Isaiah 41:1-9

God's Assurance to Israel

41¹ Come quietly before me, O sea-lands, and let the peoples get together their strength: let them come near; then let them say what they have to say: let us put forward our cause against one another. ² Who sent out from the east one who is right wherever he goes? he gives the nations into his hands, and makes him ruler over kings; he gives them as the dust to his sword, as dry stems before the wind to his bow. ³ He goes after them safely, not touching the road with his feet. ⁴ Whose purpose and work was it? His who sent out the generations from the start. I the Lord, the first, and with the last, I am he. ⁵ The sea-lands saw it, and were in fear; the ends of the earth were shaking: they came near. ⁶ They gave help everyone to his neighbour; and everyone said to his brother, Take heart! ⁷ So the metal-worker put heart into the gold-worker, and he who was hammering the metal smooth said kind words to the iron-worker, saying of the plate, It is ready: and he put it together with nails, so that there might be no slipping. ⁸ But as for you, Israel, my servant, and you, Jacob, whom I have taken for myself, the seed of Abraham my friend: ⁹ You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and sent for from its farthest parts, saying to you, You are my servant, whom I have taken for myself, and whom I have not given up: