Yesaya 41:1

The Lord Challenges the Nations

41:1 “Listen to me in silence, you coastlands! ¹ 

Let the nations find renewed strength!

Let them approach and then speak;

let us come together for debate! ² 

Yesaya 41:5

41:5 The coastlands ³  see and are afraid;

the whole earth ⁴  trembles;

they approach and come.

[41:1]  ¹ tn Or “islands” (KJV, NIV, CEV); TEV “distant lands”; NLT “lands beyond the sea.”

[41:1]  ² tn The Hebrew term מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat) could be translated “judgment,” but here it seems to refer to the dispute or debate between the Lord and the nations.

[41:5]  ³ tn Or “islands” (NIV, CEV); NCV “faraway places”; NLT “lands beyond the sea.”

[41:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “the ends of the earth,” but this is a merism, where the earth’s extremities stand for its entirety, i.e., the extremities and everything in between them.