Isaiah 41:21–29

²¹“Present your case,” says the Lord. 

“Bring forward your best arguments,” says Jacob’s king. 

²²“Bring ⸤your idols⸥ so they can tell us what’s going to happen. 

Explain past events that your idols told you about 

so that we may consider them 

and know what their outcome will be. 

Tell us about future events. 

²³Tell us what’s going to happen 

so that we may know that you are gods. 

Yes, do something, good or evil, 

to intimidate us and make us afraid. 

²⁴You are nothing! 

You can’t do anything! 

Whoever chooses you is disgusting. 

²⁵“I have raised up someone from the north, and he has come. 

He will call on my name from the east. 

He will attack rulers as if they were mud, 

as if he were treading on clay like a potter. 

²⁶Who revealed this from the beginning so that we could know it? 

Who revealed this from the past so that we could say that he was right? 

No one revealed it. 

No one announced it. 

No one heard your words. 

²⁷I was the first to tell Zion, ‘Look, here they are.’ 

I gave Jerusalem a messenger with the good news. 

²⁸When I look, there is no one. 

There is no one to advise them. 

When I ask them a question, 

will they give an answer? 

²⁹All of them are nothing.^c

They can’t do anything. 

Their statues are nothing but air.”