Israel’s Holy One has created it.”
21Bring out your case, says the LORD,
make your brief, says Jacob’s King.
22Let them bring out and tell us
that which will come about,
the first things, what are they, tell,
that we may pay heed and know the future,
what is to come make us hear.
23Tell the signs in advance
that we may know that you are gods.
Do either good or evil,
that we may be frightened and fear as well.
24Why, you are as naught
and your deeds are as nothing—
an abhorrence, who would choose you?
25I have roused him from the north, he has come,
from sunrise he invokes my name,
and he stomps on governors like mud,
as a potter tramples clay.
26Who has told from the first that we might know,
from beforehand that we might say, he is right?
But none has told, none has announced,
but none has heard Your sayings.
27First for Zion, here they are,
and for Jerusalem will I set a herald.
28I looked but there was no man,
whom I could ask and have them answer.
Their deeds are nothing,