Isaiah 41

1Coastlands, be still and listen to me; let the peoples find new strength. Let them step forward and then speak. Come, we will go to court together. 2Who has roused a man from the east, one whom righteousness summons at every step? He gives up nations to him and makes him master of kings. His sword reduces them to dust; his bow scatters them like chaff in the wind. 3He hunts them down and goes on safely, by a road his feet had never walked. 4Who has worked and achieved this? Who summoned the generations at the very start? I, the LORD, am the first, and with the last I am still he. 5The coastlands watched and grew afraid; the ends of the earth began to shake. They came near; they gathered. 6They lend one another a hand; each says to the next, “Stay strong!” 7The woodworker cheers on the metalworker; the one who flattens metal with the hammer urges on the one who pounds the anvil. “The joint is sound,” he says of the soldering, and he fixes the idol in place with nails so it will not topple.

8But you, Israel, are my servant; you, Jacob, are the one I have chosen, the descendants of my friend Abraham. 9I grasped you and brought you from the ends of the earth; from its remotest corners I summoned you. I said to you, “You are my servant. I have chosen you; I have not thrown you away.” 10Do not be afraid, for I am with you; do not glance about in alarm, for I am your God. I give you strength; yes, I bring you help; yes, I hold you up with my right hand, the hand of my righteousness. 11Look! Everyone who burns with anger against you will be put to shame and disgraced. Those who quarrel with you will come to nothing and be lost. 12You will look for those who quarrel with you, but you will not find them. Those who go to war against you will be like nothing, like what does not exist. 13For I, the LORD your God, have hold of your right hand; I am the one telling you, “Do not be afraid. I will help you myself.”

14Do not be afraid, Jacob, worm that you are, you small band of Israel! I am the one who will help you, declares the LORD. The Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer. 15See, I am making you into a threshing sledge, sharp and new, its teeth double-edged. You will tread the mountains and pound them to bits; you will turn the hills to chaff. 16You will winnow them; the wind will lift them away and the storm will scatter them far. And you will be glad in the LORD; you will take pride in the Holy One of Israel.

17The afflicted and the poor hunt for water and find none; thirst has dried their tongues. I, the LORD, will answer them; I, Israel’s God, will never leave them. 18On the bare heights I will open up rivers, and springs in the middle of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool and the dry land a place of flowing springs. 19In the wilderness I will plant cedar and acacia, myrtle and wild olive; in the desert plain I will put the juniper, the elm and the box tree side by side. 20All this is so that people will see and know, will ponder and understand together, that it was the hand of the LORD that did this, and the Holy One of Israel who created it.

21Bring your lawsuit forward, says the LORD; produce your strongest proofs, says the King of Jacob. 22Let them step up and announce to us what will come about. The earlier events, what were they? Explain them, so that we may weigh them and learn where they led. Or else let us hear of what is coming. 23Announce what lies ahead in time to come, and we will know that you are gods. Go on, act; bring good or bring harm, so that we may stare in alarm and all see it together. 24Look at you! You came from nothing, and your work is worthless air. Whoever chooses you becomes detestable. 25I have roused someone in the north, and he is on his way; out of the sunrise he will call on my name. He will march over governors as over mud, the way a potter stamps down wet clay. 26Who made this known at the start, for us to recognize? Who spoke of it in advance, so that we might say, “Correct”? There was not one to tell it, not one to announce it, not one who heard a word from you. 27I was first to say to Zion, “See, they are here!” To Jerusalem I send a herald with good news. 28When I look, there is nobody. Among these there is not one adviser, no one I can question who can give me an answer. 29See, they are all a delusion; what they do is nothing; their cast images are wind and emptiness.