Old/New Testament

41 Eternal One: Keep quiet and listen to Me, lands along the seacoast;
        give the people of the nations a chance to regain their strength.
    Let them come close, all together, to speak their minds and present their case;
        let’s consider the facts and make a judgment.
²     Who brought up this eastern hero? Who called up his justice service?
        He lays nations at his feet and makes an end of their kings.
    With a thrust of his sword and the bend of his bow,
        this hero turns kings and their armies into dust.
³     With agility and speed unmatched, he chases them down
        and is himself unscathed, even though he is passing over unfamiliar land.
⁴     Who has performed these deeds and accomplished this purpose?
        Who calls each generation into being from the first on down?

It is I, the Eternal One your God.
    I am the first.
    And to the very last, I am the One.

⁵ The lands along the seacoast have seen and are scared.
    The ends of earth take to shaking and yet still they draw near.
⁶ They try to bolster each other up saying,
    “Have courage, brother, have courage!”
⁷ Recognizing their mutual dependence, the artisan encourages the goldsmith;
    the one who hammers the metal emboldens the one who welds,
Saying, “Looks good! Fine job!” and fastens the idols together with nails,
    making it stand firm and stable.

⁸ Eternal One: But you, My servant, Israel,
        Jacob whom I have chosen and descendant of My friend, Abraham,
⁹     I have reached to wherever you are in the farthest corners of earth,
        and the most hidden places therein.
    I have called to you and said, “You are my servant.
        I have chosen you, not thrown you away!”
¹⁰     So don’t be afraid. I am here, with you;
        don’t be dismayed, for I am your God.
    I will strengthen you, help you.
        I am here with My right hand to make right and to hold you up.
¹¹     Look, everyone who hated you and sought to do you wrong
        will be embarrassed and confused.
    Whoever challenged you with hot-headed bluster
        will become as if they never were, and nevermore will be.
¹²     You may go looking for them, but you won’t find them;
        because those who tried to fight with you will become as if they never were.
¹³     After all, it is I, the Eternal One your God,
        who has hold of your right hand,
    Who whispers in your ear, “Don’t be afraid. I will help you.”

¹⁴ So don’t be afraid, Jacob, though you are nothing but a worm.
    People of Israel, you little bug, you have nothing to fear.

Eternal One: I will help you. I am One who saves you,
        the Holy One of Israel.
¹⁵     I will turn you into a formidable threshing sledge
        with brand new sharp blades that will mow down entire mountains
        and turn the hills into chaff.
¹⁶     You will separate value from waste, and a great wind
        and a strong storm will take away what is useless and unimportant.
    You will take joy in the Eternal.
        You will glow with pride in the Holy One of Israel.
¹⁷     And when people thirst, when those poor souls with parched tongues
        look in vain for something to drink,
    I, the Eternal, the God of Israel, won’t leave them to suffer. I will respond
¹⁸     By making the hard, brown hills sparkle with streams of fresh water
        and causing valleys to come alive with springs.
    I will see that gentle pools wait on the desert floor for the weary traveler,
        and great fountains bubble up from dry ground;
¹⁹     In the desert, I will plant cedars, woody acacias,
        myrtles, and olive trees.
    I will establish great cypresses to flourish in the desert places,
        plant oaks and pine trees side by side.

²⁰ They’ll see all this and understand. They’ll ponder together
    and come to know that it is the power of the Eternal One that produced this.
They will know that the Holy One of Israel created it.

²¹ Eternal One: Present your case. Lay out your arguments
        and call your witnesses to appear before the King of Jacob.

^22-23 Come on and bring your idols. Now tell us what is to come,
    and while you’re at it, tell us what happened before.
Can you explain to us so that we, too, may understand?
    Go ahead, tell us what the future holds.
Surely you can, if you are truly gods. Do good, or do bad.
    Just do something—anything—to amaze or frighten us.
²⁴ Sure enough, you are not gods; you are nothing at all.
    You have nothing to show for your work or yourselves.
Fools! Only fools would choose you to be their god. Detestable.

²⁵ Eternal One: I, the Lord, I have called up for service
        one from the north, and he comes from the rising sun
        and he will invoke My name.
    He will render rulers like mud under his shoes,
        trampling them down like so much clay.
²⁶     Did any of you gods tell us about this long ago, so we would know?
        Did any of you indicate to us that we might agree, “He is right”?
    No, no one told us. No one made an announcement, and no one hears what you say.
²⁷     I was the first to say to Zion, “Look, here they are!”
        I sent a messenger to announce the good news to Jerusalem.
²⁸     But I am looking, and there isn’t anyone.
        I have asked around, and no one knows, no one can tell Me.
²⁹     See here, all of these so-called gods are false;
        their works are nothing;
    These cast-metal images are like wind, sheer emptiness.

