Isaiah 41

God Helps Israel

¹Listen to me in silence, coastlands,

Let them approach, then let them speak;

²Who has roused salvation from the east,

gives nations in his presence,

He makes them like the dust with his sword,

³He pursues them and passes on in peace;

⁴Who has accomplished and done this,

I, Yahweh, am first;

⁵The coastlands have seen and are afraid;

They have drawn near,

⁶Each one helps his neighbor;[#Hebrew “help”]

⁷And the artisan encourages the goldsmith,[#Literally “refiner”]

saying of the soldering, “It is good!”

⁸But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen,[#Or “And”]

⁹you whom I grasped from the ends of the earth

and told, “You are my servant;

¹⁰You must not fear, for I am with you;

I will strengthen you, indeed I will help you,

¹¹Look! All those who are angry with you shall be ashamed and humiliated;

¹²You shall seek them,

your opponents shall be like nothing,

¹³For I, Yahweh your God, am grasping your right hand;

“You must not fear;

¹⁴You must not fear, O worm of Jacob;

declares Yahweh,

“and your redeemer is the holy one of Israel.

¹⁵Look! I will make you into a new sharp threshing sledge,

You shall thresh and crush the mountains,

¹⁶You shall winnow them and the wind shall carry them,

And you yourself shall rejoice in Yahweh;

¹⁷The poor and the needy are seeking water and there is none;

I, Yahweh, will answer them;

¹⁸I will open rivers on the barren heights

I will make the wilderness like a pool of water

¹⁹I will put the cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive oil tree in the wilderness;[#Literally “give”]

²⁰so that they may see and know,

that the hand of Yahweh has done this,

²¹“Present your legal case,” says Yahweh.

²²Let them bring them,

Tell us what the former things are

Declare to us the things to come;

Indeed, do good or do evil,

²⁴Look! you are nothing,

²⁵I stirred up one from the north,

He shall call on my name,

and he shall come on officials as on mortar,

²⁶Who declared it from the beginning so that we might know,[#Literally “head”; #Or “and”]

Indeed, there was no one who declared it;

²⁷First to Zion, look! Look at them!

And I give a herald of good tidings to Jerusalem.

²⁸But I look and there is no man,[#Or “And”]

²⁹Look! All of them are deception;