41 “Listen to me in
silence, you coastlands! [ a ]
Let the nations find renewed strength!
Let them approach and then speak;
let us come together for debate. [ b ]
2 Who stirs up this one
from the east? [ c ]
Who [ d ] officially commissions him for service? [ e ]
He hands nations over to him, [ f ]
and enables him to subdue [ g ] kings.
He makes them like dust with his sword,
like windblown straw with his bow. [ h ]
3 He pursues them and
passes by unharmed; [ i ]
he advances with great speed. [ j ]
4 Who acts and carries out
decrees? [ k ]
Who [ l ] summons the successive generations from the beginning?
I, the Lord , am present at the very beginning,
and at the very end—I am the one. [ m ]
5 The coastlands [ n ] see and are afraid;
the whole earth [ o ] trembles;
they approach and come.
6 They help one
another; [ p ]
one says to the other, ‘Be strong!’
7 The craftsman encourages
the metalsmith,
the one who wields the hammer encourages [ q ] the one who pounds on the anvil.
He approves the quality of the welding, [ r ]
and nails it down so it won’t fall over.
8 “You, my servant
Israel,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
offspring of Abraham my friend, [ s ]
9 you whom I am bringing
back [ t ] from the earth’s extremities,
and have summoned from the remote regions—
I told you, ‘You are my servant.’
I have chosen you and not rejected you.
10 Don’t be afraid, for I
am with you!
Don’t be frightened, for I am your God! [ u ]
I strengthen you—
yes, I help you—
yes, I uphold you with my victorious right hand! [ v ]
11 Look, all who were
angry at you will be ashamed and humiliated;
your adversaries [ w ] will be reduced to nothing [ x ] and perish.
12 When you will look for
your opponents, [ y ] you will not find them;
your enemies [ z ] will be reduced to absolutely nothing.
13 For I am the Lord your God,
the one who takes hold of your right hand,
who says to you, ‘Don’t be afraid, I am helping you.’
14 Don’t be afraid,
despised insignificant Jacob, [ aa ]
men of [ ab ] Israel.
I am helping you,” says the Lord ,
your Protector, [ ac ] the Holy One of Israel. [ ad ]
15 “Look, I am making you
like [ ae ] a sharp threshing sledge,
new and double-edged. [ af ]
You will thresh the mountains and crush them;
you will make the hills like straw. [ ag ]
16 You will winnow them
and the wind will blow them away;
the wind will scatter them.
You will rejoice in the Lord ;
you will boast in the Holy One of Israel.
17 The oppressed and the
poor look for water, but there is none;
their tongues are parched from thirst.
I, the Lord , will respond to their prayers; [ ah ]
I, the God of Israel, will not abandon them.
18 I will make streams
flow down the slopes
and produce springs in the middle of the valleys.
I will turn the wilderness into a pool of water
and the arid land into springs.
19 I will make cedars,
acacias, myrtles, and olive trees grow in the
wilderness;
I will make evergreens, firs, and cypresses grow together
in the arid rift valley. [ ai ]
20 I will do this so [ aj ] people [ ak ] will observe and recognize,
so they will pay attention and understand
that the Lord ’s power [ al ] has accomplished this,
and that the Holy One of Israel has brought it into
being. [ am ]
21 “Present your
argument,” says the Lord .
“Produce your evidence,” [ an ] says Jacob’s king. [ ao ]
22 “Let them produce
evidence! Let them tell us what will happen!
Tell us about your earlier predictive oracles, [ ap ]
so we may examine them [ aq ] and see how they were fulfilled. [ ar ]
Or decree for us some future events!
23 Predict how future
events will turn out, [ as ]
so we might know you are gods.
Yes, do something good or something bad,
so we might be frightened and in awe. [ at ]
24 Look, you are nothing,
and your accomplishments are nonexistent;
the one who chooses to worship you is disgusting. [ au ]
25 I have stirred up one
out of the north [ av ] and he advances,
one from the eastern horizon who prays in my name. [ aw ]
He steps on [ ax ] rulers as if they were clay,
like a potter treading the clay.
26 Who decreed this from
the beginning, so we could know?
Who announced it [ ay ] ahead of time, so we could say, ‘He’s correct’?
Indeed, none of them decreed it.
Indeed, none of them announced it.
Indeed, no one heard you say anything!
27 I first decreed to
Zion, ‘Look, here’s what will happen!’ [ az ]
I sent a herald to Jerusalem.
28 I look, but there is no
one,
among them there is no one who serves as an adviser,
that I might ask questions and receive answers.
29 Look, all of them are
nothing, [ ba ]
their accomplishments are nonexistent;
their metal images lack any real substance. [ bb ]