Isaiah 41

New King James Version

Israel Assured of God’s Help

41 “Keep ^(A)silence before Me, O coastlands,
And let the people renew their strength!
Let them come near, then let them speak;
Let us ^(B)come near together for judgment.

²“Who raised up one ^(C)from the east?
Who in righteousness called him to His feet?
Who ^(D)gave the nations before him,
And made him rule over kings?
Who gave them as the dust to his sword,
As driven stubble to his bow?
³Who pursued them, and passed ^[a]safely
By the way that he had not gone with his feet?
⁴^(E)Who has performed and done it,
Calling the generations from the beginning?
‘I, the Lord, am ^(F)the first;
And with the last I am ^(G)He.’ ”

⁵The coastlands saw it and feared,
The ends of the earth were afraid;
They drew near and came.
⁶^(H)Everyone helped his neighbor,
And said to his brother,
^[b]“Be of good courage!”
⁷^(I)So the craftsman encouraged the ^(J)goldsmith;^[c]
He who smooths with the hammer inspired him who strikes the anvil,
Saying, ^[d]“It is ready for the soldering”;
Then he fastened it with pegs,
^(K)That it might not totter.

⁸“But you, Israel, are My servant,
Jacob whom I have ^(L)chosen,
The descendants of Abraham My ^(M)friend.
⁹You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth,
And called from its farthest regions,
And said to you,
‘You are My servant,
I have chosen you and have not cast you away:
¹⁰^(N)Fear not, ^(O)for I am with you;
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

¹¹“Behold, all those who were incensed against you
Shall be ^(P)ashamed and disgraced;
They shall be as nothing,
And those who strive with you shall perish.
¹²You shall seek them and not find them—
^[e]Those who contended with you.
Those who war against you
Shall be as nothing,
As a nonexistent thing.
¹³For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand,
Saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’

¹⁴“Fear not, you ^(Q)worm Jacob,
You men of Israel!
I will help you,” says the Lord
And your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
¹⁵“Behold, ^(R)I will make you into a new threshing sledge with sharp teeth;
You shall thresh the mountains and beat them small,
And make the hills like chaff.
¹⁶You shall ^(S)winnow them, the wind shall carry them away,
And the whirlwind shall scatter them;
You shall rejoice in the Lord,
And ^(T)glory in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷“The poor and needy seek water, but there is none,
Their tongues fail for thirst.
I, the Lord, will hear them;
I, the God of Israel, will not ^(U)forsake them.
¹⁸I will open ^(V)rivers in desolate heights,
And fountains in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the ^(W)wilderness a pool of water,
And the dry land springs of water.
¹⁹I will plant in the wilderness the cedar and the acacia tree,
The myrtle and the oil tree;
I will set in the ^(X)desert the cypress tree and the pine
And the box tree together,
²⁰^(Y)That they may see and know,
And consider and understand together,
That the hand of the Lord has done this,
And the Holy One of Israel has created it.

The Futility of Idols

²¹“Present your case,” says the Lord.
“Bring forth your strong reasons,” says the ^(Z)King of Jacob.
²²“Let^(AA) them bring forth and show us what will happen;
Let them show the ^(AB)former things, what they were,
That we may ^[f]consider them,
And know the latter end of them;
Or declare to us things to come.
²³^(AC)Show the things that are to come hereafter,
That we may know that you are gods;
Yes, ^(AD)do good or do evil,
That we may be dismayed and see it together.
²⁴Indeed ^(AE)you are nothing,
And your work is nothing;
He who chooses you is an abomination.

²⁵“I have raised up one from the north,
And he shall come;
From the ^[g]rising of the sun ^(AF)he shall call on My name;
^(AG)And he shall come against princes as though mortar,
As the potter treads clay.
²⁶^(AH)Who has declared from the beginning, that we may know?
And former times, that we may say, ‘He is righteous’?
Surely there is no one who shows,
Surely there is no one who declares,
Surely there is no one who hears your words.
²⁷^(AI)The first time ^(AJ)I said to Zion,
‘Look, there they are!’
And I will give to Jerusalem one who brings good tidings.
²⁸^(AK)For I looked, and there was no man;
I looked among them, but there was no counselor,
Who, when I asked of them, could answer a word.
²⁹^(AL)Indeed they are all ^[h]worthless;
Their works are nothing;
Their molded images are wind and confusion.

