21 “Present your legal case,” says Yahweh.

“Bring your evidence,” says the king of Jacob.

22 Let them bring them,

and let them tell us what will happen.

Tell us what the former things are

⌊so that⌋q we may take them to our heart

and know their outcome.r

Declare to us the things to come;

23 tell us the things coming ⌊hereafter⌋,s

thatt we may know that you are gods.

Indeed, do good oru do evil,

thatv we may be afraid and seew together.

24 Look! you are nothing,

and your work is something worthless;

whoever chooses you is an abomination.

25 I stirred up one from the north,

and he has come from the rising of the sun.

He shall call on my name,

and he shall come on officials as on mortar,

and as the ⌊potter⌋x treads clay.

26 Who declared it from the ⌊beginning⌋y ⌊so that⌋z we might know,

and ⌊beforehand⌋a ⌊so that⌋b we might say, “He is ⌊right⌋!”c

Indeed, there was no one who declared it;

Indeed, there was no one who proclaimed it.

Indeed there was no one who heard your words.

27 First to Zion, look! Look at them!

And I give a heraldd of good tidings to Jerusalem.

28 Bute I look and there is no man,

and I look among these and there is no counselor,

thatf I might ask them and they might answer a word.

29 Look! All of them are deception;

their works are nothing;

their images are wind and emptiness.