42 Eternal One: Look here, let Me present My servant;
        I have taken hold of him. He is My chosen, and I delight in him.
    I have put My Spirit on him; by this he will bring justice to the nations.

² Eternal One: He will not scream or yell,
        crying out for all to hear.
³     What is bruised and bent, he will not break;
        he will not blow out a smoldering candle.
    Rather, he will faithfully turn his attention to doing justice.
⁴     And though he faces obstacles, resistance, and great pressure,
        he will not crack; he will not give up until things are set right.
    Even the coastlands wait patiently for his instruction.

⁵ God, the Eternal One, who made the starry skies,
    stretched them tight above and around;
Who cast the shimmering globe of earth and filled it with life;
    who gives breath and animates the people;
Who walks and talks with life-giving spirit has this to say:

⁶ Eternal One: I am the Eternal One. By righteousness I have called you.
        I will take you by the hand and keep you safe.
    You are given as a covenant between Me and the people:
        a light for the nations, a shining beacon to the world.
⁷     You will open blind eyes so they will see again.
        You will lead prisoners, blinking, out from caverns of captivity,
        from cells pitch black with despair.
⁸     I am the Eternal One.
        I Am is My name.
        My beauty is unique, a weighty splendor all My own.
    And nothing else—no idols could possibly gain My praise.
⁹     Look here, what’s done is done and gone.
        The now is new, and there’s hope in the not-yet.
    I will tell you what’s to come, even before the events are brand-new.

¹⁰ So make up a song like none other. Sing a new song to the Eternal.
    And let His praise echo clear across the earth.
Let those who go to sea set sail with praise in the air.
    Let those who live along the waters’ edge sing His praise.
¹¹ Let desert places, urban and rural, wild and settled, sing!
    Let the settlements of Kedar and those in the craggy cliffs of Sela join in the celebration.
The peaks of mountains, too, raise your voices with a great, glad cry.
¹² Let them all give glory to the Eternal.
    Let them praise the One who is, was, and will be heard along the coasts.
¹³ As a hero throws himself into battle, the Eternal will take on His enemies;
    with passion, shouting out a deafening roar, He will power over them.

¹⁴ Eternal One: As a woman fiercely strains to give birth, I will gasp, pant, and cry out.
        I have been quiet for a long time; I have held back in the face of it all.
    Well, no more.
¹⁵     When My power is loosed, I will make level the heights
        and render them bare.
    I will dry up the rivers until bare islands appear,
        and empty the sweet water from the pools.
¹⁶     I will escort the blind down roads they do not know,
        guide them down paths they’ve never seen.
    I will smooth their passage and light their way.
        I will indeed do it—they are abandoned no more.

¹⁷ Meanwhile, those who put their stock in worthless images,
    who worship things impotent and breakable
And say to idols, “You are our gods,”
    will be turned away and mortified.

¹⁸ Eternal One: You, deaf to the world, hear!
        You, blind in your eyes, look! And you will see.
¹⁹     My servant is as blind as any.
        Who could be more deaf than the one who goes where I direct and tells what I want told?

Who is as blind as the one committed to do what the Eternal One wills,
    the servant of the Eternal?
²⁰ The seer-of-much nevertheless doesn’t get it;
    privy to sound and speech and tone, he still doesn’t hear.
²¹ On account of God’s goodness, His right ways and deeds,
    the Eternal was pleased to make the instruction grand and glorious.
²² But this people is compromised.
    They’ve been plundered and robbed.
    They have lost—things, liberty, place, and name.
They are all trapped in holes and tucked away in prisons.
    They’ve been plundered and depleted with none to the rescue.
They’ve been stolen away with none to insist, “Give them back.”
²³ Is there anyone who understands? Who, out of all of you, will pay attention,
    understand, and take note concerning what’s to come?

²⁴ Wasn’t it the Lord, because we turned our backs,
    who gave up Jacob’s descendants, Israel, for robbery and plunder?
We refused to live as God would have us live. We did not heed
    the instruction that God gave us through Moses so long ago.
²⁵ That’s why God sent all fury against Jacob
    in the shape of war, and we were burned.
    We experienced all this;
Yet we didn’t get it. God’s people did not take it to heart.