Footnotes

Isaiah 41:3 Lit. in peace
Isaiah 41:6 Lit. Be strong
Isaiah 41:7 refiner
Isaiah 41:7 Or The soldering is good
Isaiah 41:12 Lit. Men of your strife
Isaiah 41:22 Lit. set our heart on them
Isaiah 41:25 East
Isaiah 41:29 So with MT, Vg.; DSS, Syr., Tg. nothing; LXX omits first line

Isaiah 42

New King James Version

The Servant of the Lord

42 “Behold! ^(A)My Servant whom I uphold,
My ^[a]Elect One in whom My soul ^(B)delights!
^(C)I have put My Spirit upon Him;
He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.
²He will not cry out, nor raise His voice,
Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.
³A bruised reed He will not break,
And ^[b]smoking flax He will not ^[c]quench;
He will bring forth justice for truth.
⁴He will not fail nor be discouraged,
Till He has established justice in the earth;
^(D)And the coastlands shall wait for His law.”

⁵Thus says God the Lord,
^(E)Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it,
^(F)Who gives breath to the people on it,
And spirit to those who walk on it:
⁶“I,^(G) the Lord, have called You in righteousness,
And will hold Your hand;
I will keep You ^(H)and give You as a covenant to the people,
As ^(I)a light to the Gentiles,
⁷^(J)To open blind eyes,
To ^(K)bring out prisoners from the prison,
Those who sit in ^(L)darkness from the prison house.
⁸I am the Lord, that is My name;
And My ^(M)glory I will not give to another,
Nor My praise to carved images.
⁹Behold, the former things have come to pass,
And new things I declare;
Before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

Praise to the Lord

¹⁰^(N)Sing to the Lord a new song,
And His praise from the ends of the earth,
^(O)You who go down to the sea, and ^[d]all that is in it,
You coastlands and you inhabitants of them!
¹¹Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice,
The villages that Kedar inhabits.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing,
Let them shout from the top of the mountains.
¹²Let them give glory to the Lord,
And declare His praise in the coastlands.
¹³The Lord shall go forth like a mighty man;
He shall stir up His zeal like a man of war.
He shall cry out, ^(P)yes, shout aloud;
He shall prevail against His enemies.

Promise of the Lord’s Help

¹⁴“I have held My peace a long time,
I have been still and restrained Myself.
Now I will cry like a woman in ^[e]labor,
I will pant and gasp at once.
¹⁵I will lay waste the mountains and hills,
And dry up all their vegetation;
I will make the rivers coastlands,
And I will dry up the pools.
¹⁶I will bring the blind by a way they did not know;
I will lead them in paths they have not known.
I will make darkness light before them,
And crooked places straight.
These things I will do for them,
And not forsake them.
¹⁷They shall be ^(Q)turned back,
They shall be greatly ashamed,
Who trust in carved images,
Who say to the molded images,
‘You are our gods.’

¹⁸“Hear, you deaf;
And look, you blind, that you may see.
¹⁹^(R)Who is blind but My servant,
Or deaf as My messenger whom I send?
Who is blind as he who is perfect,
And blind as the Lord’s servant?
²⁰Seeing many things, ^(S)but you do not observe;
Opening the ears, but he does not hear.”

Israel’s Obstinate Disobedience

²¹The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake;
He will exalt the law and make it honorable.
²²But this is a people robbed and plundered;
All of them are ^[f]snared in holes,
And they are hidden in prison houses;
They are for prey, and no one delivers;
For plunder, and no one says, “Restore!”

²³Who among you will give ear to this?
Who will listen and hear for the time to come?
²⁴Who gave Jacob for plunder, and Israel to the robbers?
Was it not the Lord,
He against whom we have sinned?
^(T)For they would not walk in His ways,
Nor were they obedient to His law.
²⁵Therefore He has poured on him the fury of His anger
And the strength of battle;
^(U)It has set him on fire all around,
^(V)Yet he did not know;
And it burned him,
Yet he did not take it to ^(W)heart.