Isaiah 41 ¶ Listen unto me, O islands; and let the peoples strengthen themselves; let them come near; then let them speak; let us come near together to judgment.

EJ2000⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ ¶ Listen unto me, O islands; and let the peoples strengthen themselves; let them come near; then let them speak; let us come near together to judgment. ² Who raised up righteousness from the east, called him that he might follow him, gave the Gentiles before him, and made him rule over kings? He gave them as the dust to his sword and as driven stubble to his bow. ³ He pursued them and passed in peace by the way that his feet had never entered. ⁴ Who has wrought and done it? Who calls the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and I, myself am with those who are last. ⁵ The isles saw it and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid; they congregated and came. ⁶ Each one helped his neighbour; and each one said to his brother, Be of good courage. ⁷ So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smooths with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is well joined and he strengthened it with nails, that it should not be moved. ⁸ But thou, Israel, my slave, Jacob whom I have chosen, art the seed of Abraham my friend. ⁹ For I have taken thee from the ends of the earth and called thee from the boundaries thereof and said unto thee Thou shalt be my slave; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away. ¹⁰ ¶ Do not fear for I am with thee; do not be dismayed, for I am thy God, who strengthens thee; I will help thee always; I will always uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. ¹¹ Behold, all those that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded; they shall be as nothing; and those that strive with thee shall perish. ¹² Thou shalt seek them and shalt not find them, even those that contended with thee; those that war against thee shall be as nothing and as a thing of nought. ¹³ For I am the LORD thy God that holds thy right hand saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. ¹⁴ Fear not, thou worm Jacob, ye dead of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. ¹⁵ Behold, I have placed thee as a threshing instrument, as a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth; thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat them small and shalt make the hills as chaff. ¹⁶ Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them; but thou shalt rejoice in the LORD, thou shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel. ¹⁷ The poor and needy seek the waters that are not; their tongue fails for thirst; I the LORD will hear 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 plains; I will turn the wilderness into pools of water and the dry land into springs of water. ¹⁹ I will bring forth in the wilderness cedars, thorns, myrtles, and olive trees; I will set in the desert the fir tree and the pine and the box tree together: ²⁰ That they may see and know and take warning and understand together that the hand of the LORD does this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it. ²¹ ¶ Explain your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your foundations, saith the King of Jacob. ²² Let them bring forth and declare unto us what shall happen; tell us what has happened from the beginning, and we shall consider it in our hearts; and we shall know what his end shall be, and cause us to understand that which is to come. ²³ Give us news of that which is to come hereafter that we may know that ye are gods; or at least do good or do evil that we may have something to tell, and together we shall marvel. ²⁴ Behold, ye are of nothing and your works of vanity; an abomination is he that chooses you. ²⁵ I have raised up one from the north, and he came from the rising of the sun; he called in my name and came unto princes as upon clay and as the potter treads clay. ²⁶ Who has declared from the beginning, that we shall know? and beforetime that we shall say, He is righteous? yea, there is no one that declares this, yea, there is no one that teaches, yea, there is no one that hears your words. ²⁷ I am the first that has taught these things unto Zion, and unto Jerusalem I brought the news. ²⁸ For I beheld, and there was no one; and I asked regarding these things, and there was no counsellor; I asked them, and they did not answer a word. ²⁹ Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.