Isaiah 41:21–29

²¹“¹Present your case,” the Lord says.

“Bring forward your strong arguments,”

The ^aKing of Jacob says.

^22aLet them bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place;

As for the ^bformer events, declare what they were,

That we may consider them and know their outcome.

Or announce to us what is coming;

^23aDeclare the things that are going to come afterward,

That we may know that you are gods;

Indeed, ^bdo good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together.

²⁴Behold, ^ayou are of ¹no account,

And ^byour work amounts to nothing;

He who chooses you is an ^cabomination.

²⁵“I have aroused ^aone from the north, and he has come;

From the rising of the sun he will call on My name;

And he will come upon rulers as upon ^bmortar,

Even as the potter treads clay.”

²⁶Who has ^adeclared this from the beginning, that we might know?

Or from former times, that we may say, “He is right!”?

Surely there was ^bno one who declared,

Surely there was no one who proclaimed,

Surely there was no one who heard your words.

²⁷“^aFormerly I said to Zion, ‘Behold, here they are.’

And to Jerusalem, ‘I will give a ^bmessenger of good news.’

²⁸“But ^awhen I look, there is no one,

And there is no ^bcounselor ¹among them

Who, if I ask, can ^cgive an answer.

²⁹“Behold, all of them are ¹false;

Their ^aworks are ^bworthless,

Their molten images are ^cwind and emptiness.