Chapter 41

  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.  

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

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

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

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

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  [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.  

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  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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  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.  

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  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.  

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

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  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.  

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  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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  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.  

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  [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.  

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  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.  

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

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  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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  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.  

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

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  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.  

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  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.  

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

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

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