Isaiah 41:17-29

Common English Bible

¹⁷The poor and the needy seek water, and there is none;
    their tongues are parched with thirst.
I, the Lord, will respond to them;
    I, the God of Israel, won’t abandon them.
¹⁸I will open streams on treeless hilltops
    and springs in valleys.
I will make the desert into ponds
    and dry land into cascades of water.
¹⁹I will plant in the desert cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive trees;
    I will put in the wilderness cypress, elm, and pine as well,
²⁰    so that they will see and know
    and observe and comprehend
    that the Lord’s hand has done this,
    and the holy one of Israel has created it.

Other gods challenged

²¹Present your case, says the Lord.
    Bring forward your evidence, says Jacob’s king.
²²Let the idols^[a] approach
    and tell us what will happen.
The prior things—what are they?
    Announce them, and we’ll think about them
    and know their significance.
    Or proclaim to us what is to come!
²³Report things that will happen in the future,
    then we’ll know that you are gods.
Do good! Or do bad!
    Then we will all be afraid and fearful.
²⁴Look! You are nobody, and your deeds are nothing.
    Whoever chooses you is disgusting.
²⁵I woke up one from the north and he came;
    from the east, one who calls my name.
He tramples governors like mud,
    as a potter treads clay.
²⁶Who announced this from the start
        so that we would know;
    from an earlier time
        so we would say, “That’s right”?
Truly, no one announced it,
    no one proclaimed it,
    and no one heard your words.
²⁷I first said it to Zion, “Look, here they are”;
    to Jerusalem I now send a herald.
²⁸But I look, and there’s no one
    among them, no counselor;
    and when I ask,
    no one can answer.
²⁹Look, all of them are frauds;
    their deeds amount to nothing;
    their images are a total delusion.