God Helps Israel

• 41 Listen to me in silence, coastlands,
  • and let nations renew their strength.
• Let them approach, then let them speak;
  • let us draw near together for judgment.
• 2 Who has roused salvation from the east,
  • summoned[fn] him to his foot,
• gives nations in his presence ,[fn]
  • and subjugates kings?
• He makes[fn] them like the dust with his sword,
  • like scattered stubble with his bow.
• 3 He pursues them and passes on in peace;
  • he does not enter the path with his feet.
• 4 Who has accomplished and done this,
  • calling the generations from the beginning ?[fn]
• I, Yahweh, am first;
  • and I am the one with the last.
• 5 The coastlands have seen and are afraid;
  • the ends of the earth tremble.
• They have drawn near,
  • and they have come.
• 6 Each one helps[fn] his neighbor;
  • he says to his brother, “Take courage!”
• 7 And the artisan encourages the goldsmith ,[fn]
  • the one who makes smooth with the hammer encourages the one who strikes the anvil,
• saying of the soldering, “It is good!”
  • And they strengthen it with nails so it cannot be knocked over.
• 8 But[fn] you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen,
  • you, the offspring[fn] of Abraham my friend ,[fn]
• 9 you whom I grasped from the ends of the earth
  • and called from its remotest parts
• and told, “You are my servant;
  • I have chosen you and I have not rejected you.”
• 10 You must not fear, for I am with you;
  • you must not be afraid, for I am your God.
• I will strengthen you, indeed I will help you,
  • indeed I will take hold of you with the right hand of my salvation.
• 11 Look! All those who are angry with you shall be ashamed and humiliated;
  • your opponents[fn] shall be like nothing and shall become lost.
• 12 You shall seek them,
  • but[fn] you shall not find them;
• your opponents[fn] shall be like nothing,
  • and the men of your war like nothing.
• 13 For I, Yahweh your God, am grasping your right hand;
  • it is I who say[fn] to you,
• “You must not fear;
  • I myself, I will help you.
• 14 You must not fear, O worm of Jacob;
  • people of Israel,
• I myself, I will help you,” declares[fn] Yahweh,
  • “and your redeemer is the holy one of Israel.
• 15 Look! I will make you into a new sharp threshing sledge,
  • with[fn] sharp edges.
• You shall thresh and crush the mountains,
  • and you shall make the hills like chaff.
• 16 You shall winnow them and the wind shall carry them,
  • and the tempest shall scatter them.
• And you yourself shall rejoice in Yahweh;
  • you shall boast in the holy one of Israel.
• 17 The poor and the needy are seeking water and there is none;
  • their tongue is dried up with thirst.
• I, Yahweh, will answer them;
  • I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
• 18 I will open rivers on the barren heights
  • and fountains in the midst of the valleys.
• I will make the wilderness like a pool of water
  • and the land of dryness like springs of water.
• 19 I will put[fn] the cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive oil tree in the wilderness;
  • I will set the cypress, elm, and box tree together in the desert
• 20 so that they may see and know,
  • and take to heart and understand together
• that the hand of Yahweh has done this,
  • and the holy one of Israel has created it.”
• 21 “Present your legal case,” says Yahweh.
  • “Bring your evidence,” says the king of Jacob.
• 22 Let them bring them,
  • and let them tell us what will happen.
• Tell us what the former things are
  • so that[fn] we may take them to our heart
    • and know their outcome.[fn]
• Declare to us the things to come;
  • 23 tell us the things coming hereafter ,[fn]
    • that[fn] we may know that you are gods.
• Indeed, do good or[fn] do evil,
  • that[fn] we may be afraid and see[fn] together.
• 24 Look! you are nothing,
  • and your work is something worthless;
    • whoever chooses you is an abomination.
• 25 I stirred up one from the north,
  • and he has come from the rising of the sun.

He shall call on my name,

• and he shall come on officials as on mortar,
  • and as the potter[fn] treads clay.
• 26 Who declared it from the beginning[fn] so that[fn] we might know,
  • and beforehand[fn] so that[fn] we might say, “ He is right !”[fn]
• Indeed, there was no one who declared it;
  • Indeed, there was no one who proclaimed it.
    • Indeed there was no one who heard your words.

27 First to Zion, look! Look at them!

And I give a herald[fn] of good tidings to Jerusalem.

• 28 But[fn] I look and there is no man,
  • and I look among these and there is no counselor,
    • that[fn] I might ask them and they might answer a word.
• 29 Look! All of them are deception;
  • their works are nothing;
    • their images are wind and emptiness.