21 “Bring near your case,” Yahweh says.
“Bring forward your mighty arguments,”
The aKing of Jacob says.
22 aLet them bring it forth and declare to us what is going to take place;
As for the bformer events, declare what they were,
That we may establish our heart on them and know their outcome.
Or cause us to hear of what is coming;
23 aDeclare the things that are 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 nothing,
And byour work is non‑existent;
He who chooses you is an cabomination.
25 “I have awakened 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 officials 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 caused those words to be heard;
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 aI look, and there is no one,
And there is no bcounselor among them
Who, if I ask, can crespond with a word.
29 Behold, all of them are false;
Their aworks are bnon‑existent;
Their molten images are cwind and utter formlessness.