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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66
"Faraway countries, be quiet and listen to me!
Nations be brave.[383]
Come to me and speak.
We will meet together
and decide who is right.
<2> Who woke up the man who is coming from the east?
He called Justice to march with him.
He uses his sword to crush nations.
He uses his bow and conquers kings-
they run away like straw blown by the wind.
<3> He chases armies and is never hurt.
He goes places he has never been before.
<4> Who took action and made all this happen?
Who called everyone from the beginning?
I, the Lord, am the one.
I was here at the beginning, and I will be here
when all things are finished.
<5> People along the coast saw this,
and they were frightened.
Nations at the ends of the earth
shook with fear.
They have come near.
They have arrived.
<6> "Workers help each other. They encourage each other to be strong. <7> One worker cuts wood to make a statue. He encourages the man who works with gold. Another worker uses a hammer and makes the metal smooth. Then he encourages the man at the anvil.[384] This last worker says, 'This work is good; the metal will not come off.' Then he nails the statue to a base so that it will not fall over. And it never moves!"
<8> The Lord says,
"You, Israel, are my servant.
Jacob, I chose you.
You are the family
of my friend, Abraham.
<9> You were in a faraway country,
but I reached out to you.
I called you from that faraway place.
I said, 'You are my servant.'
I chose you,
and I have not rejected you.
<10> Don't worry, I am with you.
Don't be afraid, I am your God.
I will make you strong.
I will help you.
I will support you with my right hand
that brings victory.
<11> Look, some people are angry with you,
but they will be ashamed and disgraced.
Your enemies will be lost and disappear.
<12> You will look for the people who were against you,
but you will not be able to find them.
Those who fought against you
will disappear completely.
<13> I am the Lord your God,
who holds your right hand.
And I tell you, 'Don't be afraid!
I will help you.'
<14> "Worthless" Jacob, people of Israel,[385]
don't be afraid.
I really will help you."
The Lord himself said this.
The Holy One of Israel,
the one who saves you, said this:
<15> "Look, I have made you like
a new threshing board.
That tool has many sharp teeth.
Farmers use it to crush the hulls,
so they will separate from the grain.
You will trample mountains
and crush them.
You will make the hills like those hulls.
<16> You will throw them into the air,
and the wind will blow them away and scatter them.
Then you will be happy in the Lord.
You will be very proud of the Holy One of Israel.
<17> "The poor and needy look for water,
but they cannot find any.
They are thirsty;
their tongues are very dry.
I will answer their prayers.
I will not leave them and let them die.
<18> I will make rivers flow on dry hills.
I will make springs of water flow
through the valleys.
I will change the desert into a lake
filled with water.
There will be springs of water
in that dry land.
<19> I will make trees grow in the desert.
There will be cedar, acacias,
olive trees, cypress, fir trees, and pines.
<20> I will do this so that people will see it
and know who did it.
They will notice what happened, and they will see that
the Lord's hand made it happen.
They will understand that
the Holy One of Israel created it."
<21> The Lord, the king of Jacob, says, "Come, present your arguments. Show me your proof. <22> Let your idols come in and tell us what will happen. Idols, tell us what happened in the beginning. We will listen closely so that we can make a decision. Tell us what will happen in the future. <23> What signs did you give in the past to prove that you really are gods. Do something! Do anything, good or bad, so we can see that you are alive. Then we might fear and respect you.
<24> "Look, you false gods are worthless. You cannot do anything. Only some horrible fool[386] would want to worship you."
<25> "I woke up someone in the north.[387]
He is coming from the east where the sun rises.
He worships my name.
He tramples kings the way a potter walks on wet clay.
<26> "Who told us about this before it happened,
so we could say he was right?
[Did one of your idols tell us these things?]
No, none of them told us anything.
They didn't say a word,
and they cannot hear anything you say.
<27> I, the Lord, was the first one to tell
Zion[388] about these things.
I sent a messenger to Jerusalem with this message:
"Look, your people are coming back!"
<28> I looked at those false gods.
Not one of them said anything.
They didn't offer any advice.
I asked them questions,
but they didn't say a word.
<29> All of those gods are less than nothing.
They cannot do anything.
They are absolutely worthless.
© Copyright 2004 World Bible Translation Center.