Isaiah 41

1Be quiet before me, you islands! Let the peoples draw fresh strength; let them come near and then speak. Let us meet together for judgment.

2Who has roused one from the east, whom righteousness calls to follow at its heels? He hands nations over to him and makes him subdue kings; his sword leaves them like dust, his bow like drifting straw.

3He chases them and goes on unharmed, along a road his feet have never walked.

4Who has worked and accomplished this, summoning the generations from the start? I am Yahweh—the first, and with the last ones I am he.

5The islands saw it and took fright; the far ends of the earth shook; they drew near and came.

6Each one lends a hand to his neighbor and tells his brother, “Take courage!”

7The craftsman cheers on the goldsmith, and the one who beats metal smooth with a hammer cheers on the one who pounds the anvil. He says of the joint, “It is sound,” and he fixes it firmly with nails so that it will not totter.

8But you, Israel my servant, you, Jacob, the one I chose, you offspring of my friend Abraham,

9you whom I grasped from the far edges of the earth and summoned from its remotest parts, to whom I said, “You are my servant; I chose you and did not throw you away”—

10do not be afraid, for I am with you; do not look around in alarm, for I am your God. I will make you strong; yes, I will help you; yes, I will hold you up with the right hand of my righteousness.

11See, everyone who burns with anger at you will be shamed and humiliated; the people who contend with you will become like nothing and die out.

12You will search for those who fight you and not find them; those who make war on you will amount to nothing, to nothing whatsoever.

13For I am Yahweh your God, who grips your right hand and tells you, “Do not be afraid; I myself will help you.”

14Do not be afraid, Jacob, you worm, you little band of Israel. I will help you, declares Yahweh; the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer.

15Look, I am making you a threshing board, new and sharp-edged, with double-edged teeth; you will thresh mountains and grind them fine and turn hills into chaff.

16You will toss them into the air, the wind will sweep them off, and a gale will blow them apart; but you will be glad in Yahweh and boast in the Holy One of Israel.

17The afflicted and the poor search for water and find none; their tongues are dried out with thirst. I, Yahweh, will answer them; I, Israel’s God, will not leave them.

18On the bare hills I will open up rivers, and springs in the middle of the valleys; I will turn the wilderness into a pond and the parched land into flowing sources of water.

19In the wilderness I will plant cedar and acacia, myrtle and olive; in the desert I will set juniper, plane tree, and cypress side by side,

20so that people will see it and know it, will take it to heart and grasp it together: the hand of Yahweh has done this; the Holy One of Israel created it.

21Bring your case forward, says Yahweh; lay out your best arguments, says the King of Jacob.

22Let them come forward and make known to us what is going to happen. The earlier things—tell us what they were, so we can give them thought and learn how they ended; or let us hear what is coming.

23Tell us the things that will come later, so we may know you are gods. Do something, whether good or harmful, so we may stare in alarm and see it together.

24See, you amount to nothing, and what you do is empty; the person who chooses you is loathsome.

25I have roused one from the north, and he has arrived—from where the sun rises, one who calls on my name. He comes upon rulers as if they were mortar, the way a potter stamps on clay.

26Who announced this from the start so we could know it, or long before, so we could say, “He was right”? No one announced it, no one made it heard, no one heard a word from you.

27I first said to Zion, “See, there they are!” and to Jerusalem I give a messenger of good news.

28I look, and no one is there; among them there is no adviser who can reply when I question them.

29See, all of them are a sham; what they make is nothing; their cast images are just wind and nothingness.