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¹⁷When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. ¹⁸I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. ¹⁹I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive; I will set in the desert the cypress, the plane and the pine together, ²⁰so that all may see and know, all may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.

²¹Set forth your case, says the Lord; bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob. ²²Let 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. ²³Tell 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. ²⁴You, indeed, are nothing and your work is nothing at all; whoever chooses you is an abomination. ²⁵I 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. ²⁶Who 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. ²⁷I first have declared it to Zion, and I give to Jerusalem a herald of good tidings. ²⁸But when I look there is no one; among these there is no counselor who, when I ask, gives an answer. ²⁹No, they are all a delusion; their works are nothing; their images are empty wind.