Read the Bible

¹ Keep silence before me, islands; and let the peoples renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak; let us come near together to judgment. ² Who has raised up one from the east, whom he calls in righteousness to his foot? he gives nations before him, and makes him rule over kings; he gives them as the dust to his sword, as the driven stubble to his bow. ³ He pursues them, and passes on safely, even by a way that he had not gone with his feet. ⁴ Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD, the first, and with the last, I am he. ⁵ The isles have seen, and fear; the ends of the eretz tremble; they draw near, and come. ⁶ They help everyone his neighbor; and [every one] says to his brother, Be of good courage. ⁷ So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith, [and] he who smoothes with the hammer him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, It is good; and he fastens it with nails, that is should not be moved. ⁸ But you, Yisra'el, my servant, Ya`akov whom I have chosen, the seed of Avraham my friend, ⁹ you whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the eretz, and called from the corners of it, and said to you, You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you away;

¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ Behold, all those who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded: those who strive with you shall be as nothing, and shall perish. ¹² You shall seek them, and shall not find them, even those who contend with you: those who war against you shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nothing. ¹³ For I, the LORD your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, Don't be afraid; I will help you. ¹⁴ Don't be afraid, you worm Ya`akov, and you men of Yisra'el; I will help you, says the LORD, and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Yisra'el. ¹⁵ Behold, I have made you [to be] a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shall make the hills as chaff. ¹⁶ You shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them; and you shall rejoice in the LORD, you shall glory in the Holy One of Yisra'el. ¹⁷ The poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue fails for thirst; I, the LORD, will answer them, I, the God of Yisra'el, will not forsake them. ¹⁸ I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. ¹⁹ I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the shittim, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, the pine, and the box tree together: ²⁰ that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD has done this, and the Holy One of Yisra'el has created it.

²¹ Produce your cause, says the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, says the King of Ya`akov. ²² Let them bring forth, and declare to us what shall happen: declare you the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come. ²³ 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. ²⁴ Behold, you are of nothing, and your work is of nothing; an abomination is he who chooses you. ²⁵ 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. ²⁶ Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know? and before, that we may say, [He is] right? yes, there is none who declares, yes, there is none who shows, yes, there is none who hears your words. ²⁷ [I am the] first [who says] to Tziyon, Behold, behold them; and I will give to Yerushalayim one who brings good news. ²⁸ When I look, there is no man: even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask of them, can answer a word. ²⁹ Behold, all of them, their works are vanity [and] nothing; their molten images are wind and confusion.