Isaiah 41

Be quiet and listen to me, you distant lands across the sea. Let the nations gather their strength. Let them come forward and state their case. Let us meet together and settle this like a court hearing.

1Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment.

Note"Islands" translates a Hebrew word (iyyim) for the coasts and islands of the Mediterranean, for Isaiah's first hearers, the far rim of the known world, standing for the most distant nations. The whole chapter is staged as a lawsuit: God summons the nations and their gods into court, and the two sides take turns presenting evidence.

2Who stirred up a man from the east and called him to serve a right and just purpose? Who handed nations over to him and put kings under his rule? His sword turns them into dust. His bow scatters them like straw blown away by the wind.

2Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? he gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow.

NoteThe KJV's "called him to his foot" translates a phrase whose sense in Hebrew is genuinely unclear; it may mean summoned him into service, or that victory follows wherever he steps. The conqueror is not named. Many readers, ancient and modern, take him to be Cyrus, the Persian king named later in the book, who overthrew Babylon; others have taken him to be Abraham, who also came from the east.

3He chases them and moves on unharmed, going so fast down a road he has never walked before that his feet hardly seem to touch it.

3He pursued them, and passed safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet.

4Who planned all this and carried it out, calling each generation into being from the very start? I did. I am the LORD. I am there at the beginning and I am there at the end. I am the one.

4Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.

Note"LORD" printed in capitals stands in for the personal name of Israel's God, written in Hebrew with four consonants (YHWH). Jewish practice was to avoid saying the name aloud and to read "Lord" in its place; English Bibles mark the substitution with capitals.

5The distant lands across the sea saw it and were afraid. People at the far ends of the earth trembled. They gathered and came together.

5The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came.

6Each one helped the person next to him. Each one said to his brother, "Be strong."

6They helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage.

7So the woodworker cheered on the goldsmith. The man who smoothed the metal with a hammer cheered on the man striking the anvil. He said about the joint, "It is welded well." Then he nailed the idol down so it would not tip over.

7So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.

NoteThis describes an idol being manufactured. A wooden core was shaped by a carpenter, then covered with hammered plates of gold or silver by a metalworker; the seams were welded, and the finished figure was nailed to a base so it would not topple over.

8But you, Israel, are my servant. You are Jacob, the one I chose. You come from Abraham, my friend.

8But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.

Note"Servant" here is a title of honor, like a king's trusted minister or agent, not a word for a slave. Jacob was Abraham's grandson, renamed Israel; his two names are used interchangeably for the man and for the nation descended from him.

9I brought you here from the far ends of the earth. I called you from its most distant corners. I said to you, "You are my servant." I have chosen you and have not thrown you away.

9Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.

NoteBeing called "from the ends of the earth" looks back to Abraham, summoned out of Mesopotamia far from the land he was promised, and speaks at the same time to Israelites scattered in exile far from home.

10Do not be afraid, because I am with you. Do not be worried, because I am your God. I will make you strong. I will help you. I will hold you up with my right hand, the hand that sets things right.

10Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

NoteIn Hebrew idiom the right hand is the strong hand: the hand that fights, rescues, and grants favor.

11Look, everyone who was furious with you will be put to shame and disgraced. They will amount to nothing. Those who fight against you will die.

11Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish.

12You will look for your enemies and will not find them. The people who argued against you will be gone. Those who make war on you will amount to nothing at all.

12Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.

13For I am the LORD your God. I take hold of your right hand, and I say to you, "Do not be afraid. I will help you."

13For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.

14Do not be afraid, Jacob, small and helpless as a worm. Do not be afraid, you few people of Israel. I will help you, says the LORD. The one who buys you back is the Holy One of Israel.

14Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

Note"Redeemer" translates go'el, the nearest male relative, who under Israelite custom was obliged to step in for a family member in trouble, buying back land the family had lost, paying to free a relative sold into slavery, or pursuing a killer. Calling God Israel's go'el claims that kind of family obligation. "The Holy One of Israel" is Isaiah's characteristic title for God; "holy" means set apart, belonging to a different order than anything human. "Worm" is an image of something small, crushable, and beneath notice.

15Look, I will turn you into a new threshing sledge with sharp teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them. You will grind the hills into chaff.

15Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.

NoteA threshing sledge was a heavy wooden board with stone or iron teeth set into its underside, dragged by oxen over cut grain spread on a hard floor to break the kernels loose from the husks. "Chaff" is the worthless husk left behind.

16You will toss them into the air, and the wind will carry them off. A windstorm will scatter them. But you will be glad because of the LORD. You will take pride in the Holy One of Israel.

16Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the LORD, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.

NoteWinnowing was the next step after threshing: workers tossed the crushed mixture into the air with a fork or shovel so that the breeze blew the light chaff away while the heavier grain fell back to the floor.

17When poor and needy people look for water and find none, and their tongues are dry with thirst, I the LORD will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will not abandon them.

17When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.

18I will open up rivers on the bare hilltops and springs in the middle of the valleys. I will turn the desert into a pool of water and the dry ground into flowing springs.

18I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.

NoteBare hilltops are exactly where water does not run; springs high on dry ridges would be a reversal of how the land works.

19I will plant cedar trees in the wilderness, along with acacia, myrtle, and olive trees. In the desert I will put cypress, elm, and boxwood trees side by side.

19I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together:

NoteSeven kinds of tree are named. Several of the Hebrew names cannot now be identified with certainty, "shittah" is the acacia, and the "oil tree" may be the olive or a related wild tree. The point is that these are substantial, water-dependent trees, not the thorn scrub that actually grows in desert country.

20I will do this so that people will see and know, and think it over and understand together, that the LORD's own hand has done this, and the Holy One of Israel created it.

20That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.

21"Present your case," says the LORD. "Bring out your best arguments," says the King of Jacob.

21Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.

NoteThe courtroom scene from verse 1 resumes. The test being set is a test of divinity: a real god should be able to announce in advance what is going to happen.

22Let your idols come forward and tell us what is going to happen. Let them explain past events and what they meant, so we can think it over and see how they turned out. Or let them tell us what is coming.

22Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen: let them shew the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come.

Note"Former things" and "things to come" work almost as technical terms in these chapters, predictions already made and since shown to have come true, as against what is still in the future. The challenge is to produce a track record.

23Tell us what will happen in the future, so we can know that you really are gods. Do something, anything, good or bad, so that we can look at it together and be shaken by it.

23Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.

Note"Do good or evil" is an idiom for doing anything at all, helpful or harmful: show any power whatever.

24Look, you are nothing at all, and what you do is worthless. Anyone who chooses you is disgusting.

24Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you.

NoteThe word behind "abomination" or "disgusting" comes from the vocabulary of worship. It names the revulsion felt at something ritually unclean (tainted food, a defiled shrine), rather than mere disapproval.

25I stirred up a man from the north, and he has come. From the east he calls on my name. He will walk over rulers as if they were wet mortar, the way a potter stomps on clay.

25I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as upon morter, and as the potter treadeth clay.

NoteBoth directions fit the Persian king Cyrus: his homeland lay east of Babylon, but his army came down on the city from the north. In the second image, a potter softened clay by treading it barefoot before shaping it, and mortar was mixed the same way, a picture of rulers trampled underfoot.

26Who announced this from the start, so that we could know it? Who said it ahead of time, so we could say, "He was right"? No one announced it. No one predicted it. No one ever heard a word from you.

26Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, He is righteous? yea, there is none that sheweth, yea, there is none that declareth, yea, there is none that heareth your words.

Note"He is righteous" here means "he was proved right": the Hebrew word covers being in the right in a dispute, as a court finds for one side.

27I was the first to say to Zion, "Look, here they are!" And I am the one who gives Jerusalem a messenger with good news.

27The first shall say to Zion, Behold, behold them: and I will give to Jerusalem one that bringeth good tidings.

NoteZion was first the fortified hill in Jerusalem, then a name for the whole city and its people. The Hebrew of the opening line is obscure, and translations differ on who is speaking and what is being pointed at.

28I look, and there is no one there. Among these idols there is no advisor who can answer a single word when I ask a question.

28For I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, and there was no counsellor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word.

29Look, they are all a lie. What they do amounts to nothing. Their metal statues are nothing but wind and emptiness.

29Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.

Note"Vanity" in older English means emptiness or nothingness, not conceit. "Molten images" are statues made by melting metal and pouring it into a mold.