The Book of the Prophet Isaiah 41 The Lord is the only God: Israel must trust in Him alone.

 The Book of the Prophet Isaiah 41

The Lord is the only God: Israel must trust in Him alone.

1 Be silent before me, O islands, and let the peoples renew their strength; let them draw near, and then speak; let us draw near together to judgment.

2 Who raised up the righteous one from the east? And called him to his feet? Who gave the nations before him, and made him ruler over kings? He gave them up like dust to his sword, and like chaff driven by the wind to his bow.

3 He pursued them, and passed by in peace, along a path where his feet had never walked.

4 Who has wrought and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, am the first, and with the last I myself.

5 The islands saw it, and were afraid; the ends of the earth trembled; they drew near, and came. 

6 They helped one another, and said to his fellow, "Be strong."

7 The craftsman encouraged the goldsmith, and the one who smooths with the hammer encouraged the one who beats the grain, saying of the soldered thing, "It is good." Then he fastened it with nails so that it will not move.

8 But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend?

9 You whom I took from the ends of the earth and called from among its most excellent, and said to you, "You are my servant; I have chosen you and have 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, I will help you, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.

11 Behold, all who are incensed against you will be ashamed and confounded; They will become nothing, and those who strive with you will perish.

12 You will seek them, but you will not find them; those who strive with you will become nothing, and those who war with you will be like nothing.

13 For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand and say to you: Do not fear, for I will help you.

14 Do not fear, O worm Jacob, little people of Israel; I will help you, declares the Lord, and your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

15 Behold, I have made for you a new threshing floor with sharp teeth; you will thresh the mountains and grind them to powder, and the hills you will make like chaff.

16 You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the storm will scatter them; but you will rejoice in the Lord and glory in the Holy One of Israel. 

17 The poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue fails with thirst. But I, the Lord, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

18 I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness pools of water, and the dry land springs of water.

19 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the sita tree, the myrtle, and the olive tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, the elm, and the poplar 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. 

21 Present your case, says the Lord; bring your strong arguments, says the King of Jacob.

22 Bring forth and tell us the things that must happen: declare to us the former things, that we may consider them and know their outcome; or cause us to hear the things that are to come.

23 Declare to us the things that are to come, that we may know that you are gods: do good, or do evil, that we may be astonished and see it together.

24 Behold, you are less than nothing, and your work is less than nothing; an abomination is he who chooses you.

25 I will raise 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 upon rulers as upon clay, and as a potter treads clay, so he will tread them down. 

26 Who has declared this from the beginning, that we may know, or at another time, that we may say, 'It is righteous'? But there is no one to declare, no one to declare, no one to hear your words.

27 I will first say to Zion, 'Behold, they are there!' and to Jerusalem I will give a herald of good news.

28 And when I looked, there was no one; not even among these counselors was there anyone to ask or to answer me a word.

29 Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing; their molten images are wind and nothing.