Isaiah 41:21

Christian Standard Bible ®

“Submit your case,” says the Lord.“Present your arguments,” says Jacob’s King.

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
Produce your cause, says the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, says the King of Ya`akov.

King James Version
Produce your cause, saith the Lord ; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.

English Standard Version
Set forth your case, says the Lord ; bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob.

New American Standard Bible
"Present your case," the LORD says. "Bring forward your evidence," The King of Jacob says.

New Century Version
The Lord says, "Present your case." The King of Jacob says, "Tell me your arguments.

Amplified Bible
"Present your case [for idols made by men's hands]," says the LORD. "Produce your evidence [of divinity]," Says the king of Jacob.

World English Bible
Produce your cause, says Yahweh; bring forth your strong reasons, says the King of Jacob.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Stand to your cause, saith the Lord: bring forth your strong reasons, saith ye King of Iaakob.

Legacy Standard Bible
"Bring near your case," Yahweh says."Bring forward your mighty arguments,"The King of Jacob says.

Berean Standard Bible
"Present your case," says the LORD. "Submit your arguments," says the King of Jacob.

Contemporary English Version
I am the Lord , the King of Israel! Come argue your case with me. Present your evidence.

Complete Jewish Bible
"Present your case," says Adonai , "Produce your arguments," says Ya‘akov's king.

Darby Translation
Produce your cause, saith Jehovah; bring forward your arguments, saith the King of Jacob.

Easy-to-Read Version
The Lord , the king of Jacob, says, "Come, present your arguments. Show me your proof.

George Lamsa Translation
Bring near your cause, says the LORD; bring near your counsels, says the King of Jacob.

Good News Translation
The Lord , the king of Israel, has this to say: "You gods of the nations, present your case. Bring the best arguments you have!

Lexham English Bible
"Present your legal case," says Yahweh. "Bring your evidence," says the king of Jacob.

Literal Translation
Bring your cause, says Jehovah; let your strong reasons come near, says the King of Jacob.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Stonde at youre cause (saieth the LORDE) and bringe forth youre strogest grounde, counceleth the kinge of Iacob.

American Standard Version
Produce your cause, saith Jehovah; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.

Bible in Basic English
Put forward your cause, says the Lord; let your strong argument come out, says the King of Jacob.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your reasons, saith the King of Jacob.

King James Version (1611)
Produce your cause, saith the Lord, bring foorth your strong reasons, saith the King of Iacob.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Stande at your cause saith the Lord, & bryng foorth your strongest grounde, saith the kyng of Iacob.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Your judgement draws nigh, saith the Lord God; your counsel have drawn nigh, saith the King of Jacob.

English Revised Version
Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Make ye niy youre doom, seith the Lord; brynge ye, if in hap ye han ony thing, seith the kyng of Jacob.

Update Bible Version
Produce your cause, says Yahweh; bring forth your strong reasons, says the King of Jacob.

Webster's Bible Translation
Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong [reasons], saith the King of Jacob.

New English Translation
"Present your argument," says the Lord . "Produce your evidence," says Jacob's king.

New King James Version
"Present your case," says the LORD. "Bring forth your strong reasons," says the King of Jacob.

New Living Translation
"Present the case for your idols," says the Lord . "Let them show what they can do," says the King of Israel.

New Life Bible
"Let your cause be known," says the Lord. "Bring what you have to prove it," says the King of Jacob.

New Revised Standard
Set forth your case, says the Lord ; bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Bring near your contention, Saith Yahweh, - Advance your defences, Saith the King of Jacob:

Douay-Rheims Bible
Bring your cause near, saith the Lord: bring hither, if you have any thing to allege, saith the King of Jacob.

Revised Standard Version
Set forth your case, says the LORD; bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob.

Young's Literal Translation
Bring near your cause, saith Jehovah, Bring nigh your mighty ones, saith the king of Jacob.

THE MESSAGE
"Set out your case for your gods," says God . "Bring your evidence," says the King of Jacob. "Take the stand on behalf of your idols, offer arguments, assemble reasons. Spread out the facts before us so that we can assess them ourselves. Ask them, ‘If you are gods, explain what the past means— or, failing that, tell us what will happen in the future. Can't do that? How about doing something—anything! Good or bad—whatever. Can you hurt us or help us? Do we need to be afraid?' They say nothing, because they are nothing— sham gods, no-gods, fool-making gods.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Present your case," the LORD says. "Bring forward your strong arguments," The King of Jacob says.

