God’s Help to Israel

1Be silent to me, ye islands; and the people shall change strength: they shall draw near; then shall they speak: together we will come near for judgment.

2Who raised up justice from the sunrising? he shall call him to his foot; he will give the nations before him; and he will bring down kings: he will give as the dust of his sword, as driven straw, his bow.

3He will pursue them, he will pass over in peace; the path he will not come in with his feet.

4Who made and did, calling the generations from the beginning? I Jehovah, the first, and with the last; I am he.

5The isles saw, and they will be afraid; the extremities of the earth will tremble; they drew near and they will come.

6They will help a man his neighbor, and he will say to his brother, Be strong.

7And the artificer will strengthen the founder, he making smooth with the hammer, he beating the anvil, saying, It is good for the welding; he will strengthen it with nails; it shall not totter.

8And thou, Israel, my servant Jacob whom I chose thee, the seed of Abraham my beloved:

9Whom I held thee fast from the extremities of the earth, and I called thee from its sides, and saying to thee, Thou my servant; I chose thee, and I rejected thee not.

10Thou shalt not fear, for I am with thee: thou shalt not look around for help for I thy God will strengthen thee; also I helped thee; also I held thee up with the right hand of my justice.

11Behold, all they burning with anger against thee shall be ashamed and disgraced: they shall be as nothing; and the men of thy strife shall be destroyed.

12Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them; the man of thy contention, the men of thy war, shall be as nothing and as no more.

13For I Jehovah thy God holding thy right hand, saying to thee, Thou shalt not fear; I helped thee.

14Thou shalt not fear, thou worm Jacob, ye men of Israel; I helped thee, says Jehovah, and thy redeemer the Holy One of Israel.

15Behold, I set thee to a new cutting threshing sledge having mouths: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat small, and the hills thou shalt set as chaff.

16Thou shalt winnow them, and the wind shall lift them up, and the storm shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in Jehovah, and glory in the Holy One of Israel.

17The poor and the needy seeking water, and none; their tongue failing in thirst, I Jehovah will answer them; the God of Israel, I will not forsake them.

18I will open rivers upon naked hills, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will set the desert for a pool of water, and the dry land for goings forth of water.

19I will give in the desert the cedar, the acacia, and the myrtle, and the tree of oil; I will set in the sterile region the the elm and the box tree together.

20So that they shall see and know and attend, and consider together that the hand of Jehovah did this, and the Holy One of Israel created it.

Meaningless Idols

21Bring near your cause, Will say Jehovah; draw near your strong defences, will the king of Jacob say:

22They shall draw near and announce to us what shall happen: shewed they the former things, what they were, and we will set our heart, and we shall know their latter state; or did we hear things coming?

23Announce the things coming hereafter, and we shall know that ye are God: also will ye do good or will ye do evil, and we shall look around for help and see together.

24Behold, ye are from nothing, and your work no more: an abomination he will choose in you.

25I roused up from the north, and he will come: from the rising of the sun he shall call upon my name: and he shall come upon prefects as clay, and as the potter will tread down the mud.

26Who announced from the beginning, and we shall know? and before, and we shall say, He is just; also none announcing; also none hearing; also none heard your words.

27The first to Zion, Behold, behold them: and to Jerusalem I will give him announcing good news.

28And I shall see, and no man; and from these, and no counselor; and I shall ask them, and they will not turn back a word.

29Behold, all of them, nothing; their works are no more: wind and emptiness are their libations.