Isaiah 41-42

Complete Jewish Bible

41 “Keep silence before me, coastlands!
Let the peoples replenish their strength!
Let them approach; then let them speak.
Let us assemble for judgment.”
² Who has raised from the east one who is just
and called him to be in his service?
He hands nations over to him
and subjects kings to him;
his sword reduces them to dust,
his bow to driven straw.
³ He pursues them, passing on unscathed,
hardly touching the path with his feet.
⁴ Whose work is this? Who has brought it about?
He who called the generations from the beginning,
“I, Adonai, am the first;
and I am the same with those who are last.”
⁵ The coastlands have seen and became afraid.
The ends of the earth have trembled.
They have approached, and now they have come.

⁶ Every one helps his fellow workman,
everyone says to his brother, “Be strong!”
⁷ The woodworker encourages the goldsmith,
the polisher encourages the hammerer;
he says of the soldering, “Yes, that’s good,”
then puts nails in [the idol] to keep it from moving.

⁸ “But you, Isra’el, my servant;
Ya‘akov, whom I have chosen,
descendants of Avraham my friend,
⁹ I have taken you from the ends of the earth,
summoned you from its most distant parts
and said to you, ‘You are my servant’ —
I have chosen you, not rejected you.
¹⁰ Don’t be afraid, for I am with you;
don’t be distressed, for I am your God.
I give you strength, I give you help,
I support you with my victorious right hand.
¹¹ All those who were angry with you
will be disgraced, put to shame;
those who fought against you
will be destroyed, brought to nothing.
¹² You will seek them but not find them,
those who contended with you;
yes, those who made war with you
will be brought to nothing, nothing at all.
¹³ For I, Adonai, your God,
say to you, as I hold your right hand,
‘Have no fear; I will help you.
¹⁴ Have no fear, Ya‘akov, you worm,
you men of Isra’el!’
I will help you,” says Adonai;
“Your redeemer is the Holy One of Isra’el.

¹⁵ “I will make you into a threshing-sledge,
new, with sharp, pointed teeth,
to thresh the mountains and crush them to dust,
to reduce the hills to chaff.
¹⁶ As you fan them, the wind will carry them off,
and the whirlwind will scatter them.
Then you will rejoice in Adonai,
you will glory in the Holy One of Isra’el.

¹⁷ “The poor and needy look for water in vain;
their tongues are parched with thirst.
I, Adonai, will answer them.
I, the God of Isra’el, will not leave them.
¹⁸ I will open up rivers on the barren hills
and wells down in the broad valleys.
I will turn the desert into a lake
and dry ground into springs.
¹⁹ I will plant the desert with cedars,
acacias, myrtles and olive trees;
In the ‘Aravah I will put cypresses
together with elm trees and larches.”
²⁰ Then the people will see and know,
together observe and understand
that the hand of Adonai has done this,
that the Holy One of Isra’el created it.

²¹ “Present your case,” says Adonai,
“Produce your arguments,” says Ya‘akov’s king.

²² Bring out those idols!
Have them foretell the future for us,
tell us about past events,
so that we can reflect on them
and understand their consequences.
Or tell us about events yet to come,
²³ state what will happen in the future,
so that we can know you are gods.
At least, do something, either good or bad —
anything, to make us awestruck and fearful!
²⁴ You can’t! — because you are less than nothing.
Whoever chooses you is an abomination!

²⁵ “I roused someone from the north,
and he has come from the rising sun;
he will call on my name.
He will trample on rulers as if they were mud,
like a potter treading clay.”

²⁶ Who said this at the start, so we could know,
or foretold it, so we could say, “He’s right”?
In fact, no one said it; no one foretold it —
the fact is, nobody hears what you say.
²⁷ I am the first to declare it to Tziyon,
to send Yerushalayim a messenger with good news.
²⁸ But when I look around, there is no one —
not a single one can give counsel,
who, when I ask, can give an answer.
²⁹ Look at them all! What they do is nothing!
Their idols are so much wind and waste.

42 “Here is my servant, whom I support,
my chosen one, in whom I take pleasure.
I have put my Spirit on him;
he will bring justice to the Goyim.
² He will not cry or shout;
no one will hear his voice in the streets.
³ He will not snap off a broken reed
or snuff out a smoldering wick.
He will bring forth justice according to truth;
⁴ he will not weaken or be crushed
until he has established justice on the earth,
and the coastlands wait for his Torah.”

⁵ Thus says God, Adonai,
who created the heavens and spread them out,
who stretched out the earth and all that grows from it,
who gives breath to the people on it
and spirit to those who walk on it:
⁶ “I, Adonai, called you righteously,
I took hold of you by the hand,
I shaped you and made you a covenant for the people,
to be a light for the Goyim,
⁷ so that you can open blind eyes,
free the prisoners from confinement,
those living in darkness from the dungeon.
⁸ I am Adonai; that is my name.
I yield my glory to no one else,
nor my praise to any idol.
⁹ See how the former predictions come true;
and now new things do I declare —
before they sprout I tell you about them.”

¹⁰ Sing to Adonai a new song!
Let his praise be sung from the ends of the earth
by those sailing the sea and by everything in it,
by the coastlands and those living there.
¹¹ Let the desert and its cities raise their voices,
the villages where Kedar lives;
let those living in Sela shout for joy;
let them cry out from the mountaintops!
¹² Let them give glory to Adonai
and proclaim his praise in the coastlands.
¹³ Adonai will go out like a soldier,
like a soldier roused to the fury of battle;
he will shout, yes, he raises the battle cry;
as he triumphs over his foes.

¹⁴ “For a long time I have held my peace,
I have been silent, restrained myself.
Now I will shriek like a woman in labor,
panting and gasping for air.
¹⁵ I will devastate mountains and hills,
wither all their vegetation,
turn the rivers into islands
and dry up the lakes.
¹⁶ The blind I will lead on a road they don’t know,
on roads they don’t know I will lead them;
I will turn darkness to light before them,
and straighten their twisted paths.
These are things I will do without fail.
¹⁷ Those who trust in idols,
who say to statues, ‘You are our gods,’
will be repulsed in utter shame.
¹⁸ Listen, you deaf! Look, you blind! —
so that you will see!
¹⁹ Who is as blind as my servant,
or as deaf as the messenger I send?
Who is as blind as the one I rewarded,
as blind as the servant of Adonai?”

²⁰ You see much but don’t pay attention;
you open your ears, but you don’t listen.
²¹ Adonai was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake,
to make the Torah great and glorious.
²² But this is a people pillaged and plundered,
all trapped in holes and sequestered in prisons.
They are there to be plundered, with no one to rescue them;
there to be pillaged, and no one says, “Return them!”
²³ Which of you will listen to this?
Who will hear and give heed in the times to come?
²⁴ Who gave Ya‘akov to be pillaged,
Isra’el to the plunderers?
Didn’t Adonai, against whom we have sinned,
in whose ways they refused to walk,
he whose Torah they did not obey?
²⁵ This is why he poured on him his blazing anger
as well as the fury of battle —
it wrapped him in flames, yet he learned nothing;
it burned him, yet he did not take it to heart.