Isaiah 41  Legacy Standard Bible

⁵ The ^(N)coastlands have seen and are afraid;
The ^(O)ends of the earth tremble;
They have drawn near and have come.
⁶ Each one helps his neighbor
And says to his brother, “Be strong!”
⁷ So the ^(P)craftsman strengthens the ^(Q)smelter,
And he who smooths metal with the hammer strengthens him who beats the anvil,
Saying of the soldering, “It is good”;
And he strengthens it with nails,
^(R)So that it will not be shaken.
⁸ “But you, Israel, ^(S)My servant,
Jacob whom I have chosen,
Seed of ^(T)Abraham My ^(U)friend,
⁹ You whom I have ^[d](V)strongly taken hold of from the ends of the earth,
And called from its ^(W)remotest parts
And said to you, ‘You are ^(X)My servant,
I have ^(Y)chosen you and not rejected you.
¹⁰ Do not ^(Z)fear, for I am with you;
Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.
I will make you mighty, surely ^(AA)I will help you;
Surely I will uphold you with My righteous ^(AB)right hand.’
¹¹ Behold, ^(AC)all those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored;
^(AD)Those who contend with you will be as nothing and will perish.
^12 (AE)You will seek those who quarrel with you, but will not find them,
Those who war with you will be as nothing and non-existent.
¹³ For I am Yahweh your God, ^(AF)who ^[e]strongly takes hold of your right hand,
Who says to you, ‘^(AG)Do not fear, I will help you.’
¹⁴ Do not fear, you ^(AH)worm Jacob, you men of Israel;
I will help you,” declares Yahweh, “^[f]and ^(AI)your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
¹⁵ Behold, I have made you a new, sharp threshing sledge with double edges;
^(AJ)You will thresh the ^(AK)mountains and pulverize them,
And will make the hills like chaff.
¹⁶ You will ^(AL)winnow them, and the wind will carry them away,
And the storm will scatter them;
But you will ^(AM)rejoice in Yahweh;
You will boast in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷ “The ^[g]afflicted and needy are seeking ^(AN)water, but there is none,
And their tongue is parched with thirst;
I, Yahweh, ^(AO)will answer them Myself,
As the God of Israel I ^(AP)will not forsake them.
¹⁸ I will open ^(AQ)rivers on the bare heights
And springs in the midst of the valleys;
I will make ^(AR)the wilderness a pool of water
And the dry land fountains of water.
¹⁹ I will put the cedar in the wilderness,
The acacia and the ^(AS)myrtle and the ^[h]olive tree;
I will place the ^(AT)juniper in the desert
Together with the box tree and the cypress,
²⁰ That ^(AU)they may see and know,
And establish and gain insight as well,
That the ^(AV)hand of Yahweh has done this,
And the Holy One of Israel has created it.

²¹ “Bring near your case,” Yahweh says.
“Bring forward your mighty arguments,”
The ^(AW)King of Jacob says.
^22 (AX)Let them bring it forth and declare to us what is going to take place;
As for the ^(AY)former events, declare what they were,
That we may establish our heart on them and know their outcome.
Or cause us to hear of what is coming;
^23 (AZ)Declare the things that are to come afterward,
That we may know that you are gods;
Indeed, ^(BA)do good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together.
²⁴ Behold, ^(BB)you are nothing,
And ^(BC)your work is non-existent;
He who chooses you is an ^(BD)abomination.

²⁵ “I have awakened ^(BE)one from the north, and he has come;
From the rising of the sun he will call on My name;
And he will come upon officials as upon ^(BF)mortar,
Even as the potter treads clay.”
²⁶ Who has ^(BG)declared this from the beginning, that we might know?
Or from former times, that we may say, “He is right!”?
Surely there was ^(BH)no one who declared;
Surely there was no one who caused those words to be heard;
Surely there was no one who heard your words.
²⁷ “^(BI)Formerly I said to Zion, ‘Behold, here they are.’
And to Jerusalem, ‘I will give a ^(BJ)messenger of good news.’
²⁸ But ^(BK)I look, and there is no one,
And there is no ^(BL)counselor ^[i]among them
Who, if I ask, can ^(BM)respond with a word.
²⁹ Behold, all of them are ^[j]false;
Their ^(BN)works are ^(BO)non-existent;
Their molten images are ^(BP)wind and utter formlessness.