Isaiah 41:18-29

18I will open rivers on the bare hills and springs in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land into fountains of water.

19I will plant in the wilderness the cedar and the acacia tree, the myrtle and the olive tree. I will set in the desert the cypress tree and the pine together with the box tree—

20so they may see and know, consider and understand together, that the hand of Adonai has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.”

21“Present your case,” says Adonai. “Bring forth your reasons,” says the King of Jacob.

22Let them bring forth and tell us what will happen. The former things, what were they? Tell us, that we may consider them and know their outcome. Or announce to us things to come.

23Declare the things coming afterward, so we may know that you are gods! Indeed, do good or do evil, so we may all see and be awestruck.

24Behold, you are nothing, and your work is null. Whoever chooses you is loathsome.

25“I have stirred up one from the north, and he has come. From the rising of the sun, He will call upon My Name. He will trample rulers as on mortar, like a potter treading clay.”

26Who told this from the beginning, so that we may know? Or from former times, so we may say, “He is right”? In fact, no one foretold it, In fact, no one announced it. In fact, no one heard Your words.

27First it was to Zion: “Behold, here they are!” And to Jerusalem: “I will give a herald of good news.”

28But when I look, there is no one. There is no counselor among them. When I ask them, they have no response.

29Indeed, they are all a delusion. Their works are null. Their molten images are wind and waste.