Isaiah 41:1-7

Revised Standard Version

² Who stirred up one from the east
    whom victory meets at every step?
He gives up nations before him,
    so that he tramples kings under foot;
he makes them like dust with his sword,
    like driven stubble with his bow.
³ He pursues them and passes on safely,
    by paths his feet have not trod.
⁴ Who has performed and done this,
    calling the generations from the beginning?
I, the Lord, 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 drawn near and come.
⁶ Every one helps his neighbor,
    and says to his brother, “Take courage!”
⁷ The craftsman encourages the goldsmith,
    and he who smooths with the hammer him who strikes the anvil,
saying of the soldering, “It is good”;
    and they fasten it with nails so that it cannot be moved.