Isaiah 41:1

Jehovah calls the heathen nations to a disputation concerning the appearance of Cyrus.

Keep silence before me A pregnant constr. in the Heb. = Listen in silence unto me. On islands, see on ch. Isaiah 40:15.

renewtheir strength The words are somewhat suspicious, as they are repeated from ch. Isaiah 40:31, and the thought is hardly suitable at the beginning of an argument. Job 38:3 is not an exact parallel. Possibly the eye of a scribe may have wandered to the previous verse.

judgment (mishpâṭ) is used in the same sense as in Malachi 3:5 ("judicial process.") Cf. Judges 4:5.