1Be silent before me, O coastlands; let the peoples renew their strength. Let them draw near; then let them speak. Let us come together for judgment.
2Who stirred up from the east one whom righteousness meets at his feet? He gives nations before him and subdues kings; he makes them like dust with his sword, like driven stubble with his bow.
3He pursues them and passes on safely, by a path his feet have not traveled.
4Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Yahweh, am the first, and with the last ones I am he.
5The coastlands have seen and fear; the ends of the earth tremble. They have drawn near and come.
6Each helps his neighbor, and says to his brother, “Take courage!”
7So the craftsman encourages the goldsmith, and the one who smooths with the hammer him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, “It is good.” And he fastens it with nails so that it will not totter.
8But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, offspring of Abraham my friend—
9you whom I took hold of from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, and said to you, “You are my servant; I have chosen you and have not rejected you”—
10Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I strengthen you, indeed I help you, indeed I uphold you with my righteous right hand.
11Behold, all who are enraged against you will be ashamed and disgraced; those who contend with you will become as nothing and perish.
12You will seek them but not find them—those who quarrel with you; those who war against you will be as nothing, as nothing at all.
13For I am Yahweh your God, who takes hold of your right hand, who says to you, “Do not fear; I will help you.”
14Do not fear, O worm Jacob, O men of Israel; I have helped you, declares Yahweh, and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
15Behold, I have made you into a threshing sledge, sharp and new, with double edges; you will thresh the mountains and crush them, and make the hills like chaff.
16You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them off, and the storm will scatter them. But you—you will rejoice in Yahweh; in the Holy One of Israel you will glory.
17The poor and the needy seek water, but there is none; their tongue is parched with thirst. I, Yahweh, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
18I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness into a pool of water, and the parched land into springs of water.
19I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive tree; I will set in the desert the cypress, the pine, and the box tree together,
20so that they may see and know, may consider and understand together, that the hand of Yahweh has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it.
21“Present your case,” says Yahweh; “bring forward your strong arguments,” says the King of Jacob.
22Let them bring them near and declare to us what will happen. As for the former things, what were they? Declare, that we may set our heart on them and know their outcome; or announce to us the things to come.
23Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do good or do harm, that we may be dismayed and see it together.
24Behold, you are nothing, and your work is less than nothing; an abomination is he who chooses you.
25I stirred up one from the north, and he has come; from the rising of the sun he calls on my name. He tramples rulers as if they were mortar, like a potter treading clay.
26Who declared it from the beginning, that we might know, and beforehand, that we might say, “He is right”? Indeed, there was no one who declared it, indeed no one who announced it, indeed no one who heard your words.
27I was the first to say to Zion, “Behold, here they are!” and to Jerusalem I give a herald of good news.
28But when I look, there is no one; among these there is no counselor who, when I ask them, can give an answer.
29Behold, all of them are false; their works are nothing; their cast images are wind and emptiness.
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