CHAPTER 41
1 Isles, be still to me, and folks change strength; nigh they, and then speak they; nigh we together to doom.
2 Who raised the just [or rightwise] man from the east, and called him to follow himself? He shall give folks in his sight, and he shall wield kings; he shall give as dust to his sword, and as stubble ravished of the wind to his bow.
3 He shall pursue them, he shall go in peace; a path shall not appear in his feet.
4 Who wrought and did these things? calling generations at the beginning. I am the Lord; and I am the first, and the last.
5 Isles saw, and dreaded; the last parts of [the] earth were astonied; they came nigh, and nighed.
6 Each man shall help his neighbour, and shall say to his brother, Be thou comforted.
7 A smith of metal smiting with an hammer comforted him that polished, either made fair, in that time, saying, It is good to [the] glue; and he fastened him with nails, that he should not be moved.
8 And thou, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I chose, the seed of Abraham, my friend,
9 in whom I took thee; from the last parts of [the] earth, and from the far parts thereof I called thee; and I said to thee, Thou art my servant; I chose thee, and casted not away thee.
10 Dread thou not, for I am with thee; bow thou not away, for I am thy God. I comforted thee, and helped thee; and the right hand of my just [or rightwise] man up-took thee.
11 Lo! all men shall be shamed, and shall be ashamed, that fight against thee; they shall be as if they be not, and men shall perish, that against-say thee.
12 Thou shalt seek them, and thou shalt not find thy rebel men; they shall be as if they be not, and as the wasting of a man fighting against thee.
13 For I am thy Lord God, taking thine hand, and saying to thee, Dread thou not, I helped thee.
14 Do not thou, worm of Jacob, dread, ye that be dead of Israel. I helped thee, saith the Lord, and thine again-buyer, the Holy of Israel.
15 I have set thee as a new wain threshing, having sawing bills; thou shalt thresh mountains, and shalt make small, and thou shalt set little hills as dust.
16 Thou shalt winnow them, and the wind shall take them away, and a whirlwind shall scatter them; and thou shalt make full out joy in the Lord, and thou shalt be glad in the Holy of Israel.
17 Needy men and poor seek waters, and those be not; the tongue of them dried for thirst. I the Lord shall hear them, I God of Israel shall not forsake them.
18 I shall open floods in high hills, and wells in the midst of fields; I shall set the desert into ponds of waters, and the land without a way into rivers of waters.
19 I shall give in wilderness a cedar, and a thorn, and a myrtle tree, and the tree of an olive; I shall set in the desert a fir tree, an elm, and a box tree together.
20 That they see, and know, and bethink, and understand together; that the hand of the Lord did this thing, and the Holy of Israel made that of nought.
21 Make ye nigh your doom, saith the Lord; bring ye, if in hap ye have anything, saith the King of Jacob.
22 Nigh, and tell to us, whatever things shall come; tell ye the former things that were, and we shall set our heart, and shall know; show ye to us the last things of them, and those things that shall come.
23 Tell ye what things shall come in time to coming [or to come], and we shall know, that ye be gods; also do ye well, either evil, if ye may; and speak we, and see we together.
24 Lo! ye be of nought, and your work is of that that is not; he that choose you, is abomination.
25 I raised from the north, and he shall come from the rising of the sun; he shall call my name. And he shall bring magistrates as clay, and as a potter defouling [the] earth.
26 Who told from the beginning, that we know, and from the beginning, that we say, Thou art just? none is telling, neither before-saying, neither hearing your words.
27 The first shall say to Zion, Lo! I am present; and I shall give a gospeller to Jerusalem.
28 And I saw, and none was of these, that took counsel, and he that was asked, answered a word.
29 Lo! all men be unjust, and their works be wind and vain; the simulacra of them be wind, and void thing.