God

I have taken you from the ends of the earth, summoned you from its most distant parts and said to you, 'You are my servant' - I have chosen you, not rejected you.

Don't be afraid, for I am with you; don't be distressed, for I am your God. I give you strength, I give you help, I support you with my victorious right hand.

For I, ADONAI, your God, say to you, as I hold your right hand, 'Have no fear; I will help you.

Have no fear, Ya'akov, you worm, you men of Isra'el!' I will help you," says ADONAI; "Your redeemer is the Holy One of Isra'el.

"I will make you into a threshing-sledge, new, with sharp, pointed teeth, to thresh the mountains and crush them to dust, to reduce the hills to chaff.

As you fan them, the wind will carry them off, and the whirlwind will scatter them. Then you will rejoice in ADONAI, you will glory in the Holy One of Isra'el.

"The poor and needy look for water in vain; their tongues are parched with thirst. I, ADONAI, will answer them. I, the God of Isra'el, will not leave them.

I will open up rivers on the barren hills and wells down in the broad valleys. I will turn the desert into a lake and dry ground into springs.

I will plant the desert with cedars, acacias, myrtles and olive trees; In the 'Aravah I will put cypresses together with elm trees and larches."

Then the people will see and know, together observe and understand that the hand of ADONAI has done this, that the Holy One of Isra'el created it.

"Present your case," says ADONAI, "Produce your arguments," says Ya'akov's king.

"I roused someone from the north, and he has come from the rising sun; he will call on my name. He will trample on rulers as if they were mud, like a potter treading clay."

I am the first to declare it to Tziyon, to send Yerushalayim a messenger with good news.

But when I look around, there is no one - not a single one can give counsel, who, when I ask, can give an answer.

"Here is my servant, whom I support, my chosen one, in whom I take pleasure. I have put my Spirit on him; he will bring justice to the Goyim.

He will not cry or shout; no one will hear his voice in the streets.

He will not snap off a broken reed or snuff out a smoldering wick. He will bring forth justice according to truth;

he will not weaken or be crushed until he has established justice on the earth, and the coastlands wait for his Torah."

Thus says God, ADONAI, who created the heavens and spread them out, who stretched out the earth and all that grows from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk on it:

"I, ADONAI, called you righteously, I took hold of you by the hand, I shaped you and made you a covenant for the people, to be a light for the Goyim,

I am ADONAI; that is my name. I yield my glory to no one else, nor my praise to any idol.

See how the former predictions come true; and now new things do I declare - before they sprout I tell you about them."

Sing to ADONAI a new song! Let his praise be sung from the ends of the earth by those sailing the sea and by everything in it, by the coastlands and those living there.

Let them give glory to ADONAI and proclaim his praise in the coastlands.

ADONAI will go out like a soldier, like a soldier roused to the fury of battle; he will shout, yes, he raises the battle cry; as he triumphs over his foes.