Isaiah 41:1-18 ▼

1 Keepe silence before mee, O ylands, and let the people renue their strength: let the come neere, and let them speake: let vs come together into iudgement.

2 Who raised vp iustice from the East, and called him to his foote? and gaue the nations before him, and subdued the Kings? he gaue them as dust to his sword, and as scattered stubble vnto his bowe.

3 He pursued them, and passed safely by the way that he had not gone with his feete.

4 Who hath wrought and done it? he that calleth the generations from the beginning. I the Lord am the first, and with the last I am ye same.

5 The yles sawe it, and did feare, & the ends of the earth were abashed, drew neere, and came.

6 Euery man helped his neighbour, and saide to his brother, Be strong.

7 So the workeman comforted the founder, and he that smote with ye hammer, him that smote by course, saying, It is ready for the sodering, and he fastened it with nayles that it shoulde not be mooued.

8 But thou, Israel, art my seruant, and thou Iaakob, whom I haue chosen, the seede of Abraham my friend.

9 For I haue taken thee from the endes of the earth, and called thee before the chiefe thereof, and saide vnto thee, Thou art my seruant: I haue chosen thee, and not cast thee away.

10 Feare thou not, for I am with thee: be not afraide, for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee, and helpe thee, and will susteine thee with the right hand of my iustice.

11 Beholde, all they that prouoke thee, shalbe ashamed, and confounded: they shalbe as nothing, and they that striue with thee, shall perish.

12 Thou shalt seeke them and shalt not finde them: to wit, the men of thy strife, for they shall be as nothing, and the men that warre against thee, as a thing of nought.

13 For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying vnto thee, Feare not, I wil helpe thee.

14 Feare not, thou worme, Iaakob, and ye men of Israel: I wil helpe thee, sayth the Lord and thy redeemer the holy one of Israel.

15 Behold, I wil make thee a roller, & a newe threshing instrument hauing teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountaines, and bring them to pouder, and shalt make the hilles as chaffe.

16 Thou shalt fanne them, and the winde shal carie them away, and the whirlewinde shal scatter them: and thou shalt reioyce in the Lord, & shalt glory in the holy one of Israel.

17 When the poore and the needy seeke water, & there is none (their tongue faileth for thirst: I the Lorde will heare them: I the God of Israel will not forsake them)

18 I will open riuers in the toppes of the hils, and fountaines in the middes of the valleis: I will make the wildernesse as a poole of water, and the waste land as springs of water.