Isaiah 41:21–29

²¹Set forth your case, says the Lord;

bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob.

²²Let them bring them, and tell us

what is to happen.

Tell us the former things, what they are,

that we may consider them,

that we may know their outcome;

or declare to us the things to come.

²³Tell us what is to come hereafter,

that we may know that you are gods;

do good, or do harm,

that we may be dismayed and terrified.

²⁴Behold, you are nothing,

and your work is nought;

an abomination is he who chooses you.

²⁵I stirred up one from the north, and he has come,

from the rising of the sun, and he shall call on my name;

he shall trample on rulers as on mortar,

as the potter treads clay.

²⁶Who declared it from the beginning, that we might know,

and beforetime, that we might say, “He is right”?

There was none who declared it, none who proclaimed,

none who heard your words.

²⁷I first have declared it to Zion,

and I give to Jerusalem a herald of good tidings.

²⁸But when I look there is no one;

among these there is no counselor

who, when I ask, gives an answer.

²⁹Behold, they are all a delusion;

their works are nothing;

their molten images are empty wind.