1"Be silent before me, you islands. Let the peoples renew their strength. Let them come near; then let them speak. Let us come near together for judgment."
2"Who raised up the righteous man from the east, and called him to his foot? Who gave the nations over to him, and made him rule over kings? He gave them to his sword like dust, and to his bow like straw blown away."
3"He chased them and passed on safely, by a road his feet had never walked before."
4"Who has worked and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he."
5The islands saw it, and were afraid. The ends of the earth trembled. They drew near and came.
6Each one helped his neighbour, and each said to his brother, "Be strong."
7So the carpenter cheered on the goldsmith, and the man who smooths with the hammer cheered on the man who strikes the anvil. He said of the soldering, "It is good." Then he fastened it with nails so that it would not fall over.
9"I took you from the ends of the earth. I called you from its farthest corners, and said to you, 'You are my servant. I have chosen you and have not thrown you away.'"
10"Do not be afraid, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will hold you up with the right hand of my righteousness."
11"Look, all who were angry at you will be ashamed and disgraced. They will be as nothing. Those who fight against you will die."
12"You will look for them and not find them, those who argued against you. Those who make war on you will be as nothing, as a thing that does not exist."
13"For I the LORD your God will hold your right hand. I say to you, 'Do not be afraid. I will help you.'"
14"Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel. I will help you, says the LORD, and your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel."
15"Look, I will make you into a new threshing sledge, sharp and set with teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them small, and make the hills like chaff."
16"You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the whirlwind will scatter them. And you will rejoice in the LORD, and glory in the Holy One of Israel."
17"When the poor and needy look for water and there is none, and their tongue is dry with thirst, I the LORD will hear them. I the God of Israel will not leave them."
18"I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the middle of the valleys. I will turn the wilderness into a pool of water, and the dry land into springs of water."
19"I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, the myrtle and the oil tree. I will set in the desert the fir tree, the pine and the box tree together,"
20"so that they may see and know, consider and understand together, that the hand of the LORD has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it."
21"Bring your case forward," says the LORD. "Bring out your strong arguments," says the King of Jacob.
22"Let them bring them out, and show us what will happen. Let them tell us what the earlier things were, so that we may think about them and know how they ended. Or let them declare to us the things that are coming."
23"Tell us the things that are to come after this, so that we may know you are gods. Yes, do something good, or do something evil, so that we may be dismayed and see it together."
24"Look, you are nothing, and your work is nothing at all. Whoever chooses you is disgusting."
25"I have raised up one from the north, and he will come. From the rising of the sun he will call on my name. He will walk over rulers as if they were mortar, as the potter treads the clay."
26"Who told this from the beginning, so that we might know? Who told it long before, so that we might say, 'He is right'? No, there is no one who tells it. No, there is no one who declares it. No, there is no one who hears your words."
27"I was the first to say to Zion, 'Look, look at them.' And I will give Jerusalem someone who brings good news."
28"For I looked, and there was no one; among them there was no counsellor who could answer a word when I asked them."
29"Look, they are all worthless. Their works are nothing. Their metal images are wind and confusion."