Isaiah 41:5

רָאוּ אִיִּים וְיִירָאוּ קְצוֹת הָאָרֶץ יֶחֱרָדוּ קָרְבוּ וַיֶּאֱתָיוּן׃

5 The islands have seen this and they are afraid. The ends of the earth tremble. They drew near; they came forward.

רָאוּ אִיִּים וְיִרָאוּ The islands have seen this and they are afraid. Isaiah is making wordplay between רָאוּ (qal perfect ראה) and וְיִירָאוּ (qal waw-imperfect ירא). A valid question here is whether this ירא "fear" is in reverence, or in terror. Perhaps both are meant; certainly "tremble" in the next line could go either way. An Mp note tells us that וְיִירָאוּ occurs six times, three of them written plene. The plene forms are in Isaiah 41:5; Psalm 40:4 and 52:8. The other three are in Deuteronomy 17:13; 19:20 and 21:21.

קְצוֹת הָאָרֶץ יֶחֱרָדוּ The ends of the earth tremble. Is this a reference to people even more distant than the islands? יֶחֱרָדוּ (qal imperfect) "tremble" is a neutral word; quite often in the Bible it stands for reverent fear (Ezra 9:4, "Everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me..."). The Mp note says that the form יֶחֱרָדוּ occurs twice; the other place is Amos 3:6. The Charedim (also spelled Charedi without the m) from this root word,“tremblers,” are an extreme religious-political viewpoint within the nation of Israel and often associated with and confused with the Hasidim.

קָרְבוּ וַיֶּאֱתָיוּן They drew near; they came forward. קָרְבוּ, qal perfect "draw near," and וַיֶּאֱתָיוּן, qal waw-consecutive imperfect אָתָה "come ahead," an old-fashioned word more common in Aramaic than in Biblical Hebrew ("I saw one coming like a son of man," Daniel 7:13; peal participle). Here the form contains an internal yod that appears to be either an original root-letter (אתי?) or else it is actually a metaplastic form based on two very similar roots, and the yod reappears in some of the forms. Oftentimes in Hebrew both א and ה tend to quiesce, as in בּוֹא ,הָלַךְ, and רָאָה (the first word in this verse--note the qal perfect form).

The "this" of the first phrase is the one stirred up in the east in the preceding verses. The Lord's hand is working and bringing judgment, and here we see what the folks back in Judah are doing. They're nervous about the coming storm and invasion, so they encourage one another with their opinions about their false religion. The guys at the idol-making factory encourage each other. The wicked smiths are probably in it more for the money than from any devotion to an idol, but they still pervert God's creation.