Isaiah 41

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¹“Listen to Me in silence, you coastlands, And let the peoples gain new strength; Let them come forward, then let them speak; Let’s come together for judgment. ✦ ²“Who has stirred one from the east Whom He calls in righteousness to His feet? He turns nations over to him And subdues kings. He makes them like dust with his sword, Like the wind-driven chaff with his bow. ✦ ³“He pursues them, passing on in safety, By a way he had not been traversing with his feet. ✦ ⁴“Who has performed and accomplished it, Summoning the generations from the beginning? ‘I, the Lord, am the first, and with the last. I am He.’ ” ✦ ⁵¶The coastlands have seen and are afraid; The ends of the earth tremble; They have approached and have come. ✦ ⁶Each one helps his neighbor And says to his brother, “Be strong!” ✦ ⁷So the craftsman encourages the smelter, And he who smooths metal with the hammer encourages him who beats the anvil, Saying of the soldering, “It is good”; And he fastens it with nails, So that it will not totter. ✦ ⁸“But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, Descendant of Abraham My friend, ✦ ⁹You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth And called from its remotest parts, And said to you, ‘You are My servant, I have chosen you and have not rejected you. ✦ ¹⁰‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will also help you, I will also uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ ✦ ¹¹“Behold, all those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored; Those who contend with you will be as nothing and will perish. ✦ ¹²“You will seek those who quarrel with you, but will not find them, Those who war with you will be as nothing and non-existent. ✦ ¹³“For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand, Who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’ ✦ ¹⁴“Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you people of Israel; I will help you,” declares the Lord, “and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. ✦ ¹⁵“Behold, I turned you into a new, sharp threshing sledge with double edges; You will thresh the mountains and pulverize them, And make the hills like chaff. ✦ ¹⁶“You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, And the storm will scatter them; But you will rejoice in the Lord, You will boast in the Holy One of Israel. ✦ ¹⁷¶“The poor and needy are seeking water, but there is none, And their tongues are parched with thirst. I, the Lord, will answer them Myself; As the God of Israel I will not abandon 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 fountains of water. ✦ ¹⁹“I will put the cedar in the wilderness, The acacia, the myrtle, and the olive tree; I will place the juniper in the desert, Together with the elm tree and the cypress, ✦ ²⁰So that they may see and recognize, And consider and gain insight as well, That the hand of the Lord has done this, And the Holy One of Israel has created it. ✦ ²¹¶“Present your case,” the Lord says. “Bring forward your evidence,” The King of Jacob says. ✦ ²²Let them bring them forward and declare to us what is going to take place; As for the former events, declare what they were, So that we may consider them and know their outcome. Or announce to us what is coming; ✦ ²³Declare the things that are going to come afterward, So that we may know that you are gods; Indeed, do good or evil, that we may be afraid and fear together. ✦ ²⁴Behold, you are less than nothing, And your work is less than nothing! He who chooses you is an abomination. ✦ ²⁵¶“I have put one from the north into motion, and he has come; From the rising of the sun he will call on My name; And he will come upon rulers as upon mortar, As the potter treads on clay.” ✦ ²⁶Who has declared this from the beginning, that we might know? Or from former times, that we may say, “He is right!”? There was no one at all who declared, There was no one at all who proclaimed, There was no one at all who heard your words. ✦ ²⁷“Previously I said to Zion, ‘Behold, here they are.’ And to Jerusalem, ‘I will give a messenger of good news.’ ✦ ²⁸“But when I look, there is no one, And there is no counselor among them Who, if I ask, can give an answer. ✦ ²⁹“Behold, all of them are false; Their works are nothing, Their cast metal images are wind and emptiness. ✦

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Where this chapter connects

Isa 44 ·19 Isa 41 ·16 Isa 43 ·14 Isa 45 ·11 Isa 40 ·9 Isa 48 ·9 Isa 46 ·8 Isa 49 ·7

Christ at the center

Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).

How Isaiah 41 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereVideoBibleProject — video overviews & word studiesBibleProject · 5–10 min · Free · evangelical
Free animated overviews of every book of the Bible, plus themes and Hebrew/Greek word studies — the best visual on-ramp to any book. (Biblical-theology, broadly evangelical, not distinctly Reformed.)
★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Seminary

★ Start hereCommentaryThe Book of Isaiah (NICOT)John N. Oswalt · Paid · evangelical
The standard evangelical commentary on Isaiah — thorough and devotionally warm.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Isaiah videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Isaiah 41YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Isaiah 41David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on IsaiahMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Isaiah 41Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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