1Hold a feast to me, you° islands: for the princes shall renew their strength: let them draw near and speak together: then let them declare judgment.
2Who raised up righteousness from the east, and called it to his feet, so that it should go? shall appoint it an adversary of Gentiles, and shall dismay kings, and bury their swords in the earth, and cast forth their bows and arrows as sticks?
3And he shall pursue them; the way of his feet shall proceed in peace.
4Who has wrought and done these things? he has called it who called it from the generations of old; I God, the first and to all futurity, I AM.
5The nations saw, and feared; the ends of the earth drew near, and came together,
6every one judging for his neighbor and that to assist his brother: and one will say,
7The artificer has become strong, and the coppersmith that smites with the hammer, and forges also: sometimes he will say, It is a piece well joined: they have fastened them with nails; they will fix them, and they shall not be moved.
8But you, Israel, are my servant Jacob, and he whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraam, whom I have loved:
9whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and from the high places of it I have called you, and said to you, You are my servant; I have chosen you, and I have not forsaken you.
10Fear not; for I am with you: wander not; for I am your God, who have strengthened you; and I have helped you, and have established you with my just right hand.
11Behold, all your adversaries shall be ashamed and confounded; for they shall be as if they were not: and all your opponents shall perish.
12You shall seek them, and you shall not find the men who shall insolently rage against you: for they shall be as if they were not, and they that war against you shall not be.
13For I am your God, who holds your right hand, who says to you,
14Fear not, Jacob, and you Israel few in number; I have helped you, says your God, he that redeems you, O Israel.
15Behold, I have made you as new saw-shaped threshing wheels of a waggon; and you shall thresh the mountains, and beat the hills to powder, and make them as chaff:
16and you shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and a tempest shall scatter them: but you shall rejoice in the holy ones of Israel.
17And the poor and the needy shall exult; for when they shall seek water, and there shall be none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord God, I the God of Israel will hear, and will not forsake them:
18but I will open rivers on the mountains, and fountains in the midst of plains: I will make the desert pools of water, and a thirsty land watercourses.
19I will plant in the dry land the cedar and box, the myrtle and cypress, and white poplar:
20that they may see, and know, and perceive, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord has wrought these works, and the Holy One of Israel has displayed them.
21Your judgment draws near, says the Lord God; your counsels have drawn near, says the King of Jacob.
22Let them draw near, and declare to you what things shall come to pass; or tell us what things were of old, and we will apply our understanding, and we shall know what are the last and the future things:
23tell us, declare you° to us the things that are coming on at the last time, and we shall know that you° are gods: do good, and do evil, and we shall wonder, and see at the same time
24whence you° are, and whence is your works: they have chosen you an abomination out of the earth.
25But I have raised up him that comes from the north, and him that comes from the rising of the sun: they shall be called by my name: let the princes come, and as potter's clay, and as a potter treading clay, so shall you° be trodden down.
26For who will declare the things from the beginning, that we may know also the former things, and we will say that they are true? there is no one that speaks beforehand, nor anyone that hears your words.
27I will give dominion to Sion, and will comfort Jerusalem by the way.
28For from among the nations, behold, there was no one; and of their idols there was none to declare anything: and if I should ask them, Whence are you°? they could not answer me.
29For these are your makers, as you° think, and they that cause you to err in vain.
