Isaiah 41

Revised Geneva Translation

41 “Keep silent before me, O islands, and let the people renew strength. Let them come near. And let them speak. Let us come together into judgment.

² “Who raised up justice from the East and called him to His Foot, gave the nations before him and subdued the kings? He gave them as dust to his sword, as scattered stubble to his bow.

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

⁴ “Who has wrought and done it? He Who calls the generations from the beginning. I, the LORD, am the first. And with the last I am the same.

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

⁶ “Every man helped his neighbor, and said to his brother, ‘Be strong.’

⁷ “So the workman comforted the refiner (he who struck with the hammer, and who struck the anvil) saying, ‘It is ready for soldering.’ And he fastened it with nails, so that it would not be moved.

⁸ “But you, Israel, are My servant, you, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, My friend.

⁹ “For I have taken you from the ends of the Earth and called you before its chief and said to you, ‘You are My servant. I have chosen you and not cast you away.

¹⁰ ‘Fear not. For I am with you. Do not be afraid. For I am your God. I will strengthen you, and help you, and will sustain you with the right hand of My justice.’

¹¹ “Behold, all those who provoke you shall be ashamed and confounded. They shall be as nothing. And those who strive with you shall perish.

¹² “You shall seek them and shall not find them. The men of your strife, they shall be as nothing, and the men who war against you as a non-existent thing.

¹³ “For I, the LORD your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, ‘Do not fear. I will help you.

¹⁴ ‘Do not fear, worm Jacob, you men of Israel. I will help you,’ says the LORD, and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵ “Behold, I will make you a thresher, and a new threshing sled having teeth. You shall thresh the mountains and bring them to powder, and shall make the hills as chaff.

¹⁶ “You shall fan them and the wind shall carry them away and the whirlwind shall scatter them. And you shall rejoice in the LORD, shall glory in the Holy One of Israel.

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

¹⁸ “I will open rivers on the tops of the hills, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness as a pool of water, and the wasteland as springs of water.

¹⁹ “I will set the cedar in the wilderness, the Shittah, and the myrtle tree, and the pine tree. I will set the fir tree in the wilderness, the elm and the box tree, together.

²⁰ “Therefore, let them see and know. And let them consider and understand together that the Hand of the LORD has done this. And the Holy One of Israel has created it.

²¹ “‘Stand to your cause,’ says the LORD, ‘Bring forth your strong reasons,’ says the King of Jacob.

²² “Let them bring them forth. And let them tell us what shall come. Let them show the former things, what they were, so that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them. Or declare to us things to come.

²³ “Show the things that are to come hereafter, so that we may know that you are gods. Yea, do good or do evil, so that we may see it and look away together.

²⁴ “Behold, you are of no value. And you are made nothing, having chosen an abomination by them.

²⁵ “I have raised up from the North, and he shall come. From the East Sun shall he call upon My Name, and shall come upon princes as upon clay, and as the potter treads mire underfoot.

²⁶ “Who has declared from the beginning, so that we may know, or before time, so 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 “I am the First, Who says to Zion, ‘Look! Look at them!’ And I will give to Jerusalem one who shall bring good tidings.

²⁸ “But when I looked, there was no one. And when I inquired of them, there was no counselor. And when I demanded of them, they did not answer a word.

²⁹ “Behold, they are all wickedness. Their work is nothing. Their images are wind and confusion.”