Isaiah 41:1--42:9

The Lord Challenges the Nations

41:1 “Listen to me in silence, you coastlands!

Let the nations find renewed strength!

Let them approach and then speak;

let us come together for debate!

41:2 Who stirs up this one from the east?

Who officially commissions him for service?

He hands nations over to him,

and enables him to subdue kings.

He makes them like dust with his sword,

like windblown straw with his bow.

41:3 He pursues them and passes by unharmed;

he advances with great speed.

41:4 Who acts and carries out decrees?

Who 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.

41:5 The coastlands see and are afraid;

the whole earth trembles;

they approach and come.

41:6 They help one another;

one says to the other, ‘Be strong!’

41:7 The craftsman encourages the metalsmith,

the one who wields the hammer encourages the one who pounds on the anvil.

He approves the quality of the welding,

and nails it down so it won’t fall over.”

The Lord Encourages His People

41:8 “You, my servant Israel,

Jacob whom I have chosen,

offspring of Abraham my friend,

41:9 you whom I am bringing back 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.

41:10 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you!

Don’t be frightened, for I am your God!

I strengthen you –

yes, I help you –

yes, I uphold you with my saving right hand!

41:11 Look, all who were angry at you will be ashamed and humiliated;

your adversaries will be reduced to nothing and perish.

41:12 When you will look for your opponents, you will not find them;

your enemies will be reduced to absolutely nothing.

41:13 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.’

41:14 Don’t be afraid, despised insignificant Jacob,

men of Israel.

I am helping you,” says the Lord,

your protector, the Holy One of Israel.

41:15 “Look, I am making you like a sharp threshing sledge,

new and double-edged.

You will thresh the mountains and crush them;

you will make the hills like straw.

41:16 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.

41:17 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;

I, the God of Israel, will not abandon them.

41:18 I will make streams flow down the slopes

and produce springs in the middle of the valleys.

I will turn the desert into a pool of water

and the arid land into springs.

41:19 I will make cedars, acacias, myrtles, and olive trees grow in the wilderness;

I will make evergreens, firs, and cypresses grow together in the desert.

41:20 I will do this so people will observe and recognize,

so they will pay attention and understand

that the Lord’s power has accomplished this,

and that the Holy One of Israel has brought it into being.”

The Lord Challenges the Pagan Gods

41:21 “Present your argument,” says the Lord.

“Produce your evidence,” says Jacob’s king.

41:22 “Let them produce evidence! Let them tell us what will happen!

Tell us about your earlier predictive oracles,

so we may examine them and see how they were fulfilled.

Or decree for us some future events!

41:23 Predict how future events will turn out,

so we might know you are gods.

Yes, do something good or bad,

so we might be frightened and in awe.

41:24 Look, you are nothing, and your accomplishments are nonexistent;

the one who chooses to worship you is disgusting.

41:25 I have stirred up one out of the north and he advances,

one from the eastern horizon who prays in my name.

He steps on rulers as if they were clay,

like a potter treading the clay.

41:26 Who decreed this from the beginning, so we could know?

Who announced it 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!

41:27 I first decreed to Zion, ‘Look, here’s what will happen!’

I sent a herald to Jerusalem.

41:28 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.

41:29 Look, all of them are nothing,

their accomplishments are nonexistent;

their metal images lack any real substance.

The Lord Commissions His Special Servant

42:1 “Here is my servant whom I support,

my chosen one in whom I take pleasure.

I have placed my spirit on him;

he will make just decrees for the nations.

42:2 He will not cry out or shout;

he will not publicize himself in the streets.

42:3 A crushed reed he will not break,

a dim wick he will not extinguish;

he will faithfully make just decrees.

42:4 He will not grow dim or be crushed

before establishing justice on the earth;

the coastlands will wait in anticipation for his decrees.”

42:5 This is what the true God, the Lord, says –

the one who created the sky and stretched it out,

the one who fashioned the earth and everything that lives on it,

the one who gives breath to the people on it,

and life to those who live on it:

42:6 “I, the Lord, officially commission you;

I take hold of your hand.

I protect you and make you a covenant mediator for people,

and a light to the nations,

42:7 to open blind eyes,

to release prisoners from dungeons,

those who live in darkness from prisons.

The Lord Intervenes

42:8 I am the Lord! That is my name!

I will not share my glory with anyone else,

or the praise due me with idols.

42:9 Look, my earlier predictive oracles have come to pass;

now I announce new events.

Before they begin to occur,

I reveal them to you.”