Contextual Overview

²¹“Submit your case,” says the Lord.“Present your arguments,” says Jacob’s King.²²“Let them come and tell uswhat will happen.Tell us the past events,so that we may reflect on themand know the outcome,or tell us the future. ²³Tell us the coming events,then we will know that you are gods.Indeed, do something good or bad,then we will be in awe when we see it. ²⁴Look, you are nothingand your work is worthless.Anyone who chooses you is detestable. ²⁵“I have stirred up one from the north, and he has come,one from the east who invokes my name.He will march over rulers as if they were mud,like a potter who treads the clay. ²⁶Who told about this from the beginning,so that we might know,and from times past,so that we might say, ‘He is right’?No one announced it,no one told it,no one heard your words. ²⁷I was the first to say to Zion,‘Look! Here they are!’And I gave Jerusalem a herald with good news. ²⁸When I look, there is no one;there is no counselor among them;when I ask them, they have nothing to say. ²⁹Look, all of them are a delusion;their works are nonexistent;their images are wind and emptiness.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Produce: Heb. Cause to come near, Job 23:3, Job 23:4, Job 31:37, Job 38:3, Job 40:7-9, Micah 6:1, Micah 6:2

Reciprocal: Job 5:1 - and to which Job 13:3 - I desire Isaiah 1:18 - and let us Isaiah 41:1 - let the people Isaiah 43:9 - who among Isaiah 45:20 - yourselves Isaiah 50:8 - let us Jeremiah 12:1 - talk Acts 24:25 - he 1 Peter 3:15 - a reason 2 Peter 1:19 - a more

Cross-References

Genesis 41:9
Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “Today I remember my faults.

Genesis 41:10
Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and he put me and the chief baker in the custody of the captain of the guards.

Psalms 37:19
They will not be disgraced in times of adversity;they will be satisfied in days of hunger.

Isaiah 9:20
They carve meat on the right,but they are still hungry;they have eaten on the left,but they are still not satisfied.Each one eats the flesh of his own arm.

Ezekiel 3:3
“Son of man,” he said to me, “feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll I am giving you.” So I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Produce your cause, saith the Lord,.... The Lord having comforted his people under their afflictions and persecutions from their enemies in the first times of Christianity, returns to the controversy between him and the idolatrous Heathens, and challenges them to bring their cause into open court, and let it be publicly tried, that it may be seen on what side truth lies:

bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob; or King of saints, the true Israel of God, who acknowledge the Lord as their King and their God, and whom he rules over, protects and defends; and this title is assumed for the comfort of them, that though he is King over all the nations of the world, yet in an eminent and peculiar sense their King; and he does not style himself the God of Jacob, though he was, because this was the thing in controversy, and the cause to be decided, whether he was the true God, or the gods of the Gentiles; and therefore their votaries are challenged to bring forth the strongest reasons and arguments they could muster together, in proof of the divinity of their idols; their "bony" arguments, as the word x signifies; for what bones are to the body, that strong arguments are to a cause, the support and stability of it.

x עצמותיכם עצם os.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Produce your cause - This address is made to the same persons who are referred to in Isaiah 41:1 - the worshippers of idols; and the prophet here returns to the subject with reference to a further argument on the comparative power of Yahweh and idols. In the former part of the chapter, God had urged his claims to confidence from the fact that he had raised up Cyrus; that the idols were weak and feeble compared with him; and from the fact that it was his fixed purpose to defend his people, and to meet and refresh them when faint and weary. In the verses which follow Isaiah 41:21, he urges his claims to confidence from the fact that he alone was able to predict future events, and calls on the worshippers of idols to show their claims in the same manner. This is the ‘cause’ which is now to be tried.

Bring forth your strong reasons - Adduce the arguments which you deem to be of the greatest strength and power (compare the notes at Isaiah 41:1). The object is, to call on them to bring forward the most convincing demonstration on which they relied, of their power and their ability to save. The argument to which God appeals is, that he had foretold future events. He calls on them to show that they had given, or could give, equal demonstration of their divinity. Lowth regards this as a call on the idol-gods to come forth in person and show their strength. But the interpretation which supposes that it refers to their reasons, or arguments, accords better with the parallelism, and with the connection.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 41:21. Bring forth your strong reasons - "Produce these your mighty powers"] "Let your idols come forward which you consider to be so very strong." Hieron. in loc. I prefer this to all other interpretations of this place; and to Jerome's own translation of it, which he adds immediately after, Afferte, si quid forte habetis. "Bring it forward, if haply ye have any thing." The false gods are called upon to come forth and appear in person; and to give evident demonstration of their foreknowledge and power by foretelling future events, and exerting their power in doing good or evil.