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Chapter 41 |
| 1 | Keep 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. |
| 2 |
Who 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. |
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3 | He pursued them, and
passed safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet. |
| 4 |
Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the
LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he. |
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5 | The isles saw it, and
feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came. |
| 6 | They
helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to his brother, Be of good
courage. |
| 7
| So 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.
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| 8 | But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of
Abraham my friend. |
| 9 | Thou 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. |
| 10 | Fear 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. |
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11 | Behold, 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. |
| 12 | Thou 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. |
| 13 | For I the LORD thy God will
hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. |
| 14 |
Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the
LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. |
| 15 | Behold, 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.
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| 16 | Thou 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. |
| 17 | When 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. |
| 18 | I 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. |
| 19 |
I 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: |
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20 | That 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. |
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21 | Produce your cause, saith the LORD;
bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. |
| 22 | Let 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. |
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23 | Shew 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. |
| 24 | Behold, ye
are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth
you. |
| 25 |
I 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. |
| 26 | Who 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. |
| 27 | The first
shall say to Zion, Behold, behold them: and I will give to Jerusalem one that
bringeth good tidings. |
| 28 | For 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. |
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29 | Behold, they are all vanity; their works are
nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion. |
