Isaiah 41:1-9

God's Assurance to Israel

41¹ “Keep silent before me, islands,
and let the peoples renew their strength.
Let them come near,
then let them speak.
Let’s meet together for judgment. ² Who has raised up one from the east?
Whom called him to his foot in righteousness?
He hands over nations to him,
and makes him rule over kings.
He gives them like the dust to his sword,
like the driven stubble to his bow. ³ He pursues them,
and passes by safely,
Even by a way that he had not gone with his feet. ⁴ Who has worked and done it,
calling the generations from the beginning?
I, Yahweh, the first, and with the last, I am he.” ⁵ The islands have seen, and fear.
The ends of the earth tremble.
They approach, and come. ⁶ Everyone helps his neighbor.
They say to their brothers, “Be strong!” ⁷ So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith.
He who smoothes with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil,
saying of the soldering, “It is good;”
and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter. ⁸ “But you, Israel, my servant,
Jacob whom I have chosen,
the seed of Abraham my friend, ⁹ You whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth,
and called from its corners,
and said to you, ‘You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you away;’