Do Not Fear, for I Am with You

1“Coastlands, listen to Me in silence,

And let the peoples gain new power;

Let them come forward, then let them speak;

Let us draw near together for judgment.

2Who has awakened one from the east

Whom He calls in righteousness to His [†]feet?

He gives up nations before him

And [†]has dominion over kings.

He makes them like dust with his sword,

As the wind-driven chaff with his bow.

3He pursues them, passing on in peace,

By a way he had not [†]come with his feet.

4Who has worked and done it,

Calling forth the generations from the beginning?

‘I, Yahweh, am the first; and with the last, I am He.’”

5The coastlands have seen and are afraid;

The ends of the earth tremble;

They have drawn near and have come.

6Each one helps his neighbor

And says to his brother, “Be strong!”

7So the craftsman strengthens the smelter,

And he who smooths metal with the hammer strengthens him who beats the anvil,

Saying of the soldering, “It is good”;

And he strengthens it with nails,

So that it will not be shaken.

8“But you, Israel, My servant,

Jacob whom I have chosen,

Seed of Abraham My friend,

9You whom I have [†]strongly taken hold of from the ends of the earth,

And called from its remotest parts

And said to you, ‘You are My servant,

I have chosen you and not rejected you.

10Do not fear, for I am with you;

Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.

I will make you mighty, surely I will help you;

Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

11Behold, all those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored;

Those who contend with you will be as nothing and will perish.

12You will seek those who quarrel with you, but will not find them,

Those who war with you will be as nothing and non-existent.

13For I am Yahweh your God, who [†]strongly takes hold of your right hand,

Who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’

14Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel;

I will help you,” declares Yahweh, “[†]and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

15Behold, I have made you a new, sharp threshing sledge with double edges;

You will thresh the mountains and pulverize them,

And will make the hills like chaff.

16You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away,

And the storm will scatter them;

But you will rejoice in Yahweh;

You will boast in the Holy One of Israel.

17“The [†]afflicted and needy are seeking water, but there is none,

And their tongue is parched with thirst;

I, Yahweh, will answer them Myself,

As the God of Israel I 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 a pool of water

And the dry land fountains of water.

19I will put the cedar in the wilderness,

The acacia and the myrtle and the [†]olive tree;

I will place the juniper in the desert

Together with the box tree and the cypress,

20That they may see and know,

And establish and gain insight as well,

That the hand of Yahweh has done this,

And the Holy One of Israel has created it.

21“Bring near your case,” Yahweh says.

“Bring forward your mighty arguments,”

The King of Jacob says.

22Let them bring it forth and declare to us what is going to take place;

As for the former events, declare what they were,

That we may establish our heart on them and know their outcome.

Or cause us to hear of what is coming;

23Declare the things that are to come afterward,

That we may know that you are gods;

Indeed, do good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together.

24Behold, you are nothing,

And your work is non-existent;

He who chooses you is an abomination.

25“I have awakened one from the north, and he has come;

From the rising of the sun he will call on My name;

And he will come upon officials as upon mortar,

Even as the potter treads clay.”

26Who has declared this from the beginning, that we might know?

Or from former times, that we may say, “He is right!”?

Surely there was no one who declared;

Surely there was no one who caused those words to be heard;

Surely there was no one who heard your words.

27“Formerly I said to Zion, ‘Behold, here they are.’

And to Jerusalem, ‘I will give a messenger of good news.’

28But I look, and there is no one,

And there is no counselor [†]among them

Who, if I ask, can respond with a word.

29Behold, all of them are [†]false;

Their works are non-existent;

Their molten images are wind and utter formlessness.