“Don’t remember these earlier events; ¹  don’t recall these former events.

For look, I am ready to create new heavens and a new earth! ¹  The former ones ²  will not be remembered; no one will think about them anymore. ³ 

I will reestablish honest judges as in former times, wise advisers as in earlier days. ¹  Then you will be called, ‘The Just City, Faithful Town.’”

Sheol ¹  below is stirred up about you, ready to meet you when you arrive. It rouses ²  the spirits of the dead for you, all the former leaders of the earth; ³  it makes all the former kings of the nations rise from their thrones. ⁴ 

Wake up! Wake up! Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the Lord! ¹  Wake up as in former times, as in antiquity! Did you not smash ²  the Proud One? ³  Did you not ⁴  wound the sea monster? ⁵ 

Look, my earlier predictive oracles have come to pass; ¹  now I announce new events. Before they begin to occur, I reveal them to you.” ² 

Remember what I accomplished in antiquity! ¹  Truly I am God, I have no peer; ²  I am God, and there is none like me,

“I announced events beforehand, ¹  I issued the decrees and made the predictions; ²  suddenly I acted and they came to pass.

They will rebuild the perpetual ruins and restore the places that were desolate; ¹  they will reestablish the ruined cities, the places that have been desolate since ancient times.

“Let them produce evidence! Let them tell us what will happen! Tell us about your earlier predictive oracles, ¹  so we may examine them ²  and see how they were fulfilled. ³  Or decree for us some future events!

for your sins and your ancestors’ sins,” ¹  says the Lord. “Because they burned incense on the mountains and offended ²  me on the hills, I will punish them in full measure.” ³ 

All nations gather together, the peoples assemble. Who among them announced this? Who predicted earlier events for us? ¹  Let them produce their witnesses to testify they were right; let them listen and affirm, ‘It is true.’

Whoever pronounces a blessing in the earth ¹  will do so in the name of the faithful God; ²  whoever makes an oath in the earth will do so in the name of the faithful God. ³  For past problems will be forgotten; I will no longer think about them. ⁴ 

(8:23) ¹  The gloom will be dispelled for those who were anxious. ²  In earlier times he ³  humiliated the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali; ⁴  but now he brings honor ⁵  to the way of the sea, the region beyond the Jordan, and Galilee of the nations. ⁶ 

“At that time ¹  Jacob’s splendor will be greatly diminished, ²  and he will become skin and bones. ³ 

I first decreed to Zion, ‘Look, here’s what will happen!’ ¹  I sent a herald to Jerusalem. ² 

Who decreed this from the beginning, so we could know? Who announced it ¹  ahead of time, so we could say, ‘He’s correct’? Indeed, none of them decreed it! Indeed, none of them announced it! Indeed, no one heard you say anything!

The dead do not come back to life, the spirits of the dead do not rise. ¹  That is because ²  you came in judgment ³  and destroyed them, you wiped out all memory of them.

Your mind will recall the terror you experienced, ¹  and you will ask yourselves, ²  “Where is the scribe? Where is the one who weighs the money? Where is the one who counts the towers?” ³ 

Were the nations whom my predecessors ¹  destroyed – the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar – rescued by their gods? ²