Add parallel Print Page Options

23 Predict how future events will turn out,[a]
so we might know you are gods.
Yes, do something good or something bad,
so we might be frightened and in awe.[b]
24 Look, you are nothing, and your accomplishments are nonexistent;
the one who chooses to worship you is disgusting.[c]
25 I have stirred up one out of the north[d] and he advances,
one from the eastern horizon who prays in my name.[e]
He steps on[f] rulers as if they were clay,
like a potter treading the clay.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 41:23 tn Heb “Declare the coming things, with respect to the end.”
  2. Isaiah 41:23 tc The translation assumes the Qere (וְנִרְאֶה [venirʾeh], from יָרֵא [yareʾ], “be afraid”).tn Heb “so we might be frightened and afraid together.” On the meaning of the verb שָׁתָע (shataʿ), see the note at v. 10.
  3. Isaiah 41:24 tn Heb “an object of disgust [is he who] chooses you.”
  4. Isaiah 41:25 sn That is, Cyrus the Persian. See the note at v. 2.
  5. Isaiah 41:25 tn Heb “[one] from the rising of the sun [who] calls in my name.”
  6. Isaiah 41:25 tn The Hebrew text has וְיָבֹא (veyavoʾ, “and he comes”), but this likely needs to be emended to an original וַיָּבָס (vayyavas), from בּוּס (bus, “step on”).