The Lord Challenges the Pagan Gods

41:21 “Present your argument,” says the Lord.

“Produce your evidence,”39 says Jacob’s king.40

41:22 “Let them produce evidence! Let them tell us what will happen!

Tell us about your earlier predictive oracles,41

so we may examine them42 and see how they were fulfilled.43

Or decree for us some future events!

41:23 Predict how future events will turn out,44

so we might know you are gods.

Yes, do something good or bad,

so we might be frightened and in awe.45

41:24 Look, you are nothing, and your accomplishments are nonexistent;

the one who chooses to worship you is disgusting.46

41:25 I have stirred up one out of the north47 and he advances,

one from the eastern horizon who prays in my name.48

He steps on49 rulers as if they were clay,

like a potter treading the clay.

41:26 Who decreed this from the beginning, so we could know?

Who announced it50 ahead of time, so we could say, ‘He’s correct’?

Indeed, none of them decreed it!

Indeed, none of them announced it!

Indeed, no one heard you say anything!

41:27 I first decreed to Zion, ‘Look, here’s what will happen!’51

I sent a herald to Jerusalem.52

41:28 I look, but there is no one,

among them there is no one who serves as an adviser,

that I might ask questions and receive answers.

41:29 Look, all of them are nothing,53

their accomplishments are nonexistent;

their metal images lack any real substance.54