Isaiah 41

¹ Islands, keep silence before me, let the people renew their strength. Let them come forward and speak, let us appear together for judgement.

² ‘Who roused from the east him that victory hails at every step? Who presents him with nations, subdues kings to him? His sword makes dust of them and his bow scatters them like straw.

³ ‘He pursues them and advances unhindered, his feet scarcely touching the road.

⁴ ‘Who is the author of this deed if not he who calls the generations from the beginning? I, Yahweh, who am the first and shall be with the last.’

⁵ The islands see him and take fright, the limits of the earth tremble: they approach, they are here.

⁶ Men help one another, they say to each other, ‘Take heart!’

⁷ The craftsman encourages the goldsmith, the man who beats out with the hammer encourages the man who strikes the anvil. Of the soldering he says, ‘It is sound’, and fastens the idol with nails to keep it steady.[*b]

⁸ You, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham my friend.

⁹ You whom I brought from the confines of the earth and called from the ends of the world; you to whom I said, ‘You are my servant, I have chosen you, not rejected you’,

¹⁰ do not be afraid, for I am with you; stop being anxious and watchful, for I am your God. I give you strength, I bring you help, I uphold you with my victorious right hand.

¹¹ Yes, all those who raged against you, shall be put to shame and confusion; they who fought against you shall be destroyed, and perish.

¹² You will seek but never find them, those enemies of yours. They shall be destroyed and brought to nothing, those who made war on you.

¹³ For I, Yahweh, your God, I am holding you by the right hand; I tell you, ‘Do not be afraid, I will help you’.

¹⁴ Do not be afraid, Jacob, poor worm, Israel, puny mite. I will help you – it is Yahweh who speaks – the Holy One of Israel is your redeemer.

¹⁵ See, I turn you into a threshing-sled, new, with doubled teeth; you shall thresh and crush the mountains, and turn the hills to chaff.

¹⁶ You shall winnow them and the wind will blow them away, the gale will scatter them.

¹⁷ The poor and needy ask for water, and there is none, their tongue is parched with thirst. I, Yahweh, will answer them, I, the God of Israel, will not abandon them.

¹⁸ I will make rivers well up on barren heights, and fountains in the midst of valleys; turn the wilderness into a lake, and dry ground into waterspring.

¹⁹ In the wilderness I will put cedar trees, acacias, myrtles, olives. In the desert I will plant juniper, plane tree and cypress side by side;

²⁰ so that men may see and know, may all observe and understand that the hand of Yahweh has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.

²¹ ‘Produce your defence’, says Yahweh ‘present your case’ says Jacob’s king.

²² ‘Let them come forward and tell us what is going to happen next. What could they tell us of the past to make it worth our notice? Or will you discourse to us of future things and let us know their outcome?

²³ Tell us what is to happen in the future, and so convince us you are gods. Do something at least so that we can note it and all see it.

²⁴ No, you are nothing and your works are nothingness; to choose you would be an outrage.’

²⁵ I roused him from the north to come, from the rising sun I summoned him by name. He has trampled the satraps like mortar, like a potter treading clay.

²⁶ Who predicted this from the beginning so we might know it, who foretold it long ago so we might say, ‘It is right’? No one predicted it, no, no one proclaimed it, no, no one heard you speak.

²⁷ I had said in Zion beforehand, ‘Here they come!’ I had sent a bearer of good news to Jerusalem.

²⁸ I looked, but there was no one, there was not a single counsellor among them who, if I asked, could give an answer.

²⁹ Taken altogether they are nothing; their works are nothingness, their images wind and emptiness.