Isaiah 41

²Who has raised up one from the east?

³He pursues them

⁴Who has worked and done it,

⁵The islands have seen, and fear.

⁶Everyone helps his neighbor.

⁷So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith.

⁸“But you, Israel, my servant,

⁹you whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth,

¹⁰Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you.

¹¹Behold, all those who are incensed against you will be disappointed and confounded.

¹²You will seek them, and won’t find them,

¹³For I, the LORD your God, will hold your right hand,

¹⁴Don’t be afraid, you worm Jacob,

¹⁵Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth.

¹⁶You will winnow them,

¹⁷The poor and needy seek water, and there is none.

¹⁸I will open rivers on the bare heights,

¹⁹I will put cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oil trees in the wilderness.

²⁰that they may see, know, consider, and understand together,

²¹Produce your cause,” says the LORD.

²²“Let them announce and declare to us what will happen!

²³Declare the things that are to come hereafter,

²⁴Behold, you are nothing,

²⁵“I have raised up one from the north, and he has come,

²⁶Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know?

²⁷I am the first to say to Zion, ‘Behold, look at them;’

²⁸When I look, there is no man,

²⁹Behold, all of their deeds are vanity and nothing.