Isaiah 41:1-16 ▼

1 Hold a feast to me, ye islands: for the princes shall renew their strength: let them draw nigh and speak together: then let them declare judgement.

2 Who raised up righteousness from the east, and called it to his feet, so that it should go? shall appoint it an adversary of Gentiles, and shall dismay kings, and bury their swords in the earth, and cast forth their bows and arrows as sticks?

3 And he shall pursue them; the way of his feet shall proceed in peace.

4 Who has wrought and done these things? he has called it who called it from the generations of old; I God, the first and to all futurity, I AM.

5 The nations saw, and feared; the ends of the earth drew nigh, and came together,

6 every one judging for his neighbor and that to assist his brother: and one will say,

7 The artificer has become strong, and the coppersmith that smites with the hammer, and forges also: sometimes he will say, It is a piece well joined: they have fastened them with nails; they will fix them, and they shall not be moved.

8 But thou, Israel, art my servant Jacob, and he whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraam, whom I have loved:

9 whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and from the high places of it I have called thee, and said to thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and I have not forsaken thee.

10 Fear not; for I am with thee: wander not; for I am thy God, who have strengthened thee; and I have helped thee, and have established thee with my just right hand.

11 Behold, all thine adversaries shall be ashamed and confounded; for they shall be as if they were not: and all thine opponents shall perish.

12 Thou shalt seek them, and thou shalt not find the men who shall insolently rage against thee: for they shall be as if they were not, and they that war against thee shall not be.

13 For I am thy God, who holdeth thy right hand, who saith to thee,

14 Fear not, Jacob, and thou Israel few in number; I have helped thee, saith thy God, he that redeems thee, O Israel.

15 Behold, I have made thee as new saw-shaped threshing wheels of a waggon; and thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat the hills to powder, and make them as chaff:

16 and thou shalt winnow them , and the wind shall carry them away, and a tempest shall scatter them: but thou shalt rejoice in the holy ones of Israel.