²¹ Set forth your case, says the Lord;
   bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob.
²² Let them bring them, and tell us
   what is to happen.
Tell us the former things, what they are,
   so that we may consider them,
and that we may know their outcome;
   or declare to us the things to come.
²³ Tell us what is to come hereafter,
   that we may know that you are gods;
do good, or do harm,
   that we may be afraid and terrified.
²⁴ You, indeed, are nothing
   and your work is nothing at all;
   whoever chooses you is an abomination.

²⁵ I stirred up one from the north, and he has come,
   from the rising of the sun he was summoned by name.
He shall trample on rulers as on mortar,
   as the potter treads clay.
²⁶ Who declared it from the beginning, so that we might know,
   and beforehand, so that we might say, ‘He is right’?
There was no one who declared it, none who proclaimed,
   none who heard your words.
²⁷ I first have declared it to Zion,
   and I give to Jerusalem a herald of good tidings.
²⁸ But when I look there is no one;
   among these there is no counsellor
   who, when I ask, gives an answer.
²⁹ No, they are all a delusion;
   their works are nothing;
   their images are empty wind.

42Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
   my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him;
   he will bring forth justice to the nations.
² He will not cry or lift up his voice,
   or make it heard in the street;
³ a bruised reed he will not break,
   and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
   he will faithfully bring forth justice.
⁴ He will not grow faint or be crushed
   until he has established justice in the earth;
   and the coastlands wait for his teaching.

⁵ Thus says God, the Lord,
   who created the heavens and stretched them out,
   who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
   and spirit to those who walk in it:
⁶ I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
   I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
   a light to the nations,
⁷   to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
   from the prison those who sit in darkness.
⁸ I am the Lord, that is my name;
   my glory I give to no other,
   nor my praise to idols.
⁹ See, the former things have come to pass,
   and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth,
   I tell you of them.