Keep silence before me, islands, and let the peoples renew [their] strength: let them come near, then let them speak; let us draw near together to judgment.
Who raised up from the east him whom righteousness calleth to its foot? He gave the nations before him, and made [him] rule over kings; he gave [them] as dust to his sword, as driven stubble to his bow.
He pursued them, he passed on safely, by a way he had not come with his feet.
Who hath wrought and done [it], calling the generations from the beginning? I Jehovah, the first, and with the last; I [am] He.
The isles saw [it] and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came.
They helped every one his neighbour, and [each] said to his brother, Be of good courage.
So the carpenter encouraged the founder, he that smootheth [with] the hammer him that smiteth on the anvil, saying of the soldering, [it is] good: and he fasteneth it with nails, [that] it be not moved.
But thou, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend,
whom I have grasped from the ends of the earth, and called from its corners, and said unto thee, Thou [art] my servant; I have chosen thee, and not rejected thee.
Fear not, for I [am] with thee; be not dismayed, for I [am] thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Behold, all they that are incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they that strive with thee shall be as nothing, and shall perish.
Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them,—them that contend with thee. They that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.
For I Jehovah thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.
Fear not, thou worm Jacob, ye few men of Israel; I will help thee, saith Jehovah, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
Behold, I have made thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh and beat small the mountains, and shalt make the hills as chaff.
Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in Jehovah, thou shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.
The afflicted and the needy seek water, and [there is] none; their tongue faileth for thirst: I Jehovah will hear them, [I] the God of Israel will not forsake them.
I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness into a pool of water, and the dry lands into water-springs.
I will give in the wilderness the cedar, acacia, and myrtle, and oleaster; I will set in the desert the cypress, pine, and box-tree together;
that they may see and know and consider and understand together, that the hand of Jehovah hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.
Produce your cause, saith Jehovah; bring forth your strong [reasons] saith the King of Jacob.
Let them bring [them] forth and show us what shall happen: show the former things, what they [be], that we may pay heed to them, and know their issue; or declare us things to come.
Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye [are] gods; yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold [it] together.
Behold, ye [are] of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination [is he that] chooseth you.
I have raised up [one] from the north, and he shall come; from the rising of the sun will he call upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as [upon] mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay.
Who hath declared [it] from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, Right? Indeed there is none that declareth, indeed there is none that showeth, indeed there is none that heareth your words.
The first [I say] to Zion, Behold, behold them; and to Jerusalem I will give one that bringeth good tidings.
For I look, and there is no man; even among them, and there is no counsellor, that, when I ask of them, can answer a word.
Behold, they [are] all vanity: their works [are] nought: their molten images [are] wind and confusion.