World English Bible
- “Keep silent before me, islands, and let the peoples renew their strength. Let them come near, then let them speak. Let’s meet together for judgment.
- Who has raised up one from the east? Who called him to his feet in righteousness? He hands over nations to him and makes him rule over kings. He gives them like the dust to his sword, like the driven stubble to his bow.
- He pursues them and passes by safely, even by a way that he had not gone with his feet.
- Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD, the first, and with the last, I am he.”
- The islands have seen, and fear. The ends of the earth tremble. They approach, and come.
- Everyone helps his neighbor. They say to their brothers, “Be strong!”
- So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith. He who smooths with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, “It is good;” and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter.
- “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham my friend,
- you whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and called from its corners, and said to you, ‘You are my servant. I have chosen you and have not cast you away.’
- Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.
- Behold, all those who are incensed against you will be disappointed and confounded. Those who strive with you will be like nothing, and shall perish.
- You will seek them, and won’t find them, even those who contend with you. Those who war against you will be as nothing, as a nonexistent thing.
- For I, the LORD your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, ‘Don’t be afraid. I will help you.’
- Don’t be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel. I will help you,” says the LORD. “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
- Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth. You will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and will make the hills like chaff.
- You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the whirlwind will scatter them. You will rejoice in the LORD. You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.
- The poor and needy seek water, and there is none. Their tongue fails for thirst. I, the LORD, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
- I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the middle of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
- I will put cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oil trees in the wilderness. I will set cypress trees, pine, and box trees together in the desert;
- that they may see, know, consider, and understand together, that the LORD’s hand has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it.
- Produce your cause,” says the LORD. “Bring out your strong reasons!” says the King of Jacob.
- “Let them announce and declare to us what will happen! Declare the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come.
- Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and see it together.
- Behold, you are nothing, and your work is nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination.
- “I have raised up one from the north, and he has come, from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name, and he shall come on rulers as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay.
- Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know? and before, that we may say, ‘He is right’? Surely, there is no one who declares. Surely, there is no one who shows. Surely, there is no one who hears your words.
- I am the first to say to Zion, ‘Behold, look at them;’ and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem.
- When I look, there is no man, even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask, can answer a word.
- Behold, all of their deeds are vanity and nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion.
Isaiah 40 ends with strength renewed for those who wait for the Lord. Isaiah 41 opens by telling the nations to “renew their strength” and come to court. The echo is deliberate. One kind of strength comes from trusting God; another is gathered to defend the things we trust instead of God.
Watch the nations prepare their case. Friends tell friends, “Be strong!” Craftsmen encourage one another as they make an idol. Their kindness is real, but their courage has a strange destination: they fasten the god with nails so it will not topple. The question is not whether we should help one another. It is whether our shared effort has become a way of keeping our savior standing. What must we constantly prop up—our reputation, our plans, our sense of control—because we fear what would happen if it fell?
For people facing Babylonian exile, the approaching conqueror was no small matter. The figure “from the east” is commonly understood as Cyrus of Persia, named later in Isaiah (44:28–45:1). God does not tell his people that world powers are harmless. He tells them that such powers are not ultimate. Then, in the middle of this vast courtroom, he addresses little Jacob.
“Don’t be afraid, you worm Jacob” can sound crushing until we hear what follows: “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.” Redeemer translates the Hebrew go’el: a near relative who takes responsibility for a family member in trouble, including the recovery of lost land or freedom (Leviticus 25:25, 47–49). God names their frailty without turning away from it. His answer is not, “Become impressive.” It is, “I will hold your right hand.”
Even the startling promise that Jacob will “thresh the mountains” leads somewhere gentler than conquest. The poor and thirsty receive water; seven kinds of trees grow in the wilderness. God’s people must not read every opponent as a mountain to crush. The promised victory makes room for life where life seemed impossible.
Notice the hands throughout the chapter. Human hands nail down a god that cannot stand; the Lord’s hand holds a people who cannot stand alone. Christians see the contrast sharpen at the cross: in Jesus Christ, human hands nailed the Lord to wood, yet death could not keep him there. The risen Christ does not need us to hold him up. He is able to hold us.
For further reading: Isaiah 40:28–31; 49:3–6; John
20:27.
Hymn: “How Firm a Foundation.”
Prayer: Lord, show us what we have been holding together out of fear. Loosen our grip, take our hand, and teach us to trust the life only you can give. Amen.