Isaiah Chapter 41 verse 5 Holy Bible
The isles have seen, and fear; the ends of the earth tremble; they draw near, and come.
read chapter 41 in ASV
The sea-lands saw it, and were in fear; the ends of the earth were shaking: they came near.
read chapter 41 in BBE
The isles saw [it], and feared; the ends of the earth trembled: they drew near, and came.
read chapter 41 in DARBY
The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came.
read chapter 41 in KJV
read chapter 41 in WBT
The isles have seen, and fear; the ends of the earth tremble; they draw near, and come.
read chapter 41 in WEB
Seen have isles and fear, ends of the earth tremble, They have drawn near, yea, they come.
read chapter 41 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 5. - The isles saw it, and feared. A general terror seized the nations on the conquest of the Medes by Cyrus. Croesus of Lydia, Nabonidus of Babylon, and Amasis of Egypt, were at once drawn together by the common danger, and made alliance offensive and defensive (Herod., 1:77). The weaker tribes and peoples gave themselves up for lost. Scarcely any resistance seems to have been offered to the Persian arms by the tribes between the Halys and Indus, the Jaxartes and the Indian Ocean. Lydia and Babylon alone made a stout fight; but even these were conquered without very much difficulty. The ends of the earth... drew near; i.e. distant nations held (will hold) consultation together on the danger which threatens them. The league of Lydia, Babylon, and Egypt is the only known instance of such "drawing near" (see the preceding note). Isaiah anticipates marked consultations and exhortations with respect to the idol-gods, in which trust should be put; but perhaps he is scarcely serious in vers. 6, 7. Rather he is indulging his sarcastic humour at the expense of the idols and of those who put their trust in them. (For instances, however, of actual trust in particular idols, see 'Records of the Past,' vol. 4. p. 58; Herod., 5:67; 8:64,)
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(5) The isles saw it, and feared . . .--The words paint the terror caused by the rapid conquests of Cyrus, but the terror led, as the following verses show, to something very different from the acknowledgment of the Eternal. As the sailors in the ship of Tarshish called each man on his God (Jonah 1:5), so each nation turned to its oracles and its shrines. The gods had to be propitiated by new statues, and a fresh impetus was given to the manufacture of idols, probably for the purpose of being carried forth to battle as a protection. (Comp. 1Samuel 4:5-7; Herod. i. 26.)
