Isaiah 41 — Legacy Standard Bible

Do Not Fear, for I Am with You

41“^aCoastlands, listen to Me ^bin silence,And let the peoples ^cgain new power;^dLet them come forward, then let them speak;^eLet us draw near together for judgment.²“^aWho has awakened one from the eastWhom He ^bcalls in righteousness to His ¹feet?He ^cgives up nations before himAnd ²has dominion over kings.He makes them like ^ddust with his sword,As the wind-driven ^echaff with his bow.³“He pursues them, passing on in peace,By a way he had not ¹come with his feet.⁴“^aWho has worked and done it,Calling forth the generations from the beginning?‘^bI, Yahweh, am the first; and with the last, ^cI am He.’”⁵The ^acoastlands have seen and are afraid;The ^bends of the earth tremble;They have drawn near and have come.⁶Each one helps his neighborAnd says to his brother, “Be strong!”⁷So the ^acraftsman strengthens the ^bsmelter,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,^cSo that it will not be shaken.⁸“But you, Israel, ^aMy servant,Jacob whom I have chosen,Seed of ^bAbraham My ^cfriend,⁹You whom I have ¹^,^astrongly taken hold of from the ends of the earth,And called from its ^bremotest partsAnd said to you, ‘You are ^cMy servant,I have ^dchosen you and not rejected you.¹⁰‘Do not ^afear, for I am with you;Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.I will make you mighty, surely ^bI will help you;Surely I will uphold you with My righteous ^cright hand.’¹¹“Behold, ^aall those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored;^bThose who contend with you will be as nothing and will perish.¹²“^aYou 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, ^awho ¹strongly takes hold of your right hand,Who says to you, ‘^bDo not fear, I will help you.’¹⁴“Do not fear, you ^aworm Jacob, you men of Israel;I will help you,” declares Yahweh, “¹and ^byour Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.¹⁵“Behold, I have made you a new, sharp threshing sledge with double edges;^aYou will thresh the ^bmountains and pulverize them,And will make the hills like chaff.¹⁶“You will ^awinnow them, and the wind will carry them away,And the storm will scatter them;But you will ^brejoice in Yahweh;You will boast in the Holy One of Israel.¹⁷“The ¹afflicted and needy are seeking ^awater, but there is none,And their tongue is parched with thirst;I, Yahweh, ^bwill answer them Myself,As the God of Israel I ^cwill not forsake them.¹⁸“I will open ^arivers on the bare heightsAnd springs in the midst of the valleys;I will make ^bthe wilderness a pool of waterAnd the dry land fountains of water.¹⁹“I will put the cedar in the wilderness,The acacia and the ^amyrtle and the ¹olive tree;I will place the ^bjuniper in the desertTogether with the box tree and the cypress,²⁰That ^athey may see and know,And establish and gain insight as well,That the ^bhand 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 ^aKing of Jacob says.²²^aLet them bring it forth and declare to us what is going to take place;As for the ^bformer 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^aDeclare the things that are to come afterward,That we may know that you are gods;Indeed, ^bdo good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together.²⁴Behold, ^ayou are nothing,And ^byour work is non-existent;He who chooses you is an ^cabomination.²⁵“I have awakened ^aone 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 ^bmortar,Even as the potter treads clay.”²⁶Who has ^adeclared this from the beginning, that we might know?Or from former times, that we may say, “He is right!”?Surely there was ^bno 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“^aFormerly I said to Zion, ‘Behold, here they are.’And to Jerusalem, ‘I will give a ^bmessenger of good news.’²⁸“But ^aI look, and there is no one,And there is no ^bcounselor ¹among themWho, if I ask, can ^crespond with a word.²⁹“Behold, all of them are ¹false;Their ^aworks are ^bnon-existent;Their molten images are ^cwind and utter formlessness.