the beginning, and it is precisely this, in Isaiah’s mind, that distinguishes Him from those blind idols who cannot in fact tell us what is to come. He points to this expressly in the next chapter. They do not know the future, not because it does not exist to be known, but because they are no gods at all (Is. 41:23–24). Gods who do not know the future do not inhabit the highest heaven, as our God does, but rather are all face down in the ruins of Babylon, presided over by owls and jackals. When passages