41
1 “Keep silent before me, islands, and let the peoples renew their strength.
Let them approach and then speak;
let us draw near together for judgment.
2 Who has stirred up one from the east, calling him in righteousness to his feet?
He gives nations before him and makes him rule over kings.
He makes them like dust before his sword, like driven stubble before his bow.
3 He pursues them and passes on safely, by a path his feet had not traveled.
4 Who has acted and done this, calling the generations from the beginning?
I, the LORD, the first, and with the last, I am he.”
5 The islands see and fear;
the ends of the earth tremble.
They draw near and come.
6 Each helps his neighbor and says to his brother, “Be strong!”
7 The craftsman encourages the goldsmith, and the one who smooths with the hammer the one who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, “It is good.”
He fastens it with nails so that it will not totter.
8 “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham my friend,
9 you whom I took from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest corners, I said to you, ‘You are my servant;
I have chosen you and have not rejected you.’
10 Do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
11 Look, all who rage against you will be ashamed and disgraced;
those who contend with you will become nothing and perish.
12 You will seek those who quarrel with you and will not find them;
those who wage war against you will become as nothing, as a thing of naught.
13 For I am the LORD your God, who holds your right hand, who says to you, ‘Do not fear;
I will help you.’
14 Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel.
I will help you,” declares the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
15 “Look, I have made you a new, sharp threshing sledge with teeth.
You will thresh mountains and crush them, and make hills like chaff.
16 You will winnow them, the wind will carry them away, and the tempest will scatter them.
But you will rejoice in the LORD and glory in the Holy One of Israel.
17 The poor and needy seek water, but there is none;
their tongues are parched with thirst.
I, the LORD, will answer them;
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
18 I will open rivers on the bare heights and springs in the midst of valleys.
I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
19 I will put cedars, acacias, myrtles, and olive trees in the wilderness.
I will set cypresses, elms, and box trees together in the desert,
20 so that they may see and know, consider and understand together, that the hand of the LORD has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it.
21 Present your case,” says the LORD.
“Bring forward your arguments,” says the King of Jacob.
22 “Let them bring them forward and tell us what will happen.
Tell us what the former things were, so that we may consider them and know their outcome;
or let us hear what is coming.
23 Tell us what will happen afterward, so that we may know you are gods.
Do good or do harm, so that we may be dismayed and see it together.
24 Look, you are less than nothing, and your work is worthless;
whoever chooses you is an abomination.
25 I have stirred up one from the north, and he has come;
from the rising of the sun he will call on my name.
He will come upon rulers as upon mortar, like a potter trampling clay.
26 Who declared it from the beginning, so that we might know, or beforehand, so that we might say, ‘He is right’?
Indeed, no one declares it, no one proclaims it, and no one hears your words.
27 I was the first to say to Zion, ‘Look, here they are!’ And I will give Jerusalem a bearer of good news.
28 I look, but there is no one;
among these there is no counselor whom I can question and who can answer a word.
29 Look, all of them are falsehood;
their works are nothing.
Their cast images are wind and emptiness.”