21 Bring near your cause, saith Jehovah, Bring nigh your mighty ones, saith the king of Jacob. 22 They bring nigh, and declare to us that which doth happen, The first things—what they 'are' declare ye, And we set our heart, and know their latter end, Or the coming things cause us to hear. 23 Declare the things that are coming hereafter, And we know that ye 'are' gods, Yea, ye may do good or do evil, And we look around and see 'it' together. 24 Lo, ye 'are' of nothing, and your work of nought, An abomination—it fixeth on you. 25 I have stirred up 'one' from the north, And he cometh, From the rising of the sun he calleth in My name, And he cometh in 'on' prefects as 'on' clay, And as a potter treadeth down mire. 26 Who hath declared from the first, and we know? And beforetime, and we say, 'Righteous?' yea, there is none declaring, Yea, there is none proclaiming, Yea, there is none hearing your sayings. 27 First to Zion, Behold, behold them, And to Jerusalem one proclaiming tidings I give, 28 And I see that there is no man, Yea, of these that there is no counsellor, And I ask them, and they return word: 29 'Lo, all of them 'are' vanity, Nought 'are' their works, Wind and emptiness their molten images!'
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Isaiah 41:21-29
Commentary on Isaiah 41:21-29
(Read Isaiah 41:21-29)
There needs no more to show the folly of sin, than to bring to notice the reasons given in defence of it. There is nothing in idols worthy of regard. They are less than nothing, and worse than nothing. Let the advocates of other doctrines than that of salvation through Christ, bring their arguments. Can they tell of a cure for human depravity? Jehovah has power which cannot be withstood; this he will make appear. But the certain knowledge of the future must be only with Jehovah, who fulfils his own plans. All prophecies, except those of the Bible, have been uncertain. In the work of redemption the Lord showed himself much more than in the release of the Jews from Babylon. The good tidings the Lord will send in the gospel, is a mystery hid from ages and generations. A Deliverer is raised up for us, of nobler name and greater power than the deliverer of the captive Jews. May we be numbered among his obedient servants and faithful friends.