Isaiah 41:8-28

8But thou, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend

9— thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called from the extremities thereof, and to whom I said, Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee and not rejected thee,

10— Fear not, for I [am] with thee; be not dismayed, for I [am] thy 1God: I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

11Lo, all that are incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded; they that strive with thee shall be as nothing, and shall perish.

12Thou 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.

13For I, Jehovah, thy 2God, hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.

14Fear not, thou worm Jacob, ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith Jehovah, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

15Behold, I have made of thee a new sharp threshing instrument having double teeth: thou shalt thresh and beat small the mountains, and shalt make the hills as chaff;

16thou 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.

17The afflicted and the needy seek water, and there is none; their tongue faileth for thirst: I, Jehovah, will answer them, [I], the 3God of Israel, will not forsake them.

18I 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 land into water-springs.

19I will give in the wilderness the cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oleaster; I will set in the desert the cypress, pine, and box-tree together;

20that 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.

21Produce your cause, saith Jehovah; bring forward your arguments, saith the King of Jacob.

22Let them bring them forward, and declare to us what shall happen: shew the former things, what they are, that we may give attention to them, and know the end of them; — or let us hear things to come:

23declare the things that are to happen hereafter, that we may know that ye are 4gods; yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be astonished, and behold it together.

24Behold, ye are less than nothing, and your work is of nought; an abomination is he that chooseth you. ...

25I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come, — from the rising of the sun, he who will call upon my name; and he shall come upon princes as on mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay.

26Who hath declared [it] from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, [It is] right? Indeed, there is none that declareth; no, none that sheweth; no, none that heareth your words.

27The first, [I said] to Zion, Behold, behold them! and to Jerusalem, I will give one that bringeth glad tidings.

28And I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, — and there was no counsellor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word.