23. declare the things that are to happen hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods; yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be astonished, and behold it together.
24. Behold, ye are less than nothing, and your work is of nought; an abomination is he that chooseth you. ...
25. I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come, --from the rising of the sun, he who will call upon my name; and he shall come upon princes as on mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay.
26. Who hath declared it from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, It is right? Indeed, there is none that declareth; no, none that sheweth; no, none that heareth your words.
27. The first, I said to Zion, Behold, behold them! and to Jerusalem, I will give one that bringeth glad tidings.
28. And I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, --and there was no counsellor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word.
29. Behold, they are all vanity, their works are nought, their molten images are wind and emptiness.