God the helper of Israel
41
📚✭“Keep silence before me,O coastlands✭,
and let the people renew
their strength.
Let them come near,
then let them speak.
Let us come near together
for judgment.
2 📚Who raised up one
from the east✭,
and in righteousness
called him to his feet✭?
Who gave the nations
to him,
and made him rule
over kings?
He made them like dust
with his sword,
and like driven stubble
with his bow.
3 📚✭He pursued them and
moved on safely by a way
that he had not gone
with his feet.
4 📚✭Who has done this and accomplished it,
calling the generations
from the beginning?
I, the LORD,
the first and with the last.
I am he.
The nations make idols and rely on them
5 📚✭The coastlands saw it,
and feared;
the ends of the earth
were afraid,
drew near and arrived.
6 📚Each of them helped
his neighbour;
and each one said
to his brother,
“Be courageous!”
7 📚So the craftsman encouraged
the goldsmith,
and he who smoothes with
the hammer urges on him
who struck the anvil,
saying, ‘It is ready
for soldering.’
And he fastened it with nails,
so that it would not totter.
The nation Israel is God’s servant
8 📚“But you, Israel,
are my servant✭,
Jacob whom I have chosen,
the offspring of my friend Abraham✭.
9 📚I have taken you
from the ends of the earth,
and called you from its
farthest parts,
and said to you,
You are my servant.
I have chosen you,
and not rejected you✭.
10 📚Do not fear✭,
for I am with you✭.
Do not be dismayed,
for I am your God.
I will strengthen you✭;
yes, I will help you;
yes, I will uphold you
with my righteous right hand.
11 📚✭See, all those who raged
against you will be put
to shame and disgraced.
They will be as nothing;
and those who strive
with you will perish.
12 📚You will seek those
who fought with you,
and will not find them;
those who wage war against you
will be as nothing,
and 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,
you worm✭ Jacob,
you men of Israel.
I will help you,
says the LORD,
and your redeemer✭,
the Holy One of Israel.
15 📚✭See,
I will make you a new sharp
threshing instrument
having teeth.
You will thresh the mountains,
and beat them small,
and will make the hills
like chaff.
16 📚You will winnow them,
and the wind will carry
them away,
and the whirlwind will
scatter them;
and you will rejoice
in the LORD,
and glory in the Holy
One of Israel.
17 📚✭“When the poor
and needy seek water,
and there is none,
and 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 in high places,
and fountains in the middle
of the valleys.
I will make the desert
a pool of water,
and the dry land springs
of water.
19 📚✭In the wilderness
I will plant the cedar,
the acacia tree,
and the myrtle,
and the olive tree.
In the desert I will set
the fir tree,
and the pine,
and the box tree together,
20 📚✭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 idols and gods of the nations cannot foretell the future
21 📚✭“Present your case”,
says the LORD.
Bring forth your strong arguments,
says the King of Jacob.
22 📚Let them bring them forth,
and show us what will
happen.
Let them tell what
the former things were,
that we may consider them,
and know their outcome,
or declare to us things
to come.
23 📚Tell the things that are
coming hereafter,
that we may know
that you are gods.
Yes, do good or do evil,
that we may be dismayed
and see it together.
24 📚Look, you are nothing✭,
and your work is nothing.
He who chooses
you chooses an abomination✭.
25 📚✭“I have raised up one
from the north,
and he will come.
From the rising of the sun
he will call on my name✭.
And he will come against
princes as against mortar,
and as the potter tramples
the clay.
26 📚✭Who has declared
from the beginning,
that we may know?
And beforehand,
that we may say,
He is righteous?
Certainly there is no one
who tells;
certainly there is no one
who declares;
certainly there is no one
who hears your words.
27 📚I was the first to say
to Zion,
‘Look, see them!’
And I will give to Jerusalem one
who brings good tidings✭.
28 📚For I looked among them✭,
and there was no man,
and there was no counsellor who,
when I asked them,
could answer a word.
29 📚See they are all worthless.
Their works are nothing.
Their cast metal images are
wind and confusion.