God’s Help to Israel

1Keepe silence before mee, O ylands, and let the people renue their strength: let the come neere, and let them speake: let vs come together into iudgement.

2Who raised vp iustice from the East, and called him to his foote? and gaue the nations before him, and subdued the Kings? he gaue them as dust to his sword, and as scattered stubble vnto his bowe.

3He pursued them, and passed safely by the way that he had not gone with his feete.

4Who hath wrought and done it? he that calleth the generations from the beginning. I the Lord am the first, and with the last I am ye same.

5The yles sawe it, and did feare, & the ends of the earth were abashed, drew neere, and came.

6Euery man helped his neighbour, and saide to his brother, Be strong.

7So the workeman comforted the founder, and he that smote with ye hammer, him that smote by course, saying, It is ready for the sodering, and he fastened it with nayles that it shoulde not be mooued.

8But thou, Israel, art my seruant, and thou Iaakob, whom I haue chosen, the seede of Abraham my friend.

9For I haue taken thee from the endes of the earth, and called thee before the chiefe thereof, and saide vnto thee, Thou art my seruant: I haue chosen thee, and not cast thee away.

10Feare thou not, for I am with thee: be not afraide, for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee, and helpe thee, and will susteine thee with the right hand of my iustice.

11Beholde, all they that prouoke thee, shalbe ashamed, and confounded: they shalbe as nothing, and they that striue with thee, shall perish.

12Thou shalt seeke them and shalt not finde them: to wit, the men of thy strife, for they shall be as nothing, and the men that warre against thee, as a thing of nought.

13For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying vnto thee, Feare not, I wil helpe thee.

14Feare not, thou worme, Iaakob, and ye men of Israel: I wil helpe thee, sayth the Lord and thy redeemer the holy one of Israel.

15Behold, I wil make thee a roller, & a newe threshing instrument hauing teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountaines, and bring them to pouder, and shalt make the hilles as chaffe.

16Thou shalt fanne them, and the winde shal carie them away, and the whirlewinde shal scatter them: and thou shalt reioyce in the Lord, & shalt glory in the holy one of Israel.

17When the poore and the needy seeke water, & there is none (their tongue faileth for thirst: I the Lorde will heare them: I the God of Israel will not forsake them)

18I will open riuers in the toppes of the hils, and fountaines in the middes of the valleis: I will make the wildernesse as a poole of water, and the waste land as springs of water.

19I will set in the wildernesse the cedar, the shittah tree, and the mirre tree, and the pine tree, and I will set in the wildernesse the firre tree, the elme and the boxe tree together.

20Therefore let them see and knowe, and let them consider and vnderstande together that the hand of the Lord hath done this, & the holy one of Israel hath created it.

Meaningless Idols

21Stand to your cause, saith the Lord: bring forth your strong reasons, saith ye King of Iaakob.

22Let them bring foorth, and let them tell vs what shall come: let them shew the former things what they be, that wee may consider them, and knowe the latter ende of them: either declare vs things for to come.

23Shewe the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods: yea, doe good or doe euill, that we may declare it, and beholde it together.

24Beholde, ye are of no value, and your making is of naught: man hath chosen an abomination by them.

25I haue raised vp from the North, and he shal come: from the East sunne shall he cal vpon my Name, & shal come vpon princes as vpo clay, and as the potter treadeth myre vnder the foote.

26Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may knowe? or before time, that we may say, He is righteous? Surely there is none that sheweth: surely there is none that declareth: surely there is none that heareth your wordes.

27I am the first, that saieth to Zion, Beholde, beholde them: and I will giue to Ierusalem one that shall bring good tidings.

28But when I behelde, there was none, and when I inquired of them, there was no counsellor, and when I demaunded of them, they answered not a woorde.

29Beholde, they are all vanitie: their worke is of nothing, their images are wind and confusion.