The reign of the just one: the vanity of idols.
41:1. Let the islands keep silence before me, and the nations take new
strength: let them come near, and then speak, let us come near to
judgment together.
41:2. Who hath raised up the just one from the east, hath called him to
follow him? he shall give the nations in his sight, and he shall rule
over kings: he shall give them as the dust to his sword, as stubble
driven by the wind, to his bow.
41:3. He shall pursue them, he shall pass in peace, no path shall appear
after his feet.
41:4. Who hath wrought and done these things, calling the generations
from the beginning? I the Lord, I am the first and the last.
41:5. The islands saw it, and feared, the ends of the earth were
astonished, they drew near, and came.
41:6. Every one shall help his neighbour, and shall say to his brother:
Be of good courage.
41:7. The coppersmith striking with the hammer encouraged him that
forged at that time, saying: It is ready for soldering: and he
strengthened it with nails, that it should not be moved.
41:8. But thou Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the
seed of Abraham my friend:
41:9. In whom I have taken thee from the ends of the earth, and from the
remote parts thereof have called thee, and said to thee: Thou art my
servant, I have chosen thee, and have not cast thee away.
41:10. Fear not, for I am with thee: turn not aside, for I am thy God: I
have strengthened thee, and have helped thee, and the right hand of my
just one hath upheld thee.
41:11. Behold all that fight against thee shall be confounded and
ashamed, they shall be as nothing, and the men shall perish that strive
against thee.
41:12. Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find the men that resist
thee: they shall be as nothing: and as a thing consumed the men that war
against thee.
41:13. For I am the Lord thy God, who take thee by the hand, and say to
thee: Fear not, I have helped thee.
41:14. Fear not, thou worm of Jacob, you that are dead of Israel: I have
helped thee, saith the Lord: and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel.
41:15. I have made thee as a new thrashing wain, with teeth like a saw:
thou shalt thrash the mountains, and break them in pieces: and shalt
make the hills as chaff.
41:16. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the
whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, in the
Holy One of Israel thou shalt be joyful.
41:17. The needy and the poor seek for waters, and there are none: their
tongue hath been dry with thirst. I the Lord will hear them, I the God
of Israel will not forsake them.
41:18. I will open rivers in the high hills, and fountains in the midst
of the plains: I will turn the desert into pools of waters, and the
impassable land into streams of waters.
41:19. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, and the thorn, and the
myrtle, and the olive tree: I will set in the desert the fir tree, the
elm, and the box tree together:
The thorn... In Hebrew, the shitta, or setim, a tree resembling the
white thorn.
41:20. That they may see and know, and consider, and understand together
that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel
hath created it.
41:21. Bring your cause near, saith the Lord: bring hither, if you have
any thing to allege, saith the King of Jacob.
41:22. Let them come, and tell us all things that are to come: tell us
the former things what they were: and we will set our heart upon them
and shall know the latter end of them, and tell us the things that are
to come.
41:23. Shew the things that are to come hereafter, and we shall know
that ye are gods. Do ye also good or evil, if you can: and let us speak,
and see together.
41:24. Behold, you are of nothing, and your work of that which hath no
being: he that hath chosen you is an abomination.
41:25. I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come from the
rising of the sun: he shall call upon my name, and he shall make princes
to be as dirt, and as the potter treading clay.
41:26. Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know: and from
time of old, that we may say: Thou art just. There is none that sheweth,
nor that foretelleth, nor that heareth your words.
41:27. The first shall say to Sion: Behold they are here, and to
Jerusalem I will give an evangelist.
41:28. And I saw, and there was no one even among them to consult, or
who, when I asked, could answer a word.
41:29. Behold they are all in the wrong, and their works are vain: their
idols are wind and vanity.