Isaiah 41

1 “Keep silence before Me, O islands; and let the people renew their strength; let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment.

2 Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to His foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? He gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow.

3 He pursued them, and passed safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet.

4 Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? ‘I יהוה, the first, and with the last; I am He.’”

5 The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came.

6 They helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to his brother, “Be of good courage!”

7 So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer, him that smote the anvil, saying, “It is ready for the sodering”; and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.

8 But you, Yisrael, art My servant, Jacob (Yaaqov) whom I have chosen, the seed of Avraham My friend.

9 You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called you from the chief men thereof, and said unto you, ‘You are My servant; I have chosen you, and not cast you away;

10 Fear you not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God (Elohim): I will strengthen you; yea, I will help you; yea, I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness.’

11 Behold, all they that were incensed against you shall be ashamed and confounded; they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with you shall perish.

12 You shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with you; they that war against you shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.

13 For I יהוה your God (Elohim) will hold your right hand, saying unto you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’

14 “Fear not, you worm Jacob (Yaaqov), and you men of Yisrael; I will help you,” saith יהוה, and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Yisrael.

15 Behold, I will make you a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth; you shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.

16 You shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them; and you shalt rejoice in יהוה, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Yisrael.

17 When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I יהוה will hear them, I the God of Israel (Elohei Yisrael) will not forsake them.

18 I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.

19 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together,

20 That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of יהוה hath done this, and the Holy One of Yisrael hath created it.

21 “Present your case,” saith יהוה. “Bring forth your strong reasons,” saith the King of Jacob (Yaaqov).

22 “Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen; let them shew the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come.

23 Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are God (Elohim); yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.

24 Behold, you are of nothing, and your work of nought; an abomination is he that chooseth you.

25 I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come; from the rising of the sun shall he call upon My name; and he shall come upon princes as upon morter, and as the potter treadeth clay.

26 Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? And beforetime, that we may say, ‘He is righteous?’ Yea, there is none that sheweth, yea, there is none that declareth, yea, there is none that heareth your words.

27 The first shall say to Zion (Tsiyon), ‘Behold, there they are; and I will give to Jerusalem (Yerushalayim) one that bringeth good tidings.

28 For I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, and there was no counsellor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word.

29 Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing; their molten images are wind and confusion.