Isaiah 41:21–29

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

“Bring forward your strong arguments,”

The aKing of Jacob says.

22 aLet 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;

23 aDeclare 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.

24 Behold, 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.”

26 Who